Google started rolling out their new Adwords Interface a few months ago. It is hard to tell whether I’ve started getting used to it or whether they have been slowly fixing all of the things that initially annoyed me.
My guess is that it is the latter and a testament to the benefit of a web app – lots of incremental upgrades. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Google can throw a couple hundred developers at the project.
So far, my favorite feature(s) in order:- Inline search query reports
- Segmenting keyword results by match type
- Inline content network placement reports
- One click editing*
- The ability to roll-up keywords across multiple campaigns*
*Note: one click editing and keyword rollups are available in the downloadable Adwords Editor, so those aren’t really new features but they are now available through the web based interface.
Back to search query reports, what are they and why is it good to have them “inline”? To answer that question we need a quick review of match type. When people search in Google they may enter the phrase “e-commerce pay per click management”. Google gathers organic results and then looks at all of the advertisers who have placed a bid for that term. Some PPC firms (like us) might have bid on “pay per click management” but not “e-commerce paid search management.” If we had used Google’s broad match feature – meaning that we give Google some latitude in showing our ad on related phrases – our ad would display and the user could click.
Search query reports and my second favorite feature “segmenting keyword results by match type” come in handle when you look back at the performance of “pay per click management.” Within the group of clicks I may have:
- 10 clicks for people who searched exactly on “pay per click management”
- 2 clicks for people that matched the phrase “pay per click management”
- 5 clicks for people that broad matched on “pay per click management”
The inline search query report allows me to look at the specific keywords that matched my keyword “pay per click management.” You can access the report by selecting the Keyword tab and then selecting See Search terms – see below. It allows me to quickly see that I’m getting “e-commerce paid search management.” I can then decide whether to include that keyword in my keyword list or exclude it.
The new approach saves a lot of time compared to the old approach where I was required to run a separate report, exporting it and then make decisions about keeping or removing keywords.
How are you liking the new Google Adwords interface? Any hidden features that are worth noting?