Using text only ads on a mobile device is still quite popular, and surprisingly effective. In addition, since they are so simple to make, they are chosen by many marketers who are just looking to get their message out there quickly. Google has recently announced that they are giving these ads a bit of a facelift in an attempt to improve the CTRs even further.
The new text ads that are displayed on mobile devices will have a larger headline, which will be blue by default. You’ll also get bigger text for the description on the ad. This larger text will obviously be easier to read, which is very important for mobile ad formats. Of course, with bigger text that may provide unwanted limitations on the number of words that can be used. This is, of course, a major balancing act that all mobile ads need to compete with.
The final update that AdWords is giving is that users will be able to swipe to the right for some added information. Currently the swipe will simply display the URL that the ad leads to. What benefit this gives to the user is not really clear. It is unlikely that any users are going to be swiping to see the URL and then typing it in. If they want to go to the site, they will simply tap the ad like always.
Google hasn’t stated why they added this feature yet, though it is likely that they are just trying to make the ads more interactive, since that is quite popular with mobile ads right now. They may also have some data that shows that this improves the overall CTR, but haven’t yet published it. One other option, which I believe to be the most likely, is that they are planning to allow marketers to add additional data to this second page sometime in the future.
