• DE&I Commitment
  • Careers
  • Locations
  • Book a Meeting
    Book a Meeting
  • Company
    Learn a little more about us, our values, and our team
    Our Values
    We don't just talk the talk; we live by our core values
    About Us
    Empowering brands to realize their potential with data, insights, and technology
    Leadership
    Meet our leadership team
    Secure Data Architecture
    Our promise of data security and privacy. We keep your data safe from publishers, competitors and bad actors
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    We are committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet
  • Platform
    Plan, manage, optimize, and measure your campaigns with our omnichannel platform
    Our Platform
    A platform that connects all walled garden media
    Connected Media
    Create and manage campaigns across search, social, retail media and apps, in one platform
    Connected Data
    Make data-driven decisions as you plan and strategize
    See the industries we serve
    Learn how our customizable solutions can help with your unique needs
    Explore our partner integrations
    See the media, retailer, and data partners we work with
  • Clients
  • News and Events
    Check out recent announcements and see what we’re up to
    News
    Check out our recent media coverage
    Events
    Join us for our next conference or webinar
    Omnichannel platform launch
    Read the press release to see how we're helping marketers win the walled gardens
    Let's talk omni at Shoptalk!
    Learn how our omnichannel platform can help you build a winning strategy
  • Resources
    From new releases, to industry trends and best practices, Skai has you covered
    Blog
    Read the latest insights and thought leadership from our industry experts
    Capabilities
    Take your campaigns to the next level by enhancing your platform capabilities
    Research
    Explore our reports and whitepapers so you can keep up on the latest industry trends
    Subscribe
    Sign up to get the latest updates straight to your inbox
    Quarterly Trends Report
    Learn digital advertising campaign performance trends from Q4 2022
Back to Blog

Google RSA Best Practices + Free Checklist

Joshua Dreller, Sr. Director, Content Marketing @ Skai™

July  13, 2022
RSA best practices

Well, a new era in search engine marketing has begun. On June 30, 2022, Google deprecated Expanded Text Ads (ETAs), the default paid search ad format for many years. 

This wasn’t a quick decision. Google gave search marketers a year’s notice, and my colleague, Joe Bernal, wrote about this on our blog soon after the announcement. Now, marketers can only build new ads using the responsive search ad (RSAs) format. 

The good news is that almost no one will miss ETAs because responsive search ads are simply…better. They are faster to build, easier to manage, and by all accounts are that they perform better than ETAs. 

Remember, instead of writing text ads manually, with RSAs, search marketers supply Google with 3-15 headlines and 2-4 lines of description resulting in 42,680 ad combinations!


Most importantly, they take full advantage of Google’s impressive user-level data set and its recent shift over the last few years into AI-driven automation. In tandem with automated bidding strategies, RSAs enable marketers to spend more time in other key areas of paid search optimization to drive performance.

You probably have some experience with RSAs at this point. But, just to make sure you’re completely ready for this new era of SEM, here are five critical best practices when using Google Search’s default ad format:

Make sure all of your combinations work together

The legacy advice was to have at least 3-5 ETAs in each ad group to optimize performance, so having many, many, many times that amount of available ads with a single responsive search ad means that most search marketers will undoubtedly try to fill their RSAs with the max headline and description limit.

But, there’s a little complexity and nuance here that is required beyond just writing a bunch of assets. Remember, Google can use any or just one of your 4 headlines and any or just one of your 15 lines of description in any order. But, remember, consumers don’t see headlines and lines of description; they see search engine listings—and more than half of them probably don’t realize they are even ads.

Here’s a checklist for you:

  • Try each headline with the same single line of description
  • Take three headlines and switch around the order
  • Randomly create three descriptions using combinations of two

Now, do all the headline combinations work with the different description combinations? Do they read well, or do they sound weird? Do they all make sense? Are any of them too repetitive?

The hallmark of an amazing RSA is that all 43,680 combinations look and feel hand-crafted.

This is a good lesson for marketers just starting to work with AI. And it’s not just for RSAs…think about anywhere Artificial Intelligence is beginning to permeate marketing. Our roles are changing. Marketers must understand the mechanics of what is happening in the background to feed intelligent machines the correct information. It doesn’t mean that you need a data science degree—it just means that extra care and attention are required when you hand off marketing tasks to automation. 

This is a perfect segue to the next tip!

Stay in control with RSA pinning

Yes, fellow marketers, as more AI makes its way into our daily lives, the role of marketers will shift. One of our primary tasks will be to oversee our intelligent machine colleagues and take over control at critical points when it makes the most sense. 

We all probably have an example in our professional or personal lives where automation went off the rails. So, the key to getting the most out of AI is to know when and where to step in. 

For example…pinning. Google offers the ability to pin headlines and lines of description to specified positions. This level of control of your responsive search ads. 

And Google provides a very concise set of pinning tips that you should heed:

Pinning one headline or description causes it to show only in that specific position, preventing other headlines or descriptions from showing in its place. Since pinning reduces the overall number of headlines or descriptions that can be matched to a potential customer’s search, pinning isn’t recommended for most advertisers.

Try pinning 2 or 3 headlines or descriptions to each position so that any of them can show in that position. This gives you more flexibility to find out which headlines or descriptions perform better.

Example: If you pin the headline “Official Website” to Headline position 1, all ads will have “Official Website” as the first headline. However, if you pin a second headline, such as, “The Official Site,” to Headline position 1, all ads will show either “Official Website” or “The Official Site” as the first headline.

If you have headlines and/or descriptions pinned to all available positions, unpinned headlines and/or descriptions won’t show.

That last line of Google’s advice is an excellent transition to our next tip.

Really love ETAs? Make “pseudo-ETAs” from RSAs with this hack.

I’d love to take credit for this one, but I have to give this one to Kerri Amodio from ClosedLoop in a recent post on SearchEngineLand.com. 

Amodio has a great article about improving RSA conversion rates, but it was her tip about creating ETAs with RSAs that I thought might be interesting to other search marketers. Basically, by just providing Google with 3 headlines and 2 lines of description—and pinning them in place—you are, in essence, creating what she calls “pseudo-ETAs”. 

Amodio’s use case was a performance optimization test. The unpinned version of this 3×2 pseudo-ETA “brought CPL down 45%” compared to the pinned version. That’s a good endorsement of the responsive nature of RSAs and why Google must have been pretty confident in this format when it made its change.

Her test aside, I could see some practical uses for pseudo-ETAs:

  • If it ain’t broken… Remember, not only can you not create ETAs anymore, but you can’t edit them either. So if you have some great ETAs already, you might want to keep using them but be able to continue updating them. 
  • Ensure clarity. As you can see from the pinning examples above, some RSA combinations might be weird. It’s possible due to weird jargon or brand names that you might need to pin on some occasions to make sure the ad combinations don’t look weird.
  • Test ideas. Search ads have been one of the ways to quickly and cheaply test messaging in a live environment. Winning messages may make it to social media, TV commercials, etc. RSAs make this a bit harder because you don’t get reporting down to the most granular level (i.e., 46,830 ways!). So, pseudo-ETAs offer a way to keep checking out ideas as straightforwardly as they were done previously.

Remember your fundamental ad best practices

Sure, the game has completely changed in an RSA-only world. But that doesn’t mean the knowledge and experience from more than two decades aren’t valuable anymore!

Don’t ignore the basics. Here’s a list of the ad tips that worked well with ETAs and are still worthwhile to consider today:

  • Be compelling. Just because Google has 43,680 combinations to choose from doesn’t mean that your RSA ad copy doesn’t have to be great. Remember your basics about what garners consumer attention on the search engine results page.
  • Ad extensions. Advertisers can see an average 20% increase in click-through rate when 4 sitelinks show with their search ads.
  • CTAs. Use specific calls to action, not general ones. These are still ads; they still require work strong CTAs to illicit consumer action.
  • DSAs are still viable. Dynamic Search Ads are still an option for you. They save time and can sometimes work better than RSA ads. Keep DSAs in the mix of your portfolio creative approach. 
  • Keyword Insertion. Still one of the all-time best SEM practices! Use keyword insertion to put the keyword into the ad copy automatically. 
  • Audiences.  RSA + automated bidding is better with audiences. I don’t think RSAs can do all of the work alone. A focused set of RSA headlines and descriptions geared towards a particular audience can be a very effective combination.

Use the Ad Strength tool

The Ad Strength feature of RSA creation is an algorithmic-based watchdog that scores your ads based on Google’s recommended best practices.

The tool provides feedback on how well your ad rates for optimal performance using the scale of “Incomplete,” “Poor,” “Average”, “Good,” to “Excellent.” Google reports that a higher Ad Strength score will generally maximize the performance of your ad. 

Ad Strength has 2 parts:

  1. The overall Ad Strength score, which rates the effectiveness of an ad
  2. The specific action you should take to improve the ad’s Ad Strength score

Common Ad Strength tool recommendations include:

  • Add more. If you haven’t reached 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, Google may prompt you to add more. The system will even make suggestions that you can approve with a click—or maybe they’ll just jump-start your creative juices so you can generate more yourself. 
  • More unique. Google’s AI may feel that your headlines or descriptions are too similar. Maybe there are just too many repeated words/phrases, or semantically even different words are too conceptually alike. RSAs work so well because you give Google 43,680 combinations—if they’re all the same ideas, that limits their effectiveness.
  • Stop pinning. Yes, while taking control is a vital part of working with AI, it’s also important not to restrict what Google can do with overpinning. If the Ad Strength tool determines that you’ve pinned too much, it will alert you and get you to revert them to unpinned. 
  • More relevance. Like with ETAs, if your ad group’s keywords aren’t represented enough within the RSA headlines and descriptions, then your ads could be limited in which auctions they participate, lose more auctions, and have lower positions/higher costs even when you do win. So even in an RSA-only world, relevance is still crucial with Google Search Ads.

Final tip: watch Google’s brief RSA best practices tutorials

Google offers many excellent recommendations that can provide meaningful improvement to your responsive search ads campaigns. 

Here are two you should check out:

YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

PGRpdiBjbGFzcz0iX2JybGJzLWZsdWlkLXdpZHRoLXZpZGVvLXdyYXBwZXIiPjxpZnJhbWUgdGl0bGU9Ikdvb2dsZSBBZHMgVHV0b3JpYWxzOiBSZXNwb25zaXZlIHNlYXJjaCBhZHMgYmVzdCBwcmFjdGljZXMiIHdpZHRoPSI1MDAiIGhlaWdodD0iMjgxIiBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUtbm9jb29raWUuY29tL2VtYmVkL1RrekcyYUU4MDFZP2ZlYXR1cmU9b2VtYmVkIiBmcmFtZWJvcmRlcj0iMCIgYWxsb3c9ImFjY2VsZXJvbWV0ZXI7IGF1dG9wbGF5OyBjbGlwYm9hcmQtd3JpdGU7IGVuY3J5cHRlZC1tZWRpYTsgZ3lyb3Njb3BlOyBwaWN0dXJlLWluLXBpY3R1cmUiIGFsbG93ZnVsbHNjcmVlbj48L2lmcmFtZT48L2Rpdj4=
YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

PGRpdiBjbGFzcz0iX2JybGJzLWZsdWlkLXdpZHRoLXZpZGVvLXdyYXBwZXIiPjxpZnJhbWUgdGl0bGU9Ikdvb2dsZSBBZHMgVHV0b3JpYWxzOiBDcmVhdGUgZWZmZWN0aXZlIHJlc3BvbnNpdmUgc2VhcmNoIGFkcyIgd2lkdGg9IjUwMCIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyODEiIHNyYz0iaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91dHViZS1ub2Nvb2tpZS5jb20vZW1iZWQvZVZZWnp2YXhOMFk/ZmVhdHVyZT1vZW1iZWQiIGZyYW1lYm9yZGVyPSIwIiBhbGxvdz0iYWNjZWxlcm9tZXRlcjsgYXV0b3BsYXk7IGNsaXBib2FyZC13cml0ZTsgZW5jcnlwdGVkLW1lZGlhOyBneXJvc2NvcGU7IHBpY3R1cmUtaW4tcGljdHVyZSIgYWxsb3dmdWxsc2NyZWVuPjwvaWZyYW1lPjwvZGl2Pg==

Are you looking to beat your search program expectations this year? Try Skai!

As part of Skai’s intelligent marketing platform, our Paid Search solution helps you stay ahead of your competition and reach consumers when and where they’re searching. Our advanced optimization and reporting are coupled with automated solutions, including tools for bidding and budgeting, and much more. As an early player in the paid search industry, Skai™ has a long history of innovation and an independent position you can trust. 

Client results include:

  • 756% increase in conversions for New York Magazine
  • 168% increase in year-over-year ROI for Toolstation
  • 20% decrease in cost per acquisition for Endurance
  • 150% increase in ROAS for Michaels Company

For more information, set up a brief demo today to see all of our great paid search innovation for yourself. 

Request a Demo of Skai

Related Posts

  • The Skai 5: Five RSA Quick Tips As Search Marketers Get Ready for the Shift
    Read More
  • A baby in a grass field with his hand up waving goodbye.
    Goodbye, Google Expanded Text Ads (ETAs); Hello, Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)
    Read More
  • Phrase match and broad match modifier
    New Google Ads Keyword Match Types: Tweak Your Strategy to Improve Results
    Read More
  • close up on man hand holding smartphone with futuristic of social media marketing icon for internet network technology and business concept
    5 Steps to a Full Funnel Search Strategy as Consumer Behavior Changes
    Read More
  • Use Skai to Master Microsoft Search Advertising’s Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)
    Read More
  • multimedia ads
    With Skai’s One-Click Support, Microsoft Search Advertising’s Multimedia Ads Help Marketers Own the SERP
    Read More
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email
  • Copy Link
    Copied!
Tags: Create, Google, Plan, Search, xTLx

Subscribe to Updates

Media that matters.
Marketing that works.
© 2023 Kenshoo, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Recruitment Privacy Policy.
  • Connected Data
    • Market Intelligence
    • Our Approach
    • By Need
    • By Solution
  • Connected Strategy
    • Dynamic Marketing Mix
    • Budget Forecasting
    • Strategic Consulting
  • Connected Media
    • Overview
    • Retail Media
    • Paid Search
    • Paid Social
    • App Marketing
    • Auditing
    • Expert Services
  • Measurement
    • Incrementality
    • Experiments
    • Cross-Channel Attribution
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Glossary
    • Case Studies
    • Training & Enablement
    • Developer Hub
Privacy Preference

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience.

Privacy Preference

Save All

Save

Accept Only Essential Cookies

Manage Cookie Preferences

Cookie Details Privacy Policy Imprint

Privacy Preference

Here you will find an overview of all cookies used. You can give your consent to whole categories or display further information and select certain cookies.

Save All Save Accept Only Essential Cookies

Back

Privacy Preference

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Name
Provider Owner of this website, Imprint
Purpose Saves the visitors preferences selected in the Cookie Box of Borlabs Cookie.
Host(s) .skai.io, skai.io
Cookie Name borlabs-cookie
Cookie Expiry 1 Year
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Purpose This cookie stores selections made by the user in the Accessibe tool in order to maintain those settings on future visits. These cookies help us make our website compliant with our obligations under US law.
Privacy Policy https://accessibe.com/privacy-policy
Cookie Name acsbState, acsbReset
Cookie Expiry n/a
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name wordpress_sec_,wordpress_test_cookie,wp-postpass_*, wordpresspass_*, wordpressuser_*
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

We use these cookies to enhance functionality and allow for personalisation, such as live chats, videos and the use of social media.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .chilipiper.com, skai.chilipiper.com
Cookie Name fs_uid, CHILI_PIPER_CLUSTER, guest-session, _sp_ses*, _sp_id*
Cookie Expiry Session / 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .comeet.co, www.comeet.co
Cookie Name visid_incap_, nlbi_#######, incap_ses_, referrer22_00a, incap_ses_1364_2167377
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name moduleFormPardotDownload
Cookie Expiry 30 days

Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for website analytics. Generates statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name _ga,_ga_*,_gat,_gat_*,_gid
Cookie Expiry 2 Months
Accept
Name
Provider Hotjar Ltd., Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta
Purpose Hotjar is an user behavior analytic tool by Hotjar Ltd.. We use Hotjar to understand how users interact with our website.
Privacy Policy https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy/
Host(s) *.hotjar.com
Cookie Name _hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid, _hjRecordingLastActivity, hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjptid, _hjSessionUser_2229986, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjIncludedInSessionSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjFirstSeen
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Marketing cookies are used by third-party advertisers or publishers to display personalized ads. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Linkedin
Cookie Name lidc, li_gc, lang, AnalyticsSyncHistory, UserMatchHistory, li_sugr, bcookie, TDCPM, TDID, bscookie, ln_or
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Skai
Accept
Name
Provider 6sense
Cookie Name _gd_session, _an_uid, _gd_visitor, _gd_svisitor, 6suuid
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Pardot
Purpose Cookie name associated with services from marketing automation and lead generation platform Pardot. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code.
Host(s) .pardot.com, pi.pardot.com, skai.io
Cookie Name pardot, visitor_id*, lpv*
Cookie Expiry Session / 10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for conversion tracking of Google Ads.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name IDE, 1P_JAR, NID, SOCS, CONSENT, AEC, _gcl_au, OTZ, test_cookie
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Facebook used for website analytics, ad targeting, and ad measurement.
Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
Cookie Name _fbp,act,c_user,datr,fr,tr,m_pixel_ration,pl,presence,sb,spin,wd,xs
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If External Media cookies are accepted, access to those contents no longer requires manual consent.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Wistia
Host(s) .wistia.com
Cookie Name cb_anonymous_id, _sp_ses.2b40, _li_dcdm_c, __hssrc, _gcl_au, _clsk, hubspotutk, _sp_id.2b40, __hssc, __hstc, _uetsid, _uetvid, _gid, _ga, _ga_GQR109DZ3Y, _lc2, fpi, _ex-pricing-cta, _fbp, cb_group_id, cb_user_id, _clck
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Instagram content.
Privacy Policy https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/
Host(s) .instagram.com
Cookie Name pigeon_state
Cookie Expiry Session
Accept
Name
Provider Openstreetmap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom
Purpose Used to unblock OpenStreetMap content.
Privacy Policy https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
Host(s) .openstreetmap.org
Cookie Name _osm_location, _osm_session, _osm_totp_token, _osm_welcome, _pk_id., _pk_ref., _pk_ses., qos_token
Cookie Expiry 1-10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Twitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Twitter content.
Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/privacy
Host(s) .twimg.com, .twitter.com
Cookie Name __widgetsettings, local_storage_support_test
Cookie Expiry Unlimited
Accept
Name
Provider Vimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA
Purpose Used to unblock Vimeo content.
Privacy Policy https://vimeo.com/privacy
Host(s) player.vimeo.com
Cookie Name vuid
Cookie Expiry 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock YouTube content.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en
Host(s) google.com
Cookie Name CONSENT
Cookie Expiry 6 Month

Borlabs Cookie powered by Borlabs Cookie

Privacy Policy Imprint