Step 1: Create New Ad

To create a new ad, click “Add new template”. An ad template consists of seven rows and four columns. The first three rows define the headlines of the ad. The next two rows define the descriptions. The last two rows define the paths of the display URL that will appear below the headline of the ad. Crealytics’ Search Platform displays a preview for every ad template. As such, you will always know how your ad will appear in the search engine.

Step 2: Fill Text Field 

You can fill an ad with static text, different types of variables, or a combination of both. The more variables you add, the more specific the ad will be. Always keep in mind that the message has to be clear. The variables have different lengths depending on the names you entered into their tables. Therefore, some combinations could exceed Google’s character limits. For this reason, enter up to three fallback options in the required fields. If the first fallback option is also too long, the second one will appear, and so on.

Note: If headline 1 (here: name@brand ad_name@cat) is too long, the fallback will be used. However, Crealytics’ Search Platform will now combine the first fallback of the headline with the original value (main text) of headline 2 and 3, as well description lines 1 and 2, and path 1 and 2. It will not use “fallback 1” for all six rows if only one to five of them exceed the character limit.

Usually, an ad template creates text ads for all campaigns created by the template. Ad types enable you to create specific ads for subsets of the campaigns created by a template.

For example, it is possible to write different ads for protected brands than for other brands. Another example is to write different ads for different seasons. Please read the article about ad types for further information.

Crealytics’ Search Platform offers assistance during the creation of text ads (and sitelinks). When writing into a field, a small text counter on the bottom right of the box indicates how many characters are being used.

Table variables (e.g. name@brand, alternative@category) in the text ads also affect the text counter. A range will be displayed, if the entries of the table columns have different lengths. The range indicates the minimal and maximal length of the entries in the table column. In the example below, 4 characters are static “Buy” and the table column “name@brand” has 3-23 characters, adding up to a total range of 7-27.

Functions that do not influence the length of entries will be recognized by the platform and the range will still be shown accordingly. Other functions are not supported (see examples below). All other functions will result in displaying a “+” behind the counter to indicate that there is most likely other content increasing the total number of characters. The supported functions are: UPPERCASE, LOWERCASE, CAPITALIZE, CAPITALIZEWORDS, and BROAD. To learn more about functions click here.

Validation

Apart from showing how many characters are being used and providing a range, when table variables are used, Crealytics’ Search Platform also validates the content in the ad template.

If the last fallback option of a row (e.g. headline 1) will exceed the allowed length of the field in at least one case, a message will appear. In such cases, it is necessary to either enter another fallback (see example below), or make changes to ensure text ads will be being generated.

If a field is not used at all, because the length is exceeded in every case, but the field is not the last fallback option used, another message will appear. We recommend changing the field, otherwise it will be useless for the ad template.

Hint: With the text counter, it is possible to use variables even in the last fallback option for which it was recommended to use plain text only.

Template variables

Template variables are supported by the text counter. We have provided an example to help explain how the range is determined.

Example: The first option has a range of 14-29, the second one a range of 3-18 and the third option has 11 characters. The minimum of this template variable is 3, since it is the smallest value possible. The maximum of the range is 29, but only if the first option is being used. If it is too long, the fallbacks will be used. Thus, the smallest maximum will be saved for the template variable, which is 11.

When using the template variable in a text ad, a range of 3-11 is displayed, but also a “+” to indicate there are fallbacks exceeding the character limit.

Google Ads has editorial and professional requirements for ads. These include rules for punctuation, spelling, and grammar. It’s in your interest to avoid any spelling or grammatical mistakes in any case, but you may also take a look at Google’s other requirements here.

Note:

Some editorial or professional requirements from Google Ads will be validated in the Crealytics’ Search Platform, such as double punctuation (see above).

Keyword insertion is a feature that empowers you to use a search term in a text ad. Equal to Google’s syntax, it can also be used in Crealytics’ Search Platform.
Example: Using the syntax {keyword:Campaign} in the headline of an ad will cause the search term triggering this ad to be displayed. If “search engine advertising” is the search term, the headline will also be “search engine advertising”. The fallback “Campaign” will be used only if the allowed length of the headline is exceeded by the search term.

Read more about the keyword insertion here.