Update to the maximum character limit check for Expanded Text Ads and Sitelinks Extension

We are making a change to how the maximum character limit is checked when you create or edit an Expanded Text Ad. Currently, the validation takes into account your ad group language and returns the characters available based on the character width for that language and the length of the text entered in your ad. This may cause friction in cases where the ad has text in a language other than the ad group language.

For example, let’s say that your ad group language is set to English but your ad title includes a word in Chinese. In this case, the number of characters used up by the Chinese word should be two per character entered as it uses a double-width script. However, since the check is based only on the ad group language, which is English in this case, the ad will accept more characters than it is supposed to.

As a solution, we are going to improve the way the maximum character count is checked for an ad. Starting September 18^th, we’ll check each character entered. If it is a single or double-width character and validate text length based on that, regardless of what language is specified at the campaign or ad group level.
 

Note:    We’ll continue to return the same error codes as before if the Title1, Title2 or combined text length in Title1 and Title2 propertiesexceed the established limits. We are not changing the maximum characters limits. They will remain the same even with the new behavior.

 
Similarly, we are improving how we are calculating the maximum number of characters allowed for Sitelinks Extension. The maximum character limit for the Description1, Description2, and DisplayText properties will be relaxed such that only the Traditional Chinese characters will be counted double against the character limit. Each Traditional Chinese character will count as two and each English character will count only as one character.