Google announced yesterday that select ads will feature a new format. Under the new format descriptive line 1 will be moved to the headline and separated by a hyphen.
What This Means for Marketers
The main impact is that it changes the way we write ad copy.
Marketers have to further increase their attention to ad copy punctuation and grammar. The descriptive line must make sense when used in conjunction with the title.
If the format becomes the norm it opens the door for marketers to craft 60 character descriptive titles using tile and description line one for a more user involved result. As we can see in the Google example below, descriptive line 2 is used as a call to action.
Alternatively marketers may wish to make the title or line 2 the emphasis of the call to action and include they keyword with the most traffic.
Testing of line 1 vs line 2 will show where searchers' eyeballs hone in. Will users interact more with ads emphasizing call to action and inclusion of search query term in the lengthened title or in 2nd descriptive line?
Searchers
Ad position may become less important because when users become more accustomed to the new ad format, they may simply look which ad best answers their query.