Google Ads Character Limits — Every Field, Every Format

Google enforces the strictest character counts in paid media — and it enforces them at save time, not after the fact. This is the working reference: every field, every limit, what counts as a character, and what trips people up. Validator at the bottom.

Responsive Search Ads (RSA) — the format you'll touch most:

• Headlines: 30 characters each, up to 15 per ad
• Descriptions: 90 characters each, up to 4 per ad
• Display Path 1 & Path 2: 15 characters each (vanity URL slugs after your domain)
• Final URL: 2,048 characters (rarely a problem)

Performance Max asset groups: Same headline/description limits as RSA, plus a Long Headline of 90 characters and a Business Name capped at 25 characters. Image and logo specs differ — see the PMax sibling page.

Display ads (Responsive Display):

• Short Headline: 30 characters
• Long Headline: 90 characters (used when the placement has room for one line)
• Description: 90 characters
• Business Name: 25 characters

YouTube (Video action / In-feed):

• Headline: 15 characters for in-feed video, 100 characters for the long-form
• Description lines: 2 lines × 35 characters for in-feed, 70 characters total for skippable in-stream companion
• Call-to-action button: 10 characters

Why these specific numbers. The 30-character headline isn't arbitrary — it's the maximum width that renders cleanly on a 320px mobile SERP slot without ellipsis truncation. Google concatenates two or three of your headlines with pipe separators (|), and at three headlines the combined line still has to wrap predictably across device widths. Descriptions at 90 characters fit two lines on most desktop renders without a 'See more' affordance, which Google doesn't support in search ads.

What counts as a character. Google counts by Unicode code point for most languages, but with notable gotchas:

• Emoji: count as 1 character in the editor, but most are silently stripped from final rendered ads. Don't rely on them.
• Double-byte characters (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai): each character counts as 2 against the limit. A 30-char Japanese headline is effectively 15 glyphs.
• Smart quotes, em dashes, ellipses (…): count as 1, but some get auto-converted on save. Test before bulk uploads.
• Trailing whitespace: trimmed, but counted while you type — confusing in the editor.
• Dynamic Keyword Insertion: the {KeyWord:default} token is replaced at serve time. Google validates against the *default* fallback length, not the inserted keyword. If your inserted keyword exceeds 30 chars, the default shows instead.

What happens when you exceed the limit. Google rejects at save — the API returns POLICY_VIOLATION or a length error, and the UI shows a red field-level message naming the asset and overage count. There's no soft truncation, no warning-then-publish behavior. Bulk uploads (Editor, CSV, API) fail the entire row. This is stricter than Meta or LinkedIn, both of which truncate silently in delivery.

Rules for fitting copy in the limit:

• Front-load the keyword or value prop in the first 15 characters — that's all that shows on narrow mobile pinning slots.
• Treat headlines as modular. If headline 2 has to make sense after headline 1 *or* on its own (when the system drops it), avoid mid-sentence dependency.
• Numbers and symbols save space: Save 40% beats Save Forty Percent.
• Write at 27-28 characters, not 30. Google occasionally renders an extra trailing space, and you want margin for localization.
• Avoid title-casing every word — sentence case often reads cleaner and tests better.

Validator: https://getadplus.com/tools/specs-validator

Example

Original draft headline: Get Our Award-Winning Project Management Software Free (54 chars). Trim path: drop the brag (Award-Winning), drop the obvious noun (Software), use a numeral. Result: Free Project Management Tool (28 chars). Fits with 2 chars of margin, leads with the offer, and reads cleanly when pinned to position 1.

Questions