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Save time and increase ad engagement with Responsive Search Ads

Back in September 2019, we announced the Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) open beta. Since that time, we have seen great response from our advertisers, with adoption rising every month. RSAs make creating and testing ads easier by automating the creation of your ad. You can provide up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions and we’ll create and match the most optimal combinations to create effective ads for your potential customers.

RSAs are designed to work along with Expanded Text Ads to win new or previously competitive auctions by picking the most relevant content from up to 32 thousand combinations, making it easier to serve better ad copies and reach new customers. On average, our advertisers have seen an increase of 10% in volume, 6% in CVR, and a decrease of 7% in CPA.

Now all advertisers worldwide can begin creating Responsive Search Ads through Microsoft Advertising online, Microsoft Advertising Editor, or with the Microsoft Advertising API.

Key things to know about Responsive Search Ads

  • To easily adopt RSAs, Microsoft Advertising provides recommendations in the UI that bundle current content within your ad groups with two or more ads, generating one or more RSAs for that ad group. The same functionality is available through bulk upload.
  • Save time by using Google Import to directly import your campaigns with RSAs from your Google Ads account into Microsoft Advertising. You can do this from the web interface or using Microsoft Advertising Editor.

Best practices for Responsive Search Ads

  • Create RSAs within existing ad groups:
    • We recommend 2-3 Expanded Text Ads and at least 1 RSA.
    • Limit ad groups to 5 or less ads for optimal performance.
  • Provide as many assets as possible:
    • Create at least 8-10 headlines and use a combination of short and long headlines to allow for maximum utilization of space on any device.
    • Have 2-3 titles that are closely related to your keywords. Utilize different length titles to maximize space.
    • Use a single dynamic keyword insertion.
    • Use at least 1 brand title.
  • Make content as distinct as possible:
    • Avoid repetitive language and phrase ideas in different ways.
    • Think of additional product or service benefits and features.
    • Test a clear call to action about the problem being addressed.
    • Include shipping and return information.
  • Avoid pinning if possible.
  • Combine auto bidding with RSAs to optimize your target metrics.

How to measure success

It’s important to understand the impact of your RSAs.  There are several ways to evaluate their performance.
 
  • RSAs increase performance in the ad group overall (including Expanded Text Ads) so measure metrics at the ad group level.
  • Measure and review metrics 1 week before and 2 weeks after the addition of RSAs:
    • Too small a sample size will be unreliable, so to properly evaluate performance each ad should have at least 1k impressions, but ideally 5K impressions or more.
  • Evaluate asset performance:
    • Impressions per asset and combination are available by clicking the View assets details link under each RSA in the online tool.
    • In the asset performance tab, pay attention to any large differences in impressions (e.g. 2K vs 100); assets with the lowest impressions should be updated for potential improvements in performance.
Check out our help page for more examples and details on Responsive Search Ads.

Share your thoughts

For any questions or feedback regarding responsive search ads, reach out to your Microsoft Advertising account manager or contact support. You can also ping us on Twitter, suggest a feature on the Microsoft Advertising Feature Suggestions Forum, or send an email to advertising-feedback@microsoft.com.