After allowing advertisers to prepare for the new interface for nearly a year, Google is now finally making all users upgrade to AdWords Next.
Here’s a quick guide to get you up to speed with the new interface, our favorite new features, and some pro tips from the experts.
A New Dashboard
First, let’s take a look at the major differences to design.
The look and feel are significantly different. Advertisers that spend a lot of time in the interface will need to adopt some new workflows.
-Caroline Rice, Retail Search Manager at CPC Strategy
1. The main navigation panel, formerly located across the top, is now located on the left side.
The navigation bar is now on the side rather than the top. It does take a bit of getting used to. All of your campaigns, metrics, and more are now located on the left.
-Chris Pezolli, Senior Retail Search Manager at CPC Strategy
2. Reports, dimensions (formerly predefined reports), and other features like shared library and keyword planner are located in the top right.
Navigating the AdWords Next Interface
For most of us, the biggest challenge comes with locating features new and old.
Thankfully, there are handy keyboard shortcuts and even a search tool that can be used to zip around the new dashboard.
Chris Pezolli says,
Pro-tip: There are shortcuts for everything that make navigation easier. I frequently use the G+C shortcut to bring myself back to the main campaign page.
Other favorite shortcuts:
-
G+A = go to ads tab
-
G+T = go to / search bar
In addition to using keyboard shortcuts, there’s also a handy search bar for finding everything you need.
Finding where everything is is the biggest pain point. Figuring out where everything lives, as many features have been rearranged. The search bar and keyboard shortcuts are your friend.
–LaBroi Walton, Senior Retail Search Manager at CPC Strategy
Notable Changes to Old Features
Google has also made changes to a few features. Thankfully, most of these changes are just rearrangements.
- Household income targeting has been moved to the demographics tab.
- “Bid-Only” has been renamed to Observation.
- “Dimensions” have been renamed to “predefined reports.”
Caroline Rice says,
You’ll need to recreate your column preferences and saved filters. There are some key elements that are different like dimensions changing to predefined reports and the display planner is no longer available.
Our Favorite New Features
AdWords Next brings a host of new features — all bringing new capabilities to advertisers.
Here are some of our favorites.
Audience Insights
Chris’ favorite new feature is Audience Insights — a powerful new tool that allows you to view demographic insights for each of your audiences.
You can use this to gather data on your website visitors, CRM lists, converters, etc.
Chris Pezolli says,
If you are wondering where to start with prospecting, you can start here to find what in-market audiences are likely to convert. You may even find an audience that performs well you didn’t know even know about.
Where? Tools > Shared library > Audience manager > Audience Insights (left panel)
Ad Variations
Caroline’s favorite new feature is Ad Variations, which enables you to test ad copy and landing page performance across an entire account or within specific campaigns before creating a new ad.
Caroline Rice says,
Start by selecting which campaigns you want to add your ad variation to. You can test within specific campaigns, your entire account or specify with filters like “final URL contains” or “headline 2 equals.”

- Find and replace (looks for specific text and replaces with something new)
- Update text (adds a new element)
- Swap headlines (flips H1 and H2)
In-market Audiences for Search Ads
Another feature we are excited to leverage for our retail clients is In-market Audiences for Search Ads.
Powered by Google’s machine learning, in-market audiences are users that have been determined to be in-market or researching a particular product.
It’s much more than just serving an ad to someone who is browsing the web like Display does. Essentially, In-Market Audiences for Search is adding an extra level of intent targeting, which should help improve conversion rates.
-Lewis Brannon, Senior Retail Search Manager at CPC Strategy
This capability is useful for prospecting and targeting high-intent shoppers to support your Search campaigns.
Where? Audiences > Observation > In-market Audiences
Search Term Data & Other Reports
Anything that saves valuable time for advertisers is going to be a favorite. Which is why our Search experts love the ability to view search term reports right from within AdWords.
The ability to see search term data at the product group level within the search tab is a big time saver. Previously you had to download data to excel to see this.
-Josh Brisco, Senior Manager Retail Search Operations at CPC Strategy
Where? All Campaigns > Keywords > Search Terms
Other notable new features:
- Custom intent audiences
- True-view for action video ads
- Responsive Search Ads
- Call bid adjustments
- Automated rules for audiences and demographics
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