Google began sending reminders to advertisers in June regarding the permanent switch off of the old AdWords interface, and the time will soon come for the new interface to be the only way to manage AdWords accounts. As the new AdWords interface is now in play, it promises easier navigation, exclusive tools and an all-around more seamless experience. However, for those still who were still using the old AdWords interface, it may be a lot more difficult to get equipped with. Are you ready?
What’s new
In terms of reporting, the new UI now offers reports that are a lot easier to understand. AdWords now visualise the breakdown of KPIs and factors such as devices and times which makes it a lot easier to manage your campaigns and optimise performance. It also highlights bar graphs and heat maps to show you how your ads perform during different times of the day/week. Popular search terms are now shown in the overview page in bubbles to help you to identify potential new keywords and add any negatives to your campaigns.
Google previously released Demographic Targeting for Search Ads for advertisers to adjust their reach and ads to different demographics. In the old AdWords, this information is available for all advertisers to use but in the new AdWords interface, they now allow advertisers to target users based on their household income and parental status. As you could only target parental status on display campaigns, this allows for demographic targeting to be used across different campaign types. Previously, we could target locations based on average household income, however, this could not be done individually and this new feature provides advertisers to be more granular with the audiences that they are targeting.
Promotional extensions are now listed among other extensions and they will allow you to highlight sales or promotions that are currently available on your website. This allows advertisers to save space in their ad text and headlines and has been shown to receive very high click-through rates (CTRs) that are often over 10%.
The differences
Some slight changes with names and features are apparent in the new AdWords experience, however, there are also some bigger changes. Ad gallery and display planner are no longer available as standalone tools, image ads are no longer available in Search Network with Display Select campaigns, there is no dedicated Google Analytics page and there has been a lot of moving around. Additionally, there is a large number of columns and segment types that won’t be available in the new AdWords experience.
Benefits of the new UI
There are a lot more features that have been added to improve user experience in the new AdWords. Exclusive features will include call bid adjustments and the new shopping campaigns that are goal optimised, and advertisers can gain actionable insights with new graphs and powerful reporting tools. All of this will still provide you with the same AdWords performance that you have been used to with the previous UI so that your campaigns are able to run in the same way.
Negatives of the new UI
While the new AdWords is aesthetically pleasing, the usability appears to be a little harder for those who have been using the previous AdWords for a long time. Many reporting changes that have been made in the old experience, such as saving a filter or column, are not reflected in the new AdWords. This means that these will all have to be reset and it is recommended that reporting changes are now made in the new AdWords experience.
The new interface is 20% faster than the previous as well as being more insightful and visual. The experience and features have received massive upgrades and new tools that have been implemented are there to improve user experiences. It now more vital than ever to get to grips with the new AdWords before it is the old experience is soon gone for good.
May the traditional Adwords UI rest in peace.
