Fellow list member Jacobo Alonso sent in this question (shared with permission, question paraphrased for clarity):
“Would you keep “Longer ad headlines”? Also, I am not sure how these work.”
Here’s what Google has to say about this form of automated extension:
“Automated extensions can give you more robust ads and more chances to win new customers.
Long text headlines in automated extension is a feature that automatically improves the
format of text ads, by automatically promoting part of the description lines to the headline,
and adding the visible URL to the headline, when possible. Longer Ad Headlines may use text
from both Description Line 1 & 2. If our system can determine a proper sentence can be made,
it will promote the message to the headline.“
SOURCE: email from a Google Rep.
Would I keep this feature on?
No.
I don’t have data to back this up, but I simply do not trust Google in being able to really improve the conversion value per impression with this automated extension.
What do you think?
– Nils