When I saw that Google had announced a new look for AdWords, my heart skipped a beat as I envisioned a sexy new interface that would put Yahoo’s recently launched Panama to shame. Alas, if it weren’t for the announcement, you get when logging in to AdWords, you may not have even noticed a change.
And, before I list out the changes, it doesn’t exactly look good for Google to announce an upgrade and then also announce 4 HOURS of system maintenance for April 14th. Luckily, I’m not an active AdWords advertiser, were that not the case, I’d be somewhat pissed that I couldn’t touch my campaign for 4 hours!
On April 14, 2007, AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time due to system maintenance. Please note that your campaigns will continue to run normally during this short downtime. We apologize for any inconvenience.
And here are the changes to the AdWords interface…
Grouping by Media Type. AdWords is starting to add many new types of advertising, from text and image ads to video and beyond. This new design groups various campaign types together, so that you can see how all campaigns of a given media type are doing.
Most users will see only one grouping so far: Online Campaigns. This includes text, image, video, and mobile ads. As other types of campaigns are introduced in the future, you’ll see additional groupings added to your Campaign Summary page. This should give you a clearer view of your account, and of your performance in each kind of ad medium.
Show All Campaigns. This feature has been simplified. Pick your date range, then click the appropriate link to make your choice: Show all campaigns, all campaigns except those that have since been deleted, or only those campaigns that remain active.
Create New Campaigns. The links used to create new campaigns have moved. Formerly they all were found at the top of the Campaign Summary page. Now each link can be found in the title bar of the campaign groups. For instance, to create a new online campaign, go to the Online Campaigns group and click the link reading Create new online campaign.
No More Click-to-Call Tab. If you’ve been testing click-to-call ad campaigns, you’re used to seeing the information about those campaigns on a separate tab on the Campaign Summary page. Your data on those campaigns is now in one of the new media groups. You’ll find it just below the Online Campaigns grouping.
New Date Picker. The date filter has moved to an easy-to-find spot underneath the Campaign Summary page title. The pulldown menu can still be used to choose preset time frames like last seven days. Or, use manual entry to select any dates you like. The manual entry includes a new calendar feature to make finding dates even easier
