We are seeing Google AdWords since the past 15 years when search advertising had just begun. And now after 15 years, AdWords is looking to old school and outdated. To make it easier to navigate and use, Google announced the start of a major redesigning process to rejuvenate the AdWords interface in March this year. The last time the search engine smartened up AdWords was in 2008; and now it thinks it’s high time to refresh the interface. The new design aims at addressing a number of issues and demands raised by advertisers.
Paul Feng, AdWords product management director, confirmed, “The reason we’re rebuilding AdWords is because the world has changed so much in the past two years. AdWords is now over 15 years old and launched when Google was just figuring out what search advertising was. We rebuilt it several years ago for a desktop world — smartphones were only [a] year old. Now we are in probably the biggest shift since AdWords was introduced with mobile. And there is now increased demand on marketers and on AdWords as a platform — advertisers are running ads in search, display, shopping, mobile, video. Ultimately, that’s why we’re re-imagining AdWords.”
The old interface of AdWords had lots of options, but looked just like the advanced version of a spreadsheet. The menus at the top and on the left side made navigation to key elements difficult. But, with the new version, you can see a more modern design with high-level visuals for performance of key metrics like heatmaps and bubble charts. With the older version not being as user-friendly, the new design is sure to take the platform way ahead in terms of interface and functionality. However, to inform you, some of the functionality of the old interface is not yet available in the new preview. In fact, when you are asked if you want to apply the new look and feel of AdWords, Google also states, “The new experience is still in development, so some features are only available in the previous AdWords experience for now.” But, if you still want to try out the new but are not sure if you will be satisfied, the search engine also gives you an option of switching back to the old interface if you can’t accomplish a certain task in the new one.
Let us now take a look at the new elements that Google AdWords has brought with itself this time.
Navigation
The left hand navigation of Google AdWords cleans up the work space tremendously. It also reveals a more familiar menu set with a new look when expanded. Moreover, you can quickly switch between the overviews of ad groups and campaigns, and change the settings as required. So, you can choose between existing and paused campaigns to make changes and see the results. With the information shown of whichever campaign you select on the left, you can also select for the information to change to show keywords and ads directly, without lots of clicks.
Menu
There is a three-dot menu on the upper right that can help you do many things like viewing billing and account settings, setting up conversion tracking, and accessing your Google Analytics account. You can also see that the majority of items available are centered around important things like Planning, Measurement, Setup, Bulk Actions, and Shared Library, when you expand the menu. The menu bar also provides contextual help through the question mark icon, and alerts through the notification bell icon.
Overview
The “Overview” section is one of the greatest improvements in the new AdWords interface, with some good insights custom curated and bubbled to the surface in visually engaging ways. The Overview shows insights generates by Google about your account, campaigns, and ad groups. Based on what you select from the navigation menu, different insights will appear.
If you are still not sure whether you are supposed to stick to the old interface or try out the new one, you can get in touch with a digital marketing company in Bangalore who will not only help you make an informed decision, but will also take up appropriate actions to carry out all your campaigns and marketing tasks in the most effective manner.
