In a 27 August Google Blog post, Director of Product Management/Google Ads Anthony Chavez announced the introduction of yet another digital advertising refinement from Google: an Ad Strength metric, scheduled to begin to be available to advertisers in September.

According to Chavez, the new metric is intended to increase the relevance of ads - and hence their effectiveness in selling stuff - by making them appeal to a more diverse population of prospects.

Google's concern for diversity is explained in a June 2018 post by SVP/Global Marketing Lorraine Twohill at Think with Google. Some highlights of that post:

• The advertising industry is lacking in diversity, and ads reflect that.
• Diversity has many dimensions: gender, race, age, geography. socio-economic, jobs, abilities, sexuality.
• Too many ads depict perfect, young hipsters living in beautiful houses in cool cities.
• Too many ads depict stereotypes like women in the kitchen.
• Authentic characters matter, as do music, family dynamics, food, wardrobe and how products are portrayed.

For more information on the importance of diversity in advertising, just do a Google search on "diversity and relevance of ads".

Now back to Ad Strength:

Ad Strength is supposed to help advertisers determine when ads contain the right amount of information to drive max sales, considering relevance, quantity and diversity of the ad content.

Using machine learning, Ad Strength rates draft ads on a scale ranging from Poor to Excellent and provides actionable feedback for improvement:

Ad Strength is scheduled to be available as a column in Google Ads in early September, in the responsive-ad interface a few weeks later, and for responsive display ads in a few months.

For responsive ads, Google recommends providing as many headlines, descriptions and images "as makes sense for your business," in order to maximize the potential improvements from machine learning.

Go here for more information on Responsive Search Ads and here for ACRO Global's risk-free 30-day trial of Google Ads.