The Pull Agency
Pokémon Go is Dead...Long Live Augmented Reality!
Fake News - The Role of Brands
The New AdWords Interface... Why Change Is Not Always Better
Blog / Campaigning

The New AdWords Interface... Why Change Is Not Always Better

Google are slowly rolling out their new AdWords interface as a way to improve campaigns, save time and gain actionable insights, but our Digital Marketing team here at Pull aren't so sold on the change.

So you’ve heard the saying, “the grass is always greener” or “change is good”. Well in this case, change is bad, and the grass is dead.

Before I began to write this scathing review of the new AdWords interface, I did some reading on how others felt about the new GUI, fully expecting there to be plenty of opinions out there for me to read. Sadly, there weren’t. Only a “lucky” few have had a chance to play around with the new interface as the rollout is still happening slowly across all accounts. From what I’ve been reading, the accounts that use lots of the features within AdWords have been selected first.

So why don’t I like it? Well *cracks fingers* let me explain…

1)    Stop showing me ended campaigns

Now, a lot of what I’m about to say could be user error and I’m just not being patient enough to find what I’m looking for. But this is exactly my point. I’m busy optimising lots of campaigns and lots of accounts on a daily basis, being slowed down to now try and figure out where Google have hidden where to only show enabled campaigns is not a fun game. As soon as I load up my account, I’m displayed with all the campaigns that are enabled AND ended. Previously, AdWords would just show me all enabled campaigns, and I had the option for it to show me paused as well. Now, Google doesn’t differentiate between enabled and ended:

I get showing me ended campaigns that have recently ended, that could be quite useful. But showing me campaigns that ended over a year ago in my list of all other enabled campaigns, no. I don’t want to see them. And for the life of me, I cannot find anywhere to get rid of these ended campaigns from my list. I can only hide “paused” campaigns. This annoying new feature also applies to AdGroups and keywords. This is Strike 1.

2)    Give me back my columns

As someone who is hyper organised to the point of OCD, I had my columns displayed in a way where I could get a great view of the landscape instantly. With the new view, it hasn’t been clever enough to leave my column organisation alone. Now, when I want to see my conversions and other data, I have to recreate it all and save it. This isn’t the end of the world as all I have to do is remember what I had before and save this new set as whatever I want, but what I liked about the older AdWords version, was when I selected what columns I wanted, it remembered that next time I logged in – even without saving them! Strike 2 Google.

3)    Where are all my keyword category suggestions?

Now this was a feature I really, REALLY liked in the older AdWords. When I was a little stuck for additional keywords to add to my existing ad group, I could just hit “add more keywords” and Google would be smart enough to provide be a whole reel of keywords that were relevant for me to choose from - and nicely categorised:

Now when I do this, this is what I’m provided with:

Where are my categories? Where are the quick easy, relevant suggestions that don’t involve me scrolling and scrolling to find what I need? Are you telling me I now have to leave this page and go to the keyword planner to do research, and then come back to implement? Uncool Google. However, I will admit that I do like that they show me volume of search next to each keyword. But with one hand they giveth and the other they taketh away. Just combine the two!! The whole point of this new interface was to provide efficiency – I don’t feel that’s what I’m getting. That’s strike 3 Google. You’re out.

I could go on and on about what else I hate; the unclear menu icons dropped everywhere containing half of what should be there, the “more” button which has just one item in it, the automated rules feature which has disappeared from existence, the double side nav, the clunky design…. Etc. But I won’t. I would however love to hear what other AdWords users think of this new GUI, as I feel I’m the only one out here that hates it!

Maybe it’s me. Maybe I just need to give it a little more time, and a little more love. But I am pretty upset that that the AdWords interface that I knew I loved for over 7 years has changed so dramatically. This must be how the Kardashians felt when Bruce changed to Caitlyn.

Posted 3 August 2017 by Virginia Girtz

 

Console