New AdWords Experience Being Rolled Out

Google has been progressively rolling out a new “AdWords Experience” this year, with the promise that everyone will have access by the end of 2017.

Given we’ve been granted access, we’ve had a poke around to see what’s new. Fortunately it’s more than just some UX enhancements.

The new AdWords Experience comes with the tagline, “Meet the simpler, smarter AdWords.” And with it comes the promise of the following benefits:

• Create and improve campaigns based on your unique business goals.
• Save time and get more done with faster access to the features you use most.
• Gain actionable insights with new graphs and powerful reporting tools.
• Same AdWords performance you’re used to, so your campaigns continue to run the same way you’re already familiar with. And, you can always switch back to the previous AdWords experience if you get stuck.

Exclusive new interface features:

1. “Overview” page
   Aside from a revised summary view of campaigns, you’ll also get performance insights direct from Google ensuring you’re not missing any important trends.
2. Bid adjustments for calls
   Now there’s more control over bid adjustments for call extensions which given the mobile focus for many businesses, will help ensure less lost impression share.
3. Showcase Shopping ads
   Give customers a better insight into your brand by displaying a group of related products in the search results
4. Audience manager
   Targeting options for both the Google Display network and Remarketing lists for Search ads have been grouped together in the same place. This should help streamline the targeting process.
5. Promotion extensions
   Display promotions and special offers in your Search Network text ads to generate much higher engagement.

App developers will also now be able to import data from 3rd party app analytics programs to track conversions against their AdWords Campaigns.

Coming soon…

While there’s been some really impressive enhancements already introduced, Google still has plenty up its sleeve. The following items are due to be released soon…

• Ad extension creation, management, and reporting for price extensions; extension segments; and the automated extensions report
• Advanced editing, for example: automated rules and bulk uploads
• AdWords Labs
• Business data feeds
• Download functionality in some pages
• Custom columns
• Drafts and experiments
• Geographic reports
• Compatibility: full compatibility with right-to-left languages; Edge browser support
• The shopping subtype for video campaigns
• The Gmail ads subtype for Display Network campaigns
• Custom remarketing / affinities

There’s plenty of features currently and many more coming which should encourage AdWords advertising to make the shift to the new interface. If you’ve started using it, what are your initial thoughts?