New Interface Thursday: Bye bye beta

When we started building the new AdWords interface we asked ourselves two questions. First, how can we help you get your work done faster? Second, how can we help you find the right tools at the right time to drive the best possible performance for your AdWords campaigns? We believe we've made great progress towards these goals, and today, the new interface is coming out of beta.

We've heard from many of you that the new interface has made a material difference for your business. Advertisers have saved time with quicker editing, reporting, and account navigation, and they've improved campaign performance by using better integrated tools to refine their targeting.

For example, search marketing agency ROI Revolution has used the new interface to reduce the average time they spend optimizing a given campaign for the Google Content Network from a few hours to just 20 minutes. Team lead Justin D'Angelo explains: “We’ve spotted things that used to take much longer, require running reports and require much more data analysis. With the new interface, we can spot it in a second and cut costs for our clients."

B2B software company ClickTime has also seen measurable business impact from using the new interface. They've used the search terms report to increase their CTR by 31% while reducing cost per lead and improving overall lead quality. On the whole, they estimate their AdWords productivity has increased by 100% with the new interface. You can read more about these success stories on our case studies page.

Let's look at the continuous improvements we've made and new features we've rolled out to the new AdWords interface in response to advertiser feedback. In the past month alone we've released spreadsheet editing to support bulk changes to keyword lists, and location extensions to simplify the local advertising process, among other additions. And we're not done yet -- the new AdWords interface is built on an infrastructure that lets us develop features more quickly than in the past, so you'll continue to see new features released regularly in the coming months.

Now that the new interface is out of beta, we're upgrading a larger number of advertiser accounts to the new interface exclusively. If you have questions about the interface, please consult the new interface microsite or attend an upcoming free webinar.

Finally, we'd like to say thank you to all of you who helped us test the new AdWords interface over the past nine months. Your feedback has been invaluable in making AdWords what it is today. And as always, if you have any comments or requests, please let us know.

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Inside AdWords crew

Location extensions, a new way to run local ads

Today, we'd like to tell you about a new way to run your local ads – location extensions. Location extensions allow you to "extend" your AdWords campaigns by dynamically attaching your business address to your ads. This new feature will be fully available in the coming weeks, with some advertisers having access to the feature starting today.

If you're a business owner, you can set up extensions by linking an AdWords campaign to your Local Business Center (LBC) account. If you're not the primary business owner of the locations you're advertising, you can manually enter addresses directly into AdWords. For example, a clothing brand that distributes to a number of different stores might want to associate their ads with various store locations through extensions, even though their official business address doesn't correspond to those addresses.

Once extensions are set up, we'll dynamically match your business locations to a user's location or search terms and show the address with your text ads. If we're unable to determine a user's location or if there are no relevant addresses to show, we'll simply show your ad without an address. If you prefer not to dynamically match addresses to your ads and would rather show a specific address in one particular ad, you can do so by setting up specific location extensions for individual ads. Your ads can show with their relevant extensions on Google and Google Maps and as regular text ads without the extensions on partner sites in the Search and Content Networks.

With the introduction of location extensions, local business ads will no longer be a separate ad format. Instead, you can simply create new local ads with extensions from scratch or add extensions to your existing text ads. For those of you who have existing local business ads, your ads will continue running as long as you don't edit them. If you edit a local business ad, it will be converted to a text ad with the ad's address attached as a location extension. The new converted ad will look identical to the local business ad and will appear in the same places as your local business ads. AdWords Editor will continue to support the creation and management of local business ads, and we plan to launch Editor support for location extensions in a future release. For full details about editing local business ads in the new interface, please visit this Help Center entry.

To learn more about location extensions, please see the location extensions overview section of the Help Center.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

New Interface Thursday: Beta Test the Opportunities Tab

How do I get better results from my campaigns? It's a simple question that can often be surprisingly difficult to answer. Where should I focus my efforts? On ad text? Budget? Keywords or bids? Which campaign has the greatest potential for improvement? And what are the expected results?

Today we're introducing the Opportunities tab, a beta feature in the new AdWords interface built to help you answer these questions. The Opportunities tab is a central hub you can use to browse and apply customized optimization ideas to your account. We're designing the new tab both to save you time when optimizing your campaigns and to give you more insight into ways you can capture additional cost-effective traffic.

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Initially, the Opportunities tab will focus on budget and keyword ideas for your campaigns and ad groups, but in the coming months we'll be expanding the set of available features. If you've used our Campaign Optimizer tool, you're already familiar with some of the types of customized ideas that will be listed on the new tab. But unlike Campaign Optimizer, the Opportunities tab lets you browse ideas across campaigns and ad groups, helping you find potential areas of improvement and easily prioritize the changes you make to your account.

The Opportunities tab will replace the Tools tab in the new AdWords interface. However, all existing AdWords tools will still be available, and you can find the current Tools page within the new tab.

Today we're releasing the Opportunities tab to a small number of U.S. English advertisers, and we look forward to expanding the feature to additional countries and languages in the coming weeks. If you're a U.S. English advertiser and would like to be considered for the beta, please submit your account information on our beta sign-up page.

Interested in learning more about other features in the new AdWords interface? Attend one of our upcoming free webinars for an in-depth walkthrough. We just added two new dates: July 29th and August 5th. You can sign up at the new interface webinars page.

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Inside AdWords crew

New Interface Thursday: Introducing spreadsheet editing

Many advertisers use spreadsheets when managing their AdWords campaigns to streamline tasks such as changing bids, creating keyword lists, and adjusting destination URLs. As a result, we decided to work on a way for you to use spreadsheets directly in your account, and today this feature is available in the new AdWords interface.

You can access spreadsheet edit mode from the Keywords tab in any ad group. You'll find it under the More actions menu.

In the past, you might have used power posting to enter your keywords with bids and destination URLs. Now, with spreadsheet editing, you can accomplish the same tasks from a spreadsheet view. Even if you use another spreadsheet application, it's very easy to transfer your work into AdWords - simply copy and paste directly from your spreadsheet into your account.

Like in a spreadsheet, you can use formulas to edit your keywords and bids. For example, if you want your ad to show on the first page, but your bid is lower than the first page bid, you can set up a formula to address this.

Here, I've set my Max CPC to be 120% of the first page bid (Cell G2). To apply this to all of my keywords, I can just copy and paste. Keep in mind that only the values are saved back into AdWords, not the formulas.

Questions? Attend a new interface webinar tomorrow

We'll be holding another free webinar about the new AdWords interface tomorrow, July 10th at 11a.m. PDT. If you're looking to get up to speed quickly, it's a great way to spend an hour on Friday. If you can't make it tomorrow, we have one on Thursday, July 16th at 10a.m. PDT as well. You can register for either webinar on the New Interface Webinars site.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

New Interface Thursday: You said it, we're fixing it!

We released the new AdWords interface early to get your feedback on it as soon as possible. And you haven't disappointed us! We receive thousands of comments every month covering likes, dislikes, and ideas for ways to further improve the AdWords interface. We read your comments carefully to prioritize the areas to work on next.

And we've made a lot of progress on the top issues our advertisers reported, so today we wanted to share these improvements with you.

Less horizontal scrolling

When working with certain browsers and monitor resolutions (especially 1024x768), you told us you needed to scroll back and forth in order view data tables and controls. We've now condensed the layout of AdWords pages and width of columns in order to eliminate the need to scroll horizontally. If you're still encountering this issue, please let us know.

If you'd like to further condense the view of your account, remember that you can customize your columns. Try hiding columns that aren't important to you and move other columns around to quickly compare important metrics side-by-side.

Support for Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5

Those of you working with the newest versions of Safari and Firefox will be happy to know that the new AdWords interface now works with these browsers. We'll continue to work to support the latest versions all major browsers in the future.

Faster load times

One of our most important goals with the new interface was to improve the efficiency of day-to-day campaign management tasks. We've heard from some advertisers that while integrated reports and roll-up tabs help them quickly access and act on important data, the data didn't always load as quickly as they'd hoped.

We've worked to improve the speed of the interface with the latest releases, and hope you can now see a noticeable improvement. However, our work isn't done, and we'll continue to focus on shortening load times with upcoming launches. For the fastest experience, we recommend using the following browsers: Chrome, Firefox 3+, Safari 4, or Internet Explorer 8.

Searching for keywords

We heard many of you are looking for quick ways to search for keywords, ad text, or campaign names within your account. In previous posts, we talked about how you can use filtering to focus on the data that matters to you.

While text filters allow you to search and act directly on the data you see, they also take a few clicks to set up for the first time. To help you work more quickly, we've added a new shortcut that lets you quickly search by text under the 'Filter and views' menu on any tab.

Try it on your Keywords tab to quickly find all keywords containing a specific term.

Educational materials

You told us you'd like more help with transitioning to the new interface. In addition to New Interface Thursdays and our new interface website, we recently started a series of free educational webinars, featuring the product team. Sign up now for the next webinar on July 10.

If you haven't been using the new AdWords interface to manage your campaigns due to a specific annoyance, now's a great time to to log in and see how the interface has improved. And please, keep your feedback coming. Just click on the Send Feedback link at the top right corner of your account to share your thoughts.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

New Interface Thursdays: Finding features from the previous interface

The basics of AdWords, such as bids, budgets, and Quality Score, haven't changed with the new interface. Still, every once in a while, you might find yourself asking, "Where did that go?" Here's a set of pointers to help you pick up where you left off in the previous AdWords interface.

Search my campaigns

In the previous interface, you could search your campaigns using a search box in the top corner of your account. In the new interface, we've replaced this functionality with text filters. You can now search for ads or keywords across your account by setting up a text filter. For searches you run often, you can save the filter to quickly access it at any time. Filters allow for more than just searching though, and you can read our earlier post to learn more about how filters can help you zero in on the data you care about most.

Keyword destination URLs

If you'd like to edit the destination URLs for individual keywords, you can do so by clicking the checkbox next to the keywords you'd like to edit, and then clicking on the "Edit" button at the top of the table. This will open up all keyword fields for editing, including the destination URL. If you'd like to see your destination URLs in your Keywords tab all the time, you can do so by customizing columns. By customizing columns, you can also find additional metrics like Quality Score that you might want to view and add them to the table.

Negative keywords

In the previous interface, you created negative keywords by adding a - sign to them. For example, you would add -free if you didn't want your ads to appear for searches containing the term free. Negative keywords were also mixed in with your regular keywords in your overall keyword list. With the new interface, negative keywords now have a home of their own. You'll find a section for negative keywords under your regular keywords in the Keywords tab. You can also view your campaign and ad group level negative keywords side by side.

Google Analytics and Website Optimizer

Where did the Analytics tab go? If you're looking for Google Analytics or Website Optimizer, you'll now find them under the Reporting tab at the top of your account.

Other questions?

If you'd like a side-by-side comparison of how to complete common tasks in new interface, we have a What's Changed page on the New Interface website.

Finally, we're providing webinars as another resource to help orient yourself in the new interface. The first webinar is tomorrow, June 19th at 11 AM PDT, and there's still time to register. We've scheduled the second webinar for June 26th also at 11 AM PDT.

Register for the June 19th webinar

Register for the June 26th webinar

We hope to see you at a webinar, and please continue to send us feedback on the new interface.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

Free Webinars for the New AdWords Interface

Last week we shared tips on how you can get ready for the new AdWords interface. We now have another resource to help you prepare for the change. Starting this week, we're holding weekly webinars about the new interface.

The first webinar is this Friday, June 19th at 11 AM PDT. The free 1-hour webinar will be led by Ariel Bardin, Product Management Director for the new AdWords interface. Ariel will walk you through the new interface, show you how to use the new features, and answer your questions.

You can register for the webinar here: New Interface Webinar Registration. Also, we have set up a Google Moderator page where you can send us your questions and vote for the questions you want answered. You can visit this page to submit your questions.

And, remember you can always visit the new interface microsite for additional help. We hope to see you on Friday.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

How to Get Ready for the New Interface

By now you probably know that we've been working on a new interface for AdWords to help you save time managing your account and get even better results from your campaigns.

We've built a number of new features that make managing your campaigns faster and easier: more graphs to track your performance over time, integrated reports that provide ready access to detailed search and content network data, and faster editing to help you make changes quickly.

You've probably received an email from us letting you know that your account will be converted to the new interface in the coming weeks. Today we have two release updates to share with you: we've recently made the new interface available to everyone who uses AdWords Standard Edition, and we've begun the migration process with a small number of accounts.

In our email, we stated that you would have at least 30 days before we update your account. This 30 day period is a minimum; in fact, most advertisers will have more than 30 days before their accounts are upgraded. We're taking a gradual and deliberate approach to ensure a smooth transition, and we won't upgrade your account until we're confident that the new interface meets your advertising needs.

So, how should you prepare for the transition to the new interface? First, the single most important resource to help you get up to speed is the new interface microsite. Here you can find short videos explaining the benefits of the new interface, a before and after guide, and even a short quiz you can take to make sure you're ready for the changes.

Next, if you haven't explored the new interface yet, now is a good time; try it by signing in to your AdWords account. If you notice any issues that make it difficult to manage your campaigns in the new interface, please let us know right away by submitting feedback.

If you've already sent us feedback on the new interface, thank you! We're listening closely to your comments and are working to fix the problems you've reported. Examples of top issues we're working on are wide pages that require too much scrolling, and slow load times for some types of browsers and Internet connections.

We've already made a number of changes in response to your feedback, and this week we've released updates to the new interface that address many of the top issues we've heard. And we're not done yet; we'll continue to make ongoing improvements to the new interface over time.

For those of you who joined the beta test early, we hope you like how the new AdWords interface has improved. And for those of you just getting started, we hope you're already noticing a few of the ways the new interface can help you get more out of your AdWords campaigns.

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Inside AdWords crew

Seminars for Success updated for the new interface

Starting today, all AdWords Seminars for Success will be taught using the new AdWords interface. So, if you've been wanting some in-person instruction on how to best use the new AdWords interface or how to generally grow your campaigns, check out the seminars we're hosting in the next couple months:

AdWords 101: Beginner and AdWords 201: Intermediate

• June 15-16: San Diego, CA

AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization

• June 24-25: Boston, MA
• July 16-17: Minneapolis, MN
• August 4-5: Denver, CO
  

Analytics: Introduction and Analytics: Advanced

• June 17-18: Dallas, TX
• June 25-26: Washington D.C.
  
• July 7-8: Edmonton, Canada
• July 7-8: Sao Paulo, Brazil

Website Optimizer

• June 19: Dallas, TX
• February 11: San Jose, CA
• July 9: Sao Paulo, Brazil
  

If you sign up for seminars at least seven days in advance, you'll receive a $50 AdWords credit (view the terms and conditions).

For more information about Seminars for Success, including registration details, course outlines, and past attendees' comments, please visit http://www.google.com/awseminars.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

New Interface Thursdays: Exploring the Ads tab

Today on New Interface Thursdays, we'll take a quick look at the Ads tab in AdWords. The Ads tab lets you view and edit all of your ads, as well as check their status and performance. In the new AdWords interface, you have access to the Ads tab within individual ad groups, whole campaigns, or for your entire account.

Like in the other tables in the new interface, you can make edits right in the table, customize columns, and filter your ads within the Ads tab. One feature we've added to the new interface is the ability to see which ads are pending approval. While in the previous interface you could only see when ads had been disapproved, the new interface allows you to see if they're pending review or have been approved. This will take the guesswork out of determining when your ad is eligible to start running on the Google Network.

You can use filtering to quickly identify all ads that are pending review. Click on Filter and views and select Filter Ads. From the drop-down, select Approval Status, and then check the box for Pending. Click Apply and the table will only show ads that are pending approval.

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You can do the same with disapproved ads. If you have a disapproved ad, you can click the bubble icon in the Status column to learn why it was disapproved

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We've also recently added the Display Ad Builder to the new interface. You can get to the tool by clicking New ad and then selecting Display ad builder. If you've wanted to expand your campaigns beyond text ads but haven't had the time to create a display ad from scratch, the Display Ad Builder is a great tool to try.

We hope you find the Ads tab helpful in managing your AdWords campaigns.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew