Set up your ads for success

There are several steps you can take to give your ads the best possible chance at success. This Search ads setup guide walks through those steps.

Add as many unique, relevant headlines and descriptions as you can

Providing too many redundant headlines and descriptions restricts the system’s ability to assemble ad combinations.

To increase the likelihood that your ad shows, focus on these key guidelines for each responsive search ad:

• Provide at least 8-10 headlines. The more headlines you provide, the more options there are to assemble your messages into relevant ads, which may increase performance.
  • Provide at least 5 unique headlines that don't repeat the same or similar phrases.
  • Be sure to include a keyword in 2 headlines.
  • Be sure to have at least 3 other headlines that do NOT include your keywords. Try highlighting additional benefits and features, a problem you're solving, or shipping and return information.
• Provide at least 2 unique descriptions.
  • Try highlighting additional information about your product or service that isn’t mentioned in your headlines.

Pinning reduces the overall number of headlines or descriptions that can be shown. If you pin multiple headlines or descriptions to a position, you could have more headlines or descriptions than are able to be shown.

Example responsive search ads

Good example

This example follows the best practices for creating a responsive search ad.

Bad example

This is an example of how not to create a responsive search ad and issues to avoid.

Issues:

• “Women’s Shoes” is in every headline - Avoid repeating the same text in every headline
• Redundant text in headlines
• Fewer than 5 headlines

How to fix:

• Add more unique headlines
• Break up your headlines into smaller units (for example: Latest Women's Shoes at c’Balm -> 1) Latest Women’s Shoes 2) c’Balm)

Use keyword insertion and ad customizers if you have a lot of ads to maintain

As you create new ads, you can also create a system that makes future maintenance of those ads as streamlined as possible.

Keyword insertion is a Google Ads feature that dynamically updates your headlines, descriptions, or URL paths to include one of your keywords when it matches a user’s search. Keyword insertion is best used with tightly-themed ad groups, where all keywords are perfectly relevant to the ad. Take care that your dynamic insertions don’t cause grammatical errors, like mixing plural phrasing with a singular keyword.

Ad customizers let you tailor your ads to a user’s search, making things more compelling. The countdown feature lets your ads dynamically create a genuine sense of urgency. Location insertion lets a user know that you offer what they want nearby. In those and many other ways you can make tailored ads that scale across your entire account.

Pair responsive search ads with Smart Bidding and broad match keywords

Smart Bidding uses Google AI to optimize your ads for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction. Broad match allows your ads to show on queries related to your keywords, including relevant queries you may not have thought of.

Use Smart Bidding and broad match with your responsive search ads to help show the right message to as many relevant people as possible while automatically setting the right bid for each query. 

Next: Use as many asset types as possible