AdWords Interface Update

Last year Jerry Dischler, VP of Adwords Product Management, announced that they would be completely redesigning the AdWords interface for the first time in 8 years. The aim of the new interface, according to Google was to “make AdWords as relevant for the next 15 years as the first 15 years” and to do this they’ve focused on the following three points: 

The interface has been rolling out to selected users gradually, and due to our relationship with Google, we’ve been able to get a sneak preview of the Alpha, so we’ve documented some of the biggest changes below.

The Overview Tab

One of the most notable changes in the new AdWords interface is the Overview tab. This tab is basically a dashboard of data visualisations that allow you to view performance at various levels. This is slightly similar to the home tab on the current interface which shows an overview of account performance. The new overview tab however, lets you view these visualisations at both campaign and ad group level and can provide useful insights into performance very quickly. 

At campaign level, you can now easily see top performing ad groups and keywords, most shown ads, device, location and day & hour performance all on one page in handy visual charts. 

The locations graphic is shown in a heat map format, and day & hour performance in a simple chart that can be customised depending on the metrics you want to view. Both of these offer a quick way to get a top line view on performance, more conveniently than viewing in the dimensions tab in the old interface, or having to download and pivot data. The device tab graphic also allows a simple overview of different metrics and performance, by device in an easy to digest chart.

The Dimensions Tab

Another big change is the Dimensions tab, or seeming lack of it. We thought it had been left behind at first glance in the new interface update, as key features from it have been brought into the left navigation panel, such as locations and devices making them easier to access.  However, upon questioning this with Google it appears the dimensions tab is still available, but hidden more deeply within the interface in the reports section, under Pre defined reports. 

We’re hoping this is made more prominent for the final version as this is a regularly used feature within Adwords which helps with data segmentation.

Locations Tab

As mentioned above, the locations tab is now on the left navigation panel. When you click into it at campaign level, you can straight away see which locations you’re targeting on a map, which is much easier to digest than the current interface which just gives a list of locations. You can then adjust bid modifiers on this tab as usual.

Ad Schedule Tab

Ad scheduling is now a lot easier to navigate too, as it’s no longer hidden away within the settings of a campaign, it’s prominently positioned in the left hand panel. Hover over a specific time period and you can now see the number of clicks driven in that time as well as the bid adjustment.

Devices Tab

As with ad scheduling, devices now has its own tab in the left panel. You can easily filter by device and see a top line summary of performance in line chart which isn’t possible in the current interface, offering a quick top line view of performance.

Change History

Change history can now be found in the left panel too. It now also gives a top line summary of the all changes made over your selected time range which isn’t available in the current interface.

Here is a quick summary of some of the other changes we’ve come across:

• You can now change the date range easily without having to click into the drop down menu. For example if you are looking at data from last week, you can view the previous week instantly by clicking the arrow.

• When you select a tab, all irrelevant options are now removed from view, making the interface look a lot cleaner. In the screen shots below you can see the keyword tab is selected. The new interface only shows ‘keywords’, ‘negative keywords’ and ‘search terms’ as tabs on the top of the page, making it much simpler to view.

• Ads & extensions are now clustered together in one tab, rather than in two separate sections.

• Advanced bid adjustments is now a tab on the left nav too, which currently lets you adjust bids based on interaction types (in the Alpha version currently you can only do this for calls)

• Bulk operations have now been taken off the left hand menu and now is in the Reporting & Tools drop down. Reports have also been taken from the top menu, and are also now in Reporting & Tools.

Still to come…

Google are continuing to make changes and add features to the new interface, so we’ll be keeping an eye on these as they roll out. 

These are the current features we’ve noticed haven’t been transferred across yet –

• Dimensions tab
• Audiences (Demographics & RLSA)
• Labs
• Shared Library

Overall the look and feel of the new interface is a lot more slick and modern. It is also much quicker than the current interface, making it more feasible to make changes in the interface rather than via Adowrds editor.  Obviously we are keen to see Google add in the bits they have left out, but if they are to be optimised in the same way we have seen from the other sections, we would imagine these to be updates well worth waiting for.