Think Short

Short Descriptions to be Required Starting in May

I’m sorry this letter is so long, but I did not have time to make it shorter.

—Mark Twain or Blaise Pascal

Scholars differ about the source of the quote above. Some think Twain said it. Others think Pascal said it. It doesn’t matter, because either way, it’s spot-on. Writing concisely is harder and often more time-consuming than writing verbosely. But it’s also more effective. English teachers have been saying so for a century or more.

Selling Short?
Our users’ search experience is key to your success: We’ve found that ads written more concisely give users a better experience and perform better for advertisers. When users are exposed to higher quality search ads you, the advertiser, may attract more interested and enthusiastic potential customers. 

As an advertiser, you have two options for your ad descriptions, one long (up to 190 characters) and one short (70 characters or fewer). At present, you may use either. Starting in May, however, a short description will be required, while a long description will be optional. This means for all new or modified ads you must provide a short description.  And starting in June, ad descriptions longer than 70 characters may automatically be cut off in Yahoo! Sponsored Search results. We will shorten the description at the nearest complete word to 70 characters, followed by an ellipsis (”…”).  Long descriptions will continue to be shown on some of our external distribution partner web sites. 

It’s Best to Start Early
The long and short of it is that if you have not provided short descriptions (fewer than 70 characters) for your ads in the past, we recommend that you do now, before June, when the change occurs in Yahoo! Sponsored Search results. Ads that are “truncated”—or automatically cut off after 70 characters—may not be as relevant and may get a lower Quality Index score and, potentially, a lower ranking in search results.

To add a short description to a given ad:

• Log into your account
• Click the Campaigns tab
• Click on a campaign containing the ad(s) you wish to modify
• Select the specific ad group containing the ad(s) you wish to modify
• Click on the Ads tab
• Click on the name of the ad you wish to modify
• Write a short description in the box indicated on the “Create Your Ad” page
• Click “Save Changes”

The “Create Your Ad” page looks like this:

Here are a few tips for writing effective short ad descriptions:

Shorter is Sweeter
Web copy should only be 25 percent as long as print copy, in ads as well as other text.

A Short Sentence
What do they say about marriage? It’s not a word, it’s a sentence? Well, your short description is usually better off as a sentence than a fragmented set of words. Instead of “Discount chocolates from Mike. Starting $4.99 per box. Sale! For limited time only” try “Enjoy Mike’s gourmet chocolates, now on sale at just $4.99 a box.”

Strunk and White Were Right
Follow these simple rules from William Strunk and E.B. White’s famous writing guide The Elements of Style:

Make every word tell—Every word should be to-the-point and none wasted
Omit needless words—See above
Use the active voice—”Give the gift of sweetness with Mike’s affordable gourmet chocolates” is better than, “Mike’s gourmet chocolates are known to be the sweetest treats around, are quite inexpensive and make a great gift.”
Put statements in positive form—Instead of saying “Mike’s chocolates are known to be loved among gourmets,” say “Gourmets love Mike’s chocolates.”

For more tips on writing good ad descriptions, see the post “Creating Ad Copy that Clicks” from Mona Elesseily, author of the Yahoo! Search Marketing Handbook.

Please note that after the introduction of truncation in May, the space limit for titles will remain at 40 characters, while display URLs will be reduced to a maximum of 35 characters. We’ll go more into that later. And, of course, we’ll post a reminder to include short descriptions if you haven’t already. 

For more information, please visit this page or call Customer Solutions at 1-866-YAHOO-SM

—Michael Mattis