This article will answer the question: if you’re not using the new AdWords interface, are you missing out?
The new AdWords is more visually pleasing, but that comes with both pros and cons. Let’s dive in to see what some of those are…
Account overview
When you log into the new account you get an overview tab which is broken down into key components, some useful, some not so much. Just like the old interface, at the top is your chart which you can change.
Biggest changes
Second is your past seven days new words or search terms that have appeared in your ad groups which are useful for a quick dive. But the most useful feature here is the biggest changes based on the date range you’ve set.
From a top-level perspective you can see where the cost and click-through rate has changed, as well as diagnose any dips.
Next is a pretty standard campaigns overview, showing your top five spenders and top five keywords.
Search queries and terms
Then the second best bit of this new interface in our opinion is the searches card component.
This component brings to your attention the search terms that people have typed into Google. But more interestingly, it has a word component which is essentially an engram analysis highlighting the most frequently appearing single words in your account.
So from a very quick top level perspective, this gives you an idea for new keywords.
And, of course, you can click through to these for further analysis.
Another component or card as Google would call it is the most searched ads.
Auction Insights
Then on the final row (if you’re looking at this on a wider or 1080 pixel desktop) is auction insights, devices, date an hours.
Auction insights give you a nice visualisation of where you sit in comparison to your competitors for impression share, and so on.
Device & time breakdown
Secondly is a device breakdown, a simple visual of how your mobile devices, tablets and computers fair, and you can break that down into the metrics that you care the most about.
And finally, day and hour with a nice heat map.
This helps your account spot any specific trends in the week where overspending and underperforming based on clicks and conversions are occurring, as well as a more detailed analysis using all channel data and additional metrics. The overview tab is available at account level too, allowing you to dig down into each campaign and ad level.
Getting around, quickly
The new interface allows for shortcuts too.
If you hit the question mark (?) on your keyboard it’ll bring up the keyboard shortcuts, which is a nod from Google in the direction of speeding things up for us as we use the AdWords interface. There’s also a search facility now at the top of the screen which is great for quick navigation.
Exclusive features
Another feature that you’re going to love if you’re working in the new AdWords dashboard is the call extension bid adjustments.
If you are wanting people to call your business then call extensions is a nice feature.
This allows you to get a bit more impression share on your call extensions.
A showcase for shopping
Only available in the new AdWords interface are the showcase shopping ads.
These simply allow you to show a collection of products on the search results page instead of just a single product. Again, a nice feature for shopping and something that’s only available in the new interface.
Audience manager
The audience manager has changed and simplified, bringing everything from search and displace into one area.
Close to the audience, not only do we have demographic search and display bid adjustments now, but there are also household income bid adjustments. This is only available in the US and certain regions to start with, but this allows you to bid based on household income known to Google.
In addition, it allows you to report on layered audiences, so it shows you household income and the demographic information such as age and gender, which gives you essentially an even more granular way to review and bid on, and optimise against, your audiences.
Extensions for promotions
Promotion extensions can be used by any business wanting to offer a discount.
There’s been missed reviews on promotion extensions but they add a visual lift to your ad which can increase click through rate and are worth a try.
Ad variations
Ad variations is essentially an ad testing suite that Google has implemented.
There’s a find and replace facility which allows you to test certain words in your ads very quickly, such as the call to action. And, you can modify and update text within a set of adverts to test all at once and swap headlines.
Last but not least
The final two new features are probably biased more towards the marketing professional on the agency side because the MCC now has a currency converter, so instead of a mixed currency view, you can now actually break down and convert each currency so you a running total in your native currency.
The dashboard takes reporting components and puts them into a report ready dashboard for you. There is a template that you can use to give you an example and is nice to create simple reports, perhaps internal reports or top level reports.
There has been a lot of mixed reviews about the new AdWords interface, but it’s worth having a dabble around and test the new features!
The change is coming
Especially as Google is fully switching to the new interface by the end of 2018.
You can keep up-to-date with a list of changes here.
What do you think of the interface, are you going to be ready when the final ‘switch’ occurs?