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We are now fully in the midst of the 2018 world cup. It is now approaching the end of the group stages and England actually look like they’ve got a fighting chance of holding on, we may even be in it for the win! (I know I know). Well the sun is shining, I am in a joyful mood after Englands 6-1 win so it is not hard for you to imagine the drop from elation I experienced when I received the email from our partners at Google stating the original Adwords interface would be no longer. From July 10th 2018 we will be fully emerged (or shoved against our own will) into the world of Adwords Beta.

Maybe I am being slightly over dramatic, our team has been working with the new system for quite a while now, as we knew this day would finally arrive. Sometimes, the habit to switch back to the original interface is too hard to resist, to get tasks done more time efficiently. There are doubts amongst my team, as to why this change is taking place? The skeptical ones amongst us have even stated Google has lost its edge. Does the new interface actually improve user experience or is it just to subsidize the lack of progression by making it appear ‘different’.

If you could humor me as I digress to my football analogy. Let’s take a moment to talk about VAR. For the non-fans amongst us, this is ‘video assistant referee’, a computerized referee system. Some see the benefits, others – well not so much. Similar is true for the new Adwords interface.

If we compare two world cup games – The England vs Panama match alongside Portugal vs Iran Match. During this first match, the referee used the VAR system only for certain key moments, keeping the game flowing smoothly. The latter referee relied much more heavily on the system and therefore the game seemed to become stagnant. Now clearly this came down to the person using the VAR system. In terms of the new Adwords interface, I believe this will be a similar situation. As long as you know, or have the time to familiarise yourself with the new system it could become a very useful tool. Fumbling around the new interface clueless, this could be at the detriment of marketing progression. Small mistakes could result in money wasted (like VAR and time) and the question is how much money could this cost your business while you get to grips with it?

Now let’s move on and take a look at how the new interface could benefit you…

– The Look – The difference that hits you first is simply the look of the new adwords interface – there’s a modern, techy edge to it for sure.

– Keyword Planning – Google’s recommendations for keywords are now more visible on the main page, which could be useful whilst scanning through the data on the account.

– Shortcuts – There are more keyboard shortcuts. This will create a more streamlined experience if you familiarize yourself with them.

– Advanced reporting – This feature will enable in-depth analysis and insight into how the campaigns are performing.

– Dashboard reporting – you can set up a brief overview report, including the data you like to monitor the most. Helping you to monitor the basics of an account more quickly.

– Showcase shopping – a new type of campaign. Without going into much detail, this is an essentially an all-encompassing, expanded shopping advert format that will appear for more general product searches eg ‘swimwear’. Therefore, it is only really applicable to high volume worth products not the niche markets amongst us.

– Search Promotion extensions – in my opinion, one of the most useful functions to come out of this update. This allows the user to expand their adverts without consuming expanded advert text characters. It also enables you to set promo codes, countdown features plus more.

– Notes – set yourself little reminders, what changes you’ve made, campaigns to monitor, anything you see fit really!

– Responsive Search Adverts – The first major change to adverts since 2016. This is not applicable to all accounts, our agency is privileged to be trialling them for Google. For more information about this please see our other article google-update-makes-headlines

Although I do have my reservations, you can see from the above points that there are some features, as incremental as they are that may improve the overall advertiser’s experience. Hopefully, just like VAR (video assistant referee), it will become a standard feature in our lives that we don’t blink twice at, “what did the original adwords interface even look like?”

Remember, if you need a hand to hold through this transition Click Convert are always here to help you achieve your advertising goals. We are just one free consultation away!

 

John Langley

John Langley

Author

I am the founder of Click Convert, an Award Winning agency, here to deliver great marketing for Small and Medium Businesses. We’ve created over $1.1 billion in sales for clients. We’re one of the top digital marketing companies in America and the UK for small and medium businesses digital marketing. We’re a Google Premier Partner, a Google Top 50 agency and our work was recommended by Google’s CEO in 2020. Outside of family and Click Convert, Cars, Adventure and Pizza are my passion. Our vision is to Inform, Empower and Deliver to help both clients and readers.

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