Pinning

Pinning is locking a specific headline or description to a fixed position in a responsive search ad so it always shows in that exact slot.

You build a responsive search ad by handing Google a pile of headlines and descriptions, and it mixes them into different combinations for every search. Most of the time you want that freedom, because the constant testing of combinations is what makes the format perform. Every so often, though, you have a line that simply has to appear, in a set place, on every impression, and pinning is how you force that to happen.

You pin by assigning a headline to position 1, 2, or 3, or a description to position 1 or 2. Once an asset is pinned, it shows only in that position, and nothing else can appear there in its place. Pin one headline to position 1 and Google keeps rotating everything else around it. Pin two or three options to the same position and it chooses among only those you allowed, which is a softer way to keep control without fully freezing the slot.

Here is the trade-off. Pinning guarantees a required message, a compliance line, a disclaimer, a brand name legal insists must lead, but every pin shrinks the number of combinations Google can test, and that testing is the entire reason responsive ads beat static ones. Pin only what you truly must, and leave the rest floating so the system can do its job.

Pin the promise you have to keep, and let the machine sort out the rest.