Google Ads Preview Tool for Responsive Search Ads

Our preview tool takes all 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, with pins, sitelinks, and callouts. It counts the combinations Google can show and points out what Google’s Ad Strength and editorial rules would catch. A share link sends the preview to a client or your boss without an account.

Google’s own Ad preview and diagnosis tool shows ads that are already in your Google Ads account. Our preview tool works on any ad you type, before it’s built, and shares it as a link anyone can open and edit.

If 2 headlines say the same thing, Google has fewer real combinations to test, and your ad shows the same message over and over.

Our preview tool vs Google’s Ad preview and diagnosis tool

Both tools show how a search ad looks on Google. Google’s Ad preview and diagnosis tool runs inside Google Ads and checks ads already in your account against a live search (Google Ads Help on the Ad preview and diagnosis tool). Our preview tool is for writing the ad and getting it approved before it goes into your account.

	Google’s Ad preview and diagnosis tool	Our preview tool
Where it runs	In Google Ads, signed in	In your browser, no account
What it shows	Ads already in your account, for 1 search at a time	Any ad you type, before you build it
Combinations	The ad Google picks for that search	Every combination your pins allow, one click at a time
Checks	Why an ad isn’t showing, like budget or targeting	Character limits, Ad Strength advice, and editorial rules, with one-click fixes
Sharing	A link to that search result	A link to the ad itself, ready to edit

Use Google’s tool when a live ad isn’t showing. Use ours while you write the ad and when a client or your boss has to sign off on it.

What is a responsive search ad?

A responsive search ad is a Google search ad that you write in pieces. You enter up to 15 headlines and up to 4 descriptions, and Google mixes them into different ads for each search (Google Ads Help on responsive search ads).

You need at least 3 headlines and 2 descriptions, but write more. Each headline can be up to 30 characters, and each description up to 90. Google shows up to 3 headlines and 2 descriptions at a time.

The more unique headlines and descriptions you add, the higher your Ad Strength. Ad Strength is Google’s rating of how well your ad follows its advice, from Poor to Excellent. Google’s own data shows ads that went from Poor to Excellent got 15% more conversions on average (Google Ads Help on Ad Strength).

Ad Strength doesn’t set your price, though. Your cost per click comes down to ad quality: how likely people are to click, how well the ad matches the search, and how good your landing page is. Higher quality ads cost less per click and show higher on the page (Google Ads Help on ad quality). Google Ads grades those 3 things in a number called Quality Score (Google Ads Help on Quality Score). More headlines give Google more ways to match each search, and a better match is better quality.

Responsive search ads are the standard text ad in a Search campaign. Google stopped letting advertisers create the older expanded text ads, so every new search ad you write is a responsive search ad.

What a Google search ad looks like

A Google search ad has a label, your business name, a web address, headlines joined in one line, and a description. For example:

Sponsored
Example Fan Supply
www.example.com/exhaust-fans/in-stock
Industrial Exhaust Fans | Ships Same Day From Chicago | Get a Quote in 1 Hour
Belt and direct drive exhaust fans from the brands contractors spec. Call for a price.

Part of the ad	Where it comes from
Sponsored	Google adds it to every ad
Example Fan Supply	Your business name, up to 25 characters
www.example.com/exhaust-fans/in-stock	The domain of your final URL, plus Path 1 and Path 2
The 3 headlines	3 of your up to 15 headlines, picked by Google
The description	1 or 2 of your up to 4 descriptions

Under the description, your sitelinks, callouts, and phone number can show too. The next section covers what each one is.

Sitelinks, callouts, and your logo

Sitelinks, callouts, a call button, and your logo are extras that show around your ad and make it bigger on the page. Google calls them assets. A bigger ad pushes the next ad further down, and assets often bring in more clicks (Google Ads Help on assets).

Asset	What it is	Limit
Sitelink	An extra link under your ad to another page, like Roof Fans or Request a Quote. It can carry 2 short description lines	25 characters for the link, 35 for each description line
Callout	A short selling point that isn’t a link, like Ships Same Day or Net 30 Terms	25 characters
Call	Your phone number. On mobile it shows as a call button	Your business phone
Logo	A small image next to your business name	Square, 1200 by 1200 pixels is best, 128 by 128 at the smallest (Google Ads Help on search campaign specs). Files up to 5,120 KB (Google Ads policy on business information)

Fill in every one of them. In our accounts, a Search campaign with full sitelinks and callouts shows them on nearly every ad. Google does hold them back when your ad ranks too low on the page, because ads near the top get the room first (Google Ads Help on assets). That’s one more reason to write a strong ad.

Performance Max campaigns use sitelinks and callouts too, but Performance Max builds its own ads across Google from your asset groups. The preview tool above shows a responsive search ad in a Search campaign. For the images Performance Max and display ads need, use our Google display ad sizes chart.

Google Ads character limits

Google Ads limits every part of a search ad to a set number of characters. Each character in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean counts as 2 (Google Ads Help on text ad limits).

Part	Limit	How many
Headline	30 characters	3 to 15
Description	90 characters	2 to 4
Path 1 and Path 2	15 characters each	2
Business name	25 characters	1 (Google Ads Help on search campaign specs)
Sitelink text	25 characters	Up to 6 show on desktop, 8 on mobile (Google Ads Help on sitelinks)
Sitelink description lines	35 characters each	2, both or neither (Google Ads API reference on sitelinks)
Callout	25 characters	Up to 10 can show (Google Ads Help on callouts)

The preview tool counts each field as you type and turns the count red when you go over. For the limits on Performance Max, display ads, and keywords, or to count many lines at once, use our Google Ads character counter. Step 1 has what every ad needs. Step 2 has the extra headlines, pins, sitelinks, callouts, phone number, and logo.

How pinning changes your combinations

Pinning locks a headline or description to one position, so it shows there every time. Google says pinning isn’t the right choice for most advertisers and can lower Ad Strength (Google Ads Help on responsive search ads).

Every pin cuts the number of ads Google can build:

Your ad	Headline pins	Combinations
15 headlines, 4 descriptions	None	32,760
15 headlines, 4 descriptions	1 headline pinned to position 1	2,184
15 headlines, 4 descriptions	1 pinned to position 1, 1 to position 2	156
15 headlines, 4 descriptions	1 pinned to each of the 3 positions	12

For example, a common mistake is pinning a headline to every position. Google then shows the same 3 headlines every time, and the other 12 never show at all.

Pinning has never worked well for us, so we don’t do it. Instead, we write 2 headlines that say nearly the same thing in slightly different words, and put them first in the list, unpinned. Google picks one of them for most ads, so the message we care about still shows up, and Ad Strength stays strong. Those 2 headlines are usually our best performers.

Our preview tool only catches headlines that match word for word, so 2 close versions like that won’t set off the repeated headlines check.

What the checks mean

Once you fill in your ad, the Checks box under the preview lists anything Google would push back on, one problem per line. A line with a button next to it can be fixed with one click. Some checks come from Ad Strength, Google’s rating for how well an ad follows its advice. Others come from Google’s editorial rules, which can stop an ad from running (Google Ads policy on editorial rules).

Check	What it means	One-click fix
Over the limit	That field is longer than Google Ads allows	No, shorten it by hand
Not enough headlines or descriptions	Google Ads needs at least 3 headlines and 2 descriptions	No
Repeated headlines	2 headlines match word for word	Clears the repeats
More than 2 pins	Fewer combinations for Google to test	Unpins all but the first 2
Fewer than 15 headlines or 4 descriptions	Ad Strength asks for as many unique lines as you can write	No
Keyword missing	No single headline holds your whole keyword	No
All capitals	Capitals used for emphasis break the editorial rules	Fixes the capitals
Exclamation points	An ! in a headline, sitelink, or callout	Removes them
Emojis	Google doesn’t allow emojis anywhere in an ad	Removes them
Repeated punctuation	!! or ?? breaks the editorial rules	Removes the repeats
Extra spaces	Extra or missing spaces break the editorial rules	Removes them

The keyword check follows Google’s own wording: a keyword must be whole inside 1 headline to help Ad Strength. A keyword longer than 30 characters goes in a description instead (Google Ads Help on Ad Strength).

Rules for writing responsive search ads

If it looks spammy, Google won’t run it. Think emojis, all caps, a row of exclamation points, or the same word 3 times. Write the ad the way you’d say it to a customer on the phone.

Rule	Use	Avoid
Give each headline its own selling point	Price, stock, speed, brand, location	5 ways to say “quality fans”
Put the keyword whole in 1 headline	Industrial Exhaust Fans	Exhaust Fans for Industry when the keyword is industrial exhaust fans
Avoid pinning. If you have to, pin 2 at most	2 close versions of your key headline, unpinned	A pin on every position
Capitals for names and acronyms only	HVAC Exhaust Fans	FREE SHIPPING
No exclamation points in headlines, sitelinks, or callouts	Call Today	Call Today! or Call Today!!!
No emojis	Same Day Shipping	A truck or fire emoji
Write each headline so it reads alone	Ships Same Day From Chicago	And Ships Fast

Google doesn’t allow emojis or repeated punctuation like !! anywhere in an ad (Google Ads policy on punctuation and symbols). It also doesn’t allow exclamation points in callouts and sitelinks (Google Ads policy on callouts). We keep them out of headlines too, so the ad reads like a business and not a flyer.

Each headline can show next to any other headline, so none of them should depend on another to make sense.

How the preview tool works

The preview tool works in 2 steps, and step 2 is optional.

1. In step 1, enter your business name, final URL, paths, 3 headlines, and 2 descriptions. The preview shows right away, with example text until you type.
2. In step 2, add up to 12 more headlines, 2 more descriptions, pins, a keyword, sitelinks, callouts, a phone number, and a logo.
3. Switch between desktop and mobile, click Show another combination to see other mixes, then copy the ad text or a share link.

What it does	How
Counts characters	1 per character, 2 per Chinese, Japanese, or Korean character
Counts combinations	Pinned positions use their pinned lines. Open positions take unpinned lines in every order. 3 headline positions times 2 description positions
Shows another combination	Picks a new mix that keeps every pin in place
Builds the web address	The domain from your final URL, plus Path 1 and Path 2
Finds repeated headlines	Compares headlines without capitals or extra spaces, word for word
Finds shouting	Words of 4 or more capital letters, except trade acronyms like HVAC and OSHA
Makes the share link	Puts your ad text after the # in the link. Browsers don’t send that part to any server, and the logo stays out

The preview is a close match of Google’s layout, not a copy of it. Google changes the layout from time to time, and it decides which assets show for each search.

Where to use your ad in Google Ads

Your finished ad goes into a new responsive search ad in Google Ads. These steps match Google Ads as of late 2026, but Google moves its menus around a lot, so the names may differ in your account.

1. Copy the box labeled Your ad text.
2. In Google Ads, open the ad group and create a new responsive search ad.
3. Paste each headline and description into its own field, and set the same pins.
4. Add the final URL and paths, then save.

Google rates the ad’s Ad Strength as you type. If it asks for more, go back to step 2 and add headlines that cover a selling point you haven’t used yet.

Don’t want to deal with any of this? Take a look at our Google Ads management service, and we’ll write the ads and run them for you.