Towards the end of 2016, Google presented the new Ads interface for the first time. It was finally rolled out during the middle of 2017. In this blog post, we will update you on what changes have been made since and what this means in terms of user-friendliness.
Why are there Changes to the AdWords Interface?
After Google’s Ads user interface remaining the same for approximately 15 years, Google finally rolled out a re-design in 2017. During the first 15 years of Google AdWords (as it was called back then), Google was able to gather information about the cross-industry Ads user experience. This information was used as the source for the new Ads Interface.
The main theme of the re-design was the focus on Data. The goal was for all relevant data to be available faster and that the tools used by the advertisers were faster and more efficient.
Google put its focus on the following objectives:
- Simplified campaign overview with a focus on business objectives
- Time savings and efficiency
- New insights and learnings through new graphics and reporting tools
Concrete Changes and Features
We have an updated list of the most important changes and features below:
Navigation
“Insights” is the newest feature in the Google Ads interface, and it delivers curated information for your business based on your account performance. It also searches across Google for the products and services you show ads for. Insights update daily, and you can check back frequently for new insights that may appear. Search trend insights help you to understand the search interest for products and services relevant to your business. You can use search trends to respond to shifts in search demand by identifying potential growth opportunities for your business.
The second newer feature is “Landing Pages”. This shows helpful performance insights into how each of your landing pages is performing with additional information about your landing pages such as mobile speed score, mobile-friendly click rate, valid AMP click rate, and more.
Furthermore, the feature “Dynamic ad targets” has been added in the meantime. This feature provides you with information regarding how the different dynamically generated ad target URLs are performing. This can be helpful in deciding whether to set up a new ad group for a landing page that is performing particularly well or when deciding to exclude a URL from the dynamic ad targets should it be underperforming.
New Account Overview
The account overview consists of many informative tile elements that provide varying information depending on the filter(s) you set. At the campaign level, the key performance indicators (clicks, impressions, conversions) are presented very prominently. You can also very easily start the process of setting up a new campaign from the account overview page.
On the ad group and keyword level, the relevant information is provided through information around keywords or ad copies. The tiles and the use of heat maps give quick insights into the respective performance.
Filter Function in the Change History
The new bulk filtering makes it much easier to filter for different types of changes within the account change history.
Built-in filter options let you choose between Account changes, Ad changes, Bidding changes, CPC changes, Budget changes, Access changes, Conversion changes, Keyword changes, Audience changes, Network changes, Status changes, and Targeting changes in general. This provides a better overview of changes over a defined time period.
Creating Ads and Ad Extensions
Merging ads and ad extensions in a tab was the biggest change in the Google Ads interface. One large plus point of the ads tab is the live preview of ads. This feature is especially helpful when trying to bring your ads to life for clients and customers.
Report Improvements
A big focus was put on the revision and simplification of the reporting function. With the drag-and-drop function, individual parameters can be selected and displayed in graphs. In addition, the automation feature enables the sending of performance reports to be automated, without having to log into the Ads interface.
Extension Overview
Tools & Setting
One of the larger changes in 2017 was to the “Tools & Settings” drop-down at the top of the Google Ads Interface.
In this menu dropdown you will find all the useful tools & setting within Google Ads such as Planning, where the Keyword Planner is; your Shared Libraries where your bid strategies and more can be found; the bulk actions such as rules and scripts; your measurement information where you can find and adjust your conversions; Setup topics such as Access and Security or Linked Accounts, and finally all the Billing information for your account.
In our opinion, the “new” Google Ads Interface is well thought through and makes working with Google Ads more efficient and pleasurable. It can’t replace the Google Ads Editor in terms of efficiency with setups and the writing of ad copies, but it is quite suitable and practical for simpler optimization tasks and unbeaten in terms of Google Ads performance overview.
