July 22nd marked the automatic migration of all legacy Google campaigns to enhanced campaigns, but there is another important date just around the corner. On September 23rd Google will begin to automatically upgrade all ad extensions.
Upgraded ad extensions are available for sitelink, call, and app extensions within enhanced campaigns. These upgrades offer new functionality and control. Here are some of the advantages:
- With upgraded extensions, you can create more specific extensions at the ad group-level as opposed to only campaign-level settings with legacy extensions.
- You can also create custom extensions for mobile devices to better target searchers.
- The ability to schedule extensions allows you to display sitelinks only when it makes sense for your business.
And, don’t worry, historical performance will be retained in Adwords when you edit upgraded sitelinks.
So what’s the big thing to note? The new character limit for link text for upgraded sitelinks is 25-characters, as opposed to the 35-character limit for legacy sitelinks. If your sitelinks exceed this limit and are upgraded they will be disapproved and no longer show with your ads. To avoid this, the Skai team recommends that you edit your link text as soon as possible.
While this change is not as large as the overall enhanced campaign migration, it is an important one to plan for if you use ad extensions. For Skai clients wanting to learn more about upgraded ad extensions, your account manager is just a call away!