First Look At New Google Adwords Interface

Since its introduction at the end of 2000, Google Adwords quickly became one of the essential platforms for website owners to access key analytical tools and traffic /data reports.

Originally created for search advertising with added display capabilities for a number or formats, including “rich media, video and mobile” and choice of ad display locations, the actual interface has hardly changed since its original launch.

Many new users found the system overly-busy and confusing and it seemed to be obvious that a revamp was long overdue. So the announcement that a new display interface within AdWords was to be rolled out worldwide from the end of June 2102 should come as welcome news.

According to a Google statement, “The new Display Network Tab is an interface built from the ground up to run display campaigns, and will enable you to bid, target and optimise display campaigns all from a single place.”

Naturally enough, Google are calling the new look interface “ simple and beautiful” with its cleaner menus, analysis tools, and a new, brighter colour scheme and overall design picking out graphs in lighter greens and greys. 

Appropriate function…

Google claims the intention is to “focus the eyes on what is most important”. The approach appears to be on targeting the ‘appropriateness’ of each function rather going for a basic simplification of the interface.  Essentially, each user can alter the interface depending on the level of complexity and according to the purpose of each task.

Undoubtedly, a key change is the addition of “campaign types,” which enables users to customise the interface around the specific type of campaign they wish to create without any intrusive, non-essential options intended for use in other types of campaign strategies

It’s apparent that the immediate benefit to users is being able to quickly and easily find the information they seek via an improved system of intuitive navigation buttons and tabs.

For example, a search network campaign can make use of text ads to show on search results by selecting ‘Standard’. Choosing ‘All Features’ will include all features and options for the search network, while ‘Product Listing Ads’ will customise the use of this type of AdWords extension.

It may be too early to make final judgments on usability as some drawbacks are always likely to surface, but it does seem that Google have understood those critical areas which needed attention by increasing visibility to important data.