Google Mulls Doubling Ad Size

Google is planning to test a new AdWords feature that will allow advertisers to create descriptive copy of up to 200 characters for their sponsored listings, a Google spokesman confirmed Thursday. With this revision, marketers on Google will have a 10-character-per-ad edge on search rival Yahoo! Google previously limited ads to 95 characters, which came to about 10 words.

Josh Stylman, a managing partner at search engine marketing firm Reprise Media, said that with this move, Google is mimicking one of Yahoo!'s more attractive features. "It will appeal. If you take a look at the two programs next to each other, Google has narrow creative specs, in terms of characters and some of their affiliate policies," he said. "Once you start to eliminate the friction between the channels, it's the overall products and not these nuances that make the difference."

Stylman added that Google could possibly use the expanded descriptions to target ads more precisely. "If expanded creative specs can give greater context, there might be an opportunity for them to target ads," he said.

An e-mail from Google that surfaced on the Internet forum ThreadWatch.com stated that Google will alternate the longer versions with the shorter ones for the companies invited into the test program. A Google spokesman declined to comment on the number of companies included in the test. The ThreadWatch.com post said the deadline for submitting the extended creatives is Aug. 8.

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