We will experiment with more AdWords ad formats (Prediction #2)

In the past few months, Google introduced several new ad formats, including Sitelinks, Product Extensions, and Product Listings.


SiteLinks

According to the Google AdWords blog: ‘’Ad Sitelinks is a new AdWords feature that allows advertisers to extend the value of existing AdWords ads by providing additional links to content deep within advertisers’ sites. Rather than sending all users to the same landing page, Ad Sitelinks will display up to 4 additional Destination URLs in search-based text ad for users to choose from. By providing users with more options, advertisers can create richer, more relevant ads that improve the value of brand terms and other targeted keywords.’’

At this point, only a handful of large advertisers have been selected to test this new feature. Hopefully it will become more widespread in 2010.

Products extension

Another Google AdWords wonder, Product extensions allow advertisers to use existing Google Merchant Center account to highlight products directly in search ads. When AdWords text ad appears, and advertisers’ Google Merchant Center account contains products that are relevant to the searcher’s query, product extensions show the images, titles, and prices of products in a plusbox under your ad.

Products Listing
A second feature for e-tailers, Product Listing Ads works with an advertiser's Google Merchant Center account to serve highly targeted ads that include richer product information directly in the ad itself - including product image, price, and merchant name. U.S. users searching on Google.com may begin to see Product Listing Ads more frequently on their shopping related queries.   

While still new formats are being tested, they are designed to improve customer experience for web users. Advertisers should test them out.

AdWords headline can go beyond 25 characters.
Another small change Google introduced earlier in 2009 is longer headline. Google AdWords restricts the Headline of text ad to 25 characters. This is a good thing; it forces advertisers to be relevant while being concise. However a few bloggers reported they have been able to stretch this to 30 + characters. Apparently Google has been experimenting with it throughout 2009. I have been unable to find any post on the Google AdWords blog but I will continue looking. Longer headlines are particularly important for Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) when longer tail searches also appear in the headline. Up to now, DKI shortened longer tail keyword in the headline.