Over the past couple months, I have been seeing thread after thread from AdWords advertisers with complaints that their competitors are showing over the 25 character limit in the Google AdWords title of the ad.
Google says there is a max 25 character limit for the title, including spaces. But advertiser after advertiser have been posting in the forums, with complaints that advertisers are using more than that 25 character limit.
A month or so ago, I sent this information to Google asking if there was a policy change. Google told me, no, this must have been a bug of some sort. A Google spokeswoman told me, "We haven't changed our AdWords policy regarding the number of characters allowed in the title line."
So why is it still happening? I know, when I upload my SEO videos to YouTube sometimes they enforce their title word limit and sometimes they don't.
I am not sure what is wrong with Google AdWords, but something is for sure up. Maybe these are getting by through AdWords Editor, maybe through the API, maybe through the standard interface or maybe through dynamic keyword insertion - I am not sure.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdWords Help.
Update: This appears to not be a bug, I have more details at Get Longer Google AdWords Titles Through Dynamic Keyword Insertion.