How To Craft Superior Ad Copy When Google Ads Employs AI Assistance

How To Craft Superior Ad Copy When Google Ads Employs AI Assistance

Refine Your Ad Messaging: Mastering Google Ads Copy with AI Features

Steer clear of typical mistakes in automated Google Ads ad copy. Here’s how to ensure your ad text remains clear, precise, and aligned with your brand.

Presently, nearly every major advertising platform incorporates some form of AI-generated text. While these tools can accelerate campaign launches, they frequently produce headlines and descriptions lacking the ingenuity or pertinence needed for optimal results.

In this article, our focus is on maximizing Google Ads’ AI-assisted features without allowing automation to dominate your messaging. You’ll gain insight into how the system generates text, why standard AI-suggested elements often fall short, and actionable steps to guide the platform toward enhanced outcomes.

I will guide you on how to strategically apply the AI-powered automatically created assets within Google Ads, all while ensuring your manually entered text remains central to your message. AI functionalities can be valuable, but only when your inputs are well-structured and strategic. Without this foundation, the result is often uninspired ads that underperform or confuse your target audience.

Getting Started

Google’s automation offers suggestions and can also generate ad copy on your behalf. When Automatically Created Assets (ACA) are enabled, Google utilizes your landing page, existing ads, ad group keywords, and other accessible business details to produce new headlines and descriptions for Responsive Search Ads and Performance Max campaigns.

These AI-generated assets are intended to work in conjunction with your manual inputs to enhance relevance and performance. While this may seem advanced, a crucial question arises: How do you guarantee your ads still reflect your strategic intent?

Before you even begin with ad copy, there’s a telling sign that highlights the imperfections of automated ad creation: the opt-in disclaimer for automatically created assets. Upon enabling this setting in Google Ads, Google requires you to confirm that your landing page is accurate and not misleading. You assume legal responsibility for anything the AI generates based on your content.

The very existence of this disclaimer underscores a critical truth: Google’s automation is useful, but not infallible. This reinforces why your ad copy still holds significant importance.

Analyze Ideas And The Ad Strength Indicator

As you develop your Responsive Search Ad (RSA), Google Ads provides immediate feedback via the “Ad Strength” indicator. RSAs are designed to allow Google’s machine learning to automatically test various combinations of headlines and descriptions to identify the most effective pairings.

The Ad Strength indicator directly encourages a diverse set of these assets for testing. This feature offers prompts such as:

  • Add more headlines.
  • Incorporate popular keywords in your headlines.
  • Make your headlines more distinctive.
  • Make your descriptions more distinctive.

These prompts aim to facilitate the testing of different combinations but do not always contribute to writing superior ad copy. In fact, upon clicking “view ideas,” numerous suggestions and topics appear that are not tailored and are often inaccurate, such as “buy online” or “huge inventory” for advertisers without e-commerce operations.

Ad Strength prompts are the initial feedback advertisers encounter when creating this type of ad. Their early appearance in the process can influence how advertisers craft headlines and descriptions. It’s easy to fall into the trap of optimizing for the score. Therefore, it’s vital to remember that you are writing for performance, not a rating. An excellent ad doesn’t always achieve an “Excellent” score.

Utilize Ad Strength as a guide, but ensure your copy decisions are rooted in the campaign’s objectives.

Input A Robust Final URL, Also Known As Your Landing Page

Your final URL, the ad’s landing page, influences how Google scans your site to generate AI copy suggestions. The AI suggestions are directly shaped by the content on your landing page. Maintaining a clear, relevant, and up-to-date page is essential.

If your landing page is overly general, vague, or lacks clear headings, Google might extract weak suggestions for your ad setup. Google has integrated several AI-powered features centered around landing page content to streamline ad creation.

Automatically Created Assets (ACA) are available in both Search and Performance Max campaigns, and they extract copy directly from your site to generate new headlines and descriptions. In Performance Max, the Asset Generation tool takes this further. Once you enter a URL, Google’s AI constructs relevant text and even image assets. The new Conversational Experience allows advertisers to provide a URL and have the AI suggest complete campaign elements, including keywords, headlines, and ad descriptions.

These tools all heavily rely on landing page content, making it crucial to manage what Google perceives and how it reflects your offering.

Review And Refine Prefilled Headlines

Google frequently preloads suggested headlines based on your landing page, ad group keywords, and other headlines. While these suggestions can save time, they are not strategic recommendations.

To build effective ads, you need a strong foundation. Each headline should serve a distinct purpose to communicate value and stand out in a competitive search environment. Here’s how I structure it:

  • Keywords: These headlines should align with the user’s search terms, reinforcing ad relevance and indicating to the searcher that your ad matches their intent.
  • Benefit or Feature: These highlight what the user will gain. Benefits answer the “what’s in it for me?” question, while features describe core elements of your product or service. This type of headline is vital for differentiating your offer.
  • Product Name: This clearly states what you are promoting, especially useful when offering multiple solutions, SKUs, or services, helping to filter clicks to the most relevant traffic.
  • Call to Action (CTA): These guide the next step, such as “Start Your Trial” or “Get a Free Demo.” Action-oriented copy provides users with direction and adds urgency.
  • Brand Name: Including your brand name can provide clarity and build trust, even if not served on branded search terms.

Your aim is to cover a range of message types without repetition. Each headline should fulfill a unique role so searchers are compelled to click, and Google can test a variety of combinations. Avoid simply accepting all of Google’s suggestions or making minor rewording of the same idea. Begin with this framework, then refine.

More Ideas, More Potential Issues

When crafting headlines, you’ll notice a “View Ideas” link alongside Google’s suggestions. Clicking this opens the “More Ideas” panel, presented as an intelligent tool powered by AI.

Based on my direct experience reviewing interfaces across numerous client accounts, the “Top Keywords” section might include terms related to your business, but they were often drawn from unrelated ad groups or even contained competitor names, potentially leading to trademark concerns. This can cause confusion and risks displaying ads with misleading or legally problematic content.

The “Other Ideas” and “Call to Action Phrases” sections typically present a pre-programmed list of standard CTAs or promotional lines like “Book Now” or “Find Out More.” In one recent instance, a client’s actual CTA was “Free Sample,” yet none of the suggestions aligned with that intent.

Not only were the options inaccurate, but they also lacked any business-specific customization. These don’t appear to be genuinely AI-generated but rather seem like a generic list applied universally to all advertisers. The danger here is that less experienced users might assume these suggestions are optimized or personalized simply because Google provides them. In reality, they can lead to issues that mislead your audience.

Descriptions Should Enhance Value, Not Just Echo Headlines

Upon viewing the “View Ideas” panel for descriptions, Google indicates that these suggestions are based on your final URL and other ads within your ad group. However, in my assessment across multiple client accounts, these suggestions frequently fall short.

Many are simply rephrased headlines or very brief descriptions that don’t utilize the full 90-character limit. This represents a missed opportunity to include meaningful context or differentiation.

Descriptions should follow a similar framework to headlines but with more room for detail. Each one should:

  • Support a headline: Add detail to the benefit, feature, or CTA introduced above.
  • Highlight a specific value proposition: Clarify what the product or service actually delivers.
  • Add urgency or emotional appeal: Address the fear of missing out (FOMO), time savings, ease of use, or competitive advantage.
  • Answer an unspoken question: Such as “What’s in it for me?” or “How does this work?”

Your goal is to create descriptions that effectively encourage a searcher to click by providing a richer understanding of your offer.

Bonus Feature: Conversational Experience In Google Ads

Google is currently testing a new feature called Conversational experience, accessible within the ad creation interface for some advertisers in North America. This AI-powered assistant is designed to offer contextual help based on your current location within the Google Ads workflow.

This chat tool can suggest ad copy ideas, recommend keywords, and answer support questions. It functions much like a chatbot with campaign context, providing real-time support during ad creation. While it seems helpful, it’s important to remember that this feature is still in development.

When I tested this tool in ad creation mode, the chat alerted me that my Ad Strength was “Poor” and offered assistance to improve it to “Excellent.” After clicking “Generate Suggestions,” the AI provided headline and description ideas that were identical to those found in the standard “View Ideas” panel.

This reinforces the importance of critically evaluating suggestions, even when they originate from new tools within the platform. Google explicitly states that the AI might return inaccurate or outdated information, advising users to verify any suggestions from the chat. The feature also notes that your interactions may be used to improve the product, meaning your chat activity can contribute to training the model.

Conclusion: How To Maximize Automated AI Settings

If you intend to utilize Google’s automated AI settings, you must guide them effectively. Google’s AI is only as effective as the inputs and oversight you provide.

To achieve optimal results:

  • Begin with a robust landing page and a clear final URL.
  • Craft your manual assets using a headline and description framework that incorporates keywords, product clarity, benefits, and brand identity.
  • Use the Ad Strength prompts and suggested ideas as checkpoints, not directives.
  • Thoroughly review all automatically created assets for accuracy, relevance, and potential legal risks.

Automation can amplify your efforts, but your strategy is what drives conversions. Consider AI as a content expander, not a content creator.

Ready to refine your Google Ads strategy in the age of AI? Contact Me today for expert guidance.

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