AdWords has recently had a makeover, and with it comes some brilliant new tools and features designed to enhance reporting for all elements of your paid search account. From search to Shopping to Google display network – it’s got it covered.
The eagerly anticipated launch of the new AdWords experience has been somewhat anticlimactic and not the big reveal that we had all hoped for. Instead, it’s been gradually rolled out to advertisers over the past couple of months.
Despite the slow reveal, Google has confirmed that the AdWords experience is here to stay, and will be available for everyone to use by the end of the year.
If you’re not quite ready to make the transition and learn a brand new interface, do not fear, as you will still be able to continue to use the existing interface, for the time being, allowing you a small safety net, whilst you become more accustomed to the changes.
What are the benefits?
Although it can take some getting used to, there are some really handy new features which certainly make it worthwhile.
Below are some of the featured exclusives, as well as some of the latest upcoming tools which will be rolled out over the next few months.
Features already available to use:
Promotion extensions
Unless you have beta access in the old interface, the only way to access the new promotion extension will be via the new experience.
Promotion extensions allow you to showcase an offer as an extension to your text ads, linking directly to that offer. The tag icon in this extension helps it stand out on the page, much like the merchant promotion for shopping.
The new interface:
Call bid adjustments
You can now optimise call extensions through bid adjustments, allowing a little more control over whether you show these extensions more or less often in mobile search campaigns. This is likely to be one of the first bid adjustments for interactions that Google has previously referenced. These are included within the ‘advanced bid adjustment’ section in the new interface, at campaign level.
Audiences page
The new ‘audience’ interface offers a single place to manage all of your targeting and optimisation of your remarketing, and similar audience lists, giving the user a much quicker view on performance. With this, comes brand new terminology for targeting settings in ‘audience’; ‘target’ and ‘bid’ are now called ‘targeting’, and ‘bid only’ is newly termed ‘observations’.
Household income targeting
Household income reporting and targeting are now available for paid search campaigns via the ‘demographics targeting’ tab within the new interface. This has been hugely improved from the previous experience, which only allowed household income targets to be applied through locations.
With this, comes a new chart at the top of the page, making it quick and simple to see how your campaigns are performing by the household income segments. Not only this, but you can also set bid adjustments at ‘campaign’ or ‘ad group level’, further honing your targeting strategy.
The basics, improved in the new interface
Daypart reporting
There is now a new visualisation in three ways, which makes dayparting analysis a breeze.
Devices
This allows you to look at device splits with greater ease and visibility.
Ad scheduling
Now you have visualisations for both day and hour performance, but also based on the ad scheduling in place following this. Conversions are currently missing-in-action but are likely to emerge soon.
Features in the pipeline…
As to be expected, there are many new features on the way in line with a brand new interface, offering more ways to analyse performance beyond the humble keyword – see some of these new features below.
Landing page performance
This allows the user to gather insights on their landing page performance all in one place. This will be very similar to the ads and keywords pages, with the aim to assist in optimising landing pages for a better user experience for customers, improving performance of your ads, and especially on mobile devices.
Custom in-market audiences
In-market audiences, currently only available on the Display Network, are making their way to Search campaigns, and with this Google will also be launching custom in-market audiences. These audiences can be tailored based on the website, campaign performance and, most importantly, business goals. Not one to be missed in terms of targeting the right user.
Store sales measurement uploads
Retailers that capture loyalty program emails at the point of sale can import store transactions into AdWords directly or through a third party. Exact timing is still uncertain, but it will launch in the new user interface at some point this year.
The A word: Attribution
Google Attribution will be coming to the new AdWords, although the launch date is not yet confirmed. You will be able to move away from last click data, with this integration bringing together existing attribution platforms in AdWords, Google Analytics, and Doubleclick. This will result in a much smoother process, making achieving media spend efficiency through attribution much more straightforward.
With so many new features it’s clear that the new experience is here to stay and we’re keen to put it to the test and discover its full potential.
If you’re eager to find out more about the new AdWords experience and how it can enhance your reporting, get in touch!
