An expanded text ad (ETA) was a fixed-format Google search ad in which the advertiser wrote every element: up to three headlines, two descriptions and two display URL paths, shown exactly as written. Google stopped allowing new ETAs to be created or edited from 30 June 2022, and responsive search ads replaced them as the standard search format.
How expanded text ads worked
ETAs arrived in 2016, replacing the older standard text ad with more space. In their final form an ETA had:
- three headlines of up to 30 characters each, the third of which did not always show;
- two descriptions of up to 90 characters each;
- a display URL with two path fields of up to 15 characters.
Every impression showed the same combination in the same order. To test messages, you wrote several ETAs in an ad group and compared them, often alongside an ad rotation setting that shared impressions evenly.
A responsive search ad works the other way round. You supply up to 15 headlines and four descriptions, and Google assembles combinations for each search, learning which perform best. Since the cut-off, existing ETAs have been able to keep serving and you can pause, enable or remove them, but you cannot change their text. At the time of writing (October 2026), some long-running accounts still contain live ETAs, though they compete for fewer impressions as RSAs take over.
Why it matters for a UK business
If your account was built before mid-2022, it may still hold ETAs. They are not harmful in themselves, but they cannot be updated: prices, opening hours, VAT wording or offers in old ETAs may now be wrong, and you cannot fix them without removing the ad.
They are also a record of what worked. An ETA that ran for years with a strong click-through rate tells you which headlines and descriptions your audience responded to. That wording is a good starting point for the RSA assets that replace it.
The same applies if you import Google campaigns into Microsoft Advertising, which later retired new expanded text ads in the same way. Old ETAs copied across years ago may still be running there with wording nobody has checked since.
Many advertisers miss the control ETAs gave. Regulated businesses, such as financial advisers or private clinics, sometimes need specific wording to appear together. RSAs can do this through pinning, which fixes a headline or description to a position, at the cost of fewer combinations for Google to test.
Common mistakes
- Leaving ETAs with out-of-date prices or offers running because nobody noticed they could not be edited.
- Removing every old ETA in one go without copying the best wording into RSAs first.
- Pinning every RSA headline to recreate an ETA, which strips out most of the format’s testing.
- Comparing ETA and RSA performance on click-through rate alone instead of conversions.
How to act on it
- Filter your ads by type in Google Ads or Google Ads Editor and list any ETAs still enabled.
- Check each one for out-of-date claims, and pause any that are wrong.
- Copy the strongest ETA headlines and descriptions into RSAs, then add new variations to reach good ad strength.
- Pin only what must appear for legal or brand reasons.
- Once the RSAs perform as well or better, pause the remaining ETAs.
Cleaning up legacy ads and rewriting them as responsive ads is a routine part of the Google search ads management I offer when I take over an older account.