Ad specs / Google Ads
Google Ads character limits and specs
Published
Google Ads ad character limits, image sizes and hard floors. Every figure quoted from Google Ads's own documentation with the date it was read, 2026-08-09.
read 2026-08-09 Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7684791
What are Google Ads's ad character limits?
| Placement | Headline | Body text | Max file |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search: responsive search ad | 30 | 90 | None |
Where two numbers are given, the first is what stays visible and the second is what the field accepts. They're different questions. Copy over the cap gets rejected at upload. Copy over the visible limit runs, and gets cut off. Most guides publish only one of the two.
Responsive ads recombine before anyone sees them
Google mixes an RSA's headlines and descriptions automatically and shows 2–3 headlines per impression. So a one-axis-at-a-time test CANNOT be run inside a single responsive search ad — the platform recombines the cells before anyone sees them, and any 'winner' is an artefact of that mixing. On Google the designed experiment has to sit one level up: separate ads, or separate ad groups, each internally consistent. The generator is told this so it does not produce a Meta-shaped variant matrix here and call it attributable.
Conversion categories, not conversion events
read 2026-08-14 Source: https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v18/ConversionActionCategoryEnum.ConversionActionCategory
These are conversion action categories, not a fixed list of event names. In Google Ads you create a conversion action with whatever name you like and assign it one of these — so your own event does not have to be spelled like anything below, and a checker that demands it matches is wrong about how this platform works.
ADD_TO_CARTBEGIN_CHECKOUTBOOK_APPOINTMENTCONTACTCONVERTED_LEADDEFAULTDOWNLOADENGAGEMENTGET_DIRECTIONSIMPORTED_LEADOUTBOUND_CLICKPAGE_VIEWPHONE_CALL_LEADPURCHASEQUALIFIED_LEADREQUEST_QUOTESIGNUPSTORE_SALESTORE_VISITSUBMIT_LEAD_FORMSUBSCRIBE_PAIDYOUTUBE_FOLLOW_ON_VIEWS
There is no button
A responsive search ad has no call-to-action button at all — the headline is the call to action, and any CTA belongs inside it rather than in a separate field. Tools that leave a button field empty here are right to.
- Which call-to-action buttons this platform offers.
- Which ad categories are restricted here, and what declaring one does to your targeting.
- How this platform tracks conversions, and its default attribution window.
Listed rather than omitted. A spec sheet with no gaps is either complete or hiding something, and from the outside those look identical.
Which of these does a campaign have to satisfy?
AdPlaybook holds this spec as dated data and checks a finished campaign against it — character counts, audience floors, forbidden exclusions — before you paste anything into Google Ads. It is arithmetic, not a judgement call, so it runs on every campaign and costs nothing.