PPCChat | Living In The New Google Ads UI | 28 Aug, 2018

This week’s PPCChat session, hosted by Julie F Bacchini, discussed about the new Google Ads UI, what PPCers like or dislike about it, coolest feature introduced there, how they are dealing with roadblocks, suggestions they would like to give Google Ads team  and more.

Here is the screencap of the discussion that took place.

Q1: How are you feeling about the new UI now that it is the only option (for at least some things and for many accounts who can’t access the old one)?

It takes way more clicking to do anything. It’s the opposite of faster. Also hate how campaigns/ad groups are hidden in sidebar that I must click every time to change. Important features are missing and will probably never be reintroduced. –  @keithaldrich

Things that took 2 clicks now take 6 clicks. Animations make it slower. And it shows half the data on the screen. That’s my feeling – @gilgildner

The new UI very frustrating at times as things are buried and they’ve totally renamed things and naturally Google doesn’t tell you anything about the changes. Example: for display targeting they’ve done away with the “target & bid” setup which now has a new name. –  @jdb426

I’ve been using the new UI 90% of the time, only switching back to do some optimizations. I’m comfortable with the new UI, but I feel like I’m losing a good friend. – @mikecrimmins

I swore off the old UI and it’s caused some headaches. But I needed to figure it out and sooner is preferable to later. The columns are my biggest beef, especially when going into an account for the first time. – @robert_brady

I am finding my way with the new UI. Still things that I really don’t like, but am getting more efficient in it, so that’s something…– @NeptuneMoon

honestly – it is a love/hate. I won’t lie there are somethings i love – i am getting used to the sleeknees of the views, the changing width of columns – but also not liking some key features still not being available & my column selection not saving.  – @mindswanppc

I’m like 99% in the new UI when working online. For bulk edits or builds, I prefer the Editor anyhow so that hasn’t changed much. There are a few settings it takes me some time to find in the new UI but I don’t think twice about it anymore, just go searching. – @akaEmmaLouise

We’ve started to grow accustomed to the new UI. Seems to load a little quicker here and there, but the additional clicks to open individual accounts in new tabs is a bit of a hindrance. – @marccxmedia

learning it better but feels clustered and unnecessary still – @JonKagan

Q2: Let’s do the positives first – what is something that you really like about the new UI?

I really like, like, genuinely like, the date range where I can just pick how many days I look back instead of fiddling with the calendar forever – @amaliaefowler

It looks more modern! – @gilgildner

am starting to like the look of it – i do love the colour blue. 🙂 also as @amaliaefowler said, the date range. I really started playing around with that today – @mindswanppc

Lots! The Overview tab with ability to track hourly stats is phenom for seeing changes and comparisons. Filtering for bid adjustments is quick/easy. The Reports are awesome. I also like updates for certain things not in the Old UI. For instance Click Share in Google Shopping Ads. I’ve gotten used to the easy Channel segmentation on left side. Quick click to all Shopping/Search/etc. – @PPCKirk

I like the ability to keep notes. The label process is better. – @mikecrimmins

Customizable column sizes, campaign creation wizard (for display and YT specifically–don’t use it for search), find and replace for bulk edits, recommendations (I don’t usually apply them, but it’s nice as a safeguard for some things). – @akaEmmaLouise

Notes are a nice addition – it can be hard to keep track well of things that were changed and when/why. – @NeptuneMoon

I like the Overview tab. It’s a useful glance at what’s happening in your account. –  @Mel66

The recommendations continue to improve. They’re putting some good thought into them. And the overview tab has some great stuff too if you look. – @robert_brady

I like the keyword clouds in the Overview section where negatives stand out and are pretty easy to add – @dotcentrex

I like the search bar that goes directly to things I need when I can’t find them and auto-fills before I finish writing. Half because I can’t find things easily yet but also it’s slick. – @timmhalloran

The account overview pages provide a better snapshot of recent account activity (search terms, keyword/campaign performance, etc.). – @marccxmedia

Q3: What is something that you really do not like about the new UI?

First, I genuinely have grown to like the New UI. I’m getting used to it. That being said, it is sooooooo…. slow….. all the time. Every click. Mind-numbingly slow. Love for speed to be improved – @PPCKirk

I wish I could fit more data on my screen. The old UI showed a lot more at once: rows, columns, etc. This is the biggest productivity problem in my opinion…I scroll a whole lot now. Also, stability is improving, but it’s still buggy. I have to reload the page pretty regularly…whether on Chrome, Firefox, or Safari, it’s always locking up. – @gilgildner

There should be a separate section for all the campaign experiments. It appears with the normal campaigns – @kaushikppc

Yes – the speed is an issue for me. I also don’t like that they have made it harder to manage labels – i.e. to see how many campaigns/ad grps/ads are under a label and to be able to easily delete them. – @mindswanppc

How slow it is. How the columns change if I change ad groups, etc. How many clicks everything takes. It’s pretty obvious the people designed the new UI, never used it. – @mikecrimmins

Columns. They’re a train wreck. Like a nuclear waste train hitting a garbage truck. Wastes so much of my time. Ad extensions is another messy area. Association vs. extension view makes it confusing. – @robert_brady

I find it difficult to fit everything I want to see on one screen – especially for taking a look at an entire account from the top level. – @amaliaefowler

It’s slow. Columns are not sticky. Can’t see all the data in one screen/horiz scroll. No dimensions tab. Horrible navigation as you go from campaigns to ad groups to ads to keywords. Audiences for remarketing are not where you expect them to be. –  @Mel66

Aesthetic things – the color scheme still feels oppressive to me and the default width makes it feel like horizontal scrolling is needed. Functionally, I feel like things are more clicks away. No way to edit/manage labels, can’t set rule email, columns. Also, when you create a new campaign (and pause it during build) you have to change settings at every level to “ALL” in order to see ads, not just at Ad level. Also some reports don’t let you remove inactive campaigns, or at least I couldn’t find where to. – @NeptuneMoon

It’s just slow at times. I don’t like how to hard to get back to levels like a campaign, ad group, and keywords. – @elevatedmrktng

My biggest concerns have all been addressed in the past month or so. Lingering annoyance is that columns don’t “stick” when you switch between different campaigns/ad groups, and saved columns only apply to the view where you saved them. Also, the Landing Pages tab is of no use to me because it’s still like examining 1000s of ads. Wish there was a pivot table view where you see overall performance of each landing page, regardless of the campaign/AG it’s in.  – @akaEmmaLouise

I still haven’t figured out how to edit an existing location extension. Thankfully that one still has the old UI – @JasonStinnett

Initially, the 3-keyword limit in the Keyword Planner was a hindrance. Now that it’s back up to 10 keywords, it makes researching much easier … but there’s no 700-keyword idea list cap, so trimming lists is more of a slog. – @marccxmedia

Q4: Are there things that you have not been able to do or find in the new UI? Or anything weird you’ve encountered? If so, what?

No way to go sequentially through campaigns, ad groups, etc. with a Prev/Next function. Come on man. Icons that I can’t remember what they do I do not like having to create a report to get Dimensions data. What a waste of time compared to preset reports I could just go look at. –  @Mel66

To my knowledge still no Label management in New UI. – @PPCKirk

Settings cascade weirdly, like the “All” view, as I mentioned earlier re: ads in a brand new, paused campaign. I have found some variances between what is available in a single account vs. an MCC. For instance, you can’t load settings from existing campaign in MCC, but can in single account. – @NeptuneMoon

Not necessarily the new UI but the newly automated conversions are just killing my data analysis at the high level – @elevatedmrktng

My biggest weirdness is sometimes I have to refresh to see the keywords in an ad group. Several times I’ve gotten a message saying I have no keywords. – @JasonStinnett

Took me forever to find the Search Console data (paid & organic report). Also not a fan of the way shared negative kw lists exist in the new UI. Or shared things in general TBH (is this going back to A3?). – @akaEmmaLouise

label management! The one thing that made me switch back to the old ui. I was doing soo well as well. – @mindswanppc

A few things with filtering accounts/campaigns have seemed a little off, but that could just be on our end. – @marccxmedia

honestly, no – @JonKagan

Q5: Have you found anything cool that you can do in the new UI that wasn’t in the old one? If so, what?

The new UI has made automated strategies front and foremost, which I think is indicative of where Google Ads is heading in general. Not necessarily a good thing however. – @gilgildner

Search impression share and Absolute top IS are now available at Item id level in reports tab for shopping campaigns in new UI – @Pulse2304

The date range tool, still my favourite thing, and the only way my one junior convinced me to try the new UI – @amaliaefowler

Expanded Shopping Ads stuff. Like Click Share column & GMC Diagnostics directly within the UI. – @PPCKirk

Find and replace/ad variations make it much easier to bulk update ads quickly (i.e. new landing page, change in price, etc). Also the date ranges with x days to today or x days to yesterday.  – @akaEmmaLouise

Well, 3 headlines and 90 character descriptions, for oneo –  @Mel66

I like the keyboard shortcuts. The ability to step back and forth in date ranges – something Kenshoo had forever that was always sorely missed in AdWords  – @JasonStinnett

Being able to use a search bar when finding filter metrics/columns/etc. is super handy – @timothyjjensen

really – only the “being able to expand or shrink columns”. There is nothing much else i like BETTER than in the old UI. I’m just NOT hating the new UI as much anymore. – @mindswanppc

It’s not necessarily new or cool, but the improved graph/chart functionality looks better – and not to mention easier and additional filter/segmenting capabilities. – @marccxmedia

Not earth shattering but I really do like the visualization better in the new interface. It’s much cleaner and nicer to use IMO – @markpgus

I like the “Overview” tab. Its provides some decent visualizations. (The heat map for hours/days, the word-cloudish SQR block, some decent device breakdowns. – @PPCJedi

Search impression share and Absolute top IS are now available at Item id level in reports tab for shopping campaigns in new UI. – @Pulse2304

Q6: Have you developed any workarounds for roadblocks you encountered in the new UI? If so, what did you do?

In some accounts we can go back to the old UI to do something, but I don’t think that’s a good idea since the new UI is the future. So I usually just refresh until the new UI works – @gilgildner

Generally turning to AdWords Editor is my “workaround” – @timothyjjensen

my workarounds are @acquisio and Adwords Editor. Thank god for those two tools. –  @Mel66

now that I’ve made peace with change, it’s taking the mindset of “OK someone thought this was cool and would make my life easy, let’s read the help doc and see if I can figure out where they’re coming from..– @JasonStinnett

I am not wild about being pushed to choose an objective, which will automatically decide things for the campaign, so I have been opting to do campaigns without objectives to avoid finding something I don’t want as I’m going along with setup. – @NeptuneMoon

I feel like there isn’t anything crazy. I don’t enjoy how much they walk me through creating a campaign and actually confuses me. I just publish something with no refinements, pause it and then create everything once I’m out of the guided walkthrough. – @markpgus

Q7: If you could make a request of the @GoogleAds product development team, what would it be?

Please make it more stable @GoogleAds! I have to refresh the page so many times because of interface freezes! – @gilgildner

Get thorough feedback from your core user base, and actually listen to it, before implementing changes  – @timothyjjensen

Please solicit feedback from users who are in the platform daily. Watch how they use it. Don’t force your weird dev stuff on us. –  @Mel66

Generally having an “advanced setup” option where I can skip the “wizards” would be lovely. Also, STOP making setting up a campaign, ad group and ad required to open an account. Let contact and billing info be entered only.  – @NeptuneMoon

With the Ads roll-out and the #GoogleMarketingLive event last month, Google really needs to listen to the regular users.Not the only one to chime in that Google really needs to listen to regular users and make platform changes/adjustments from that feedback.   – @marccxmedia

switch us back to the old UI…?? Kidding! 🙂 Fix label management. Improve loadinfg time when we switch view so we can work faster, and listen to all the complaints and take actions.  – @mindswanppc

First, make it easier to go from ad groups back to campaign level, without having to go to “all campaigns” or choose my campaign from the left sidebar again. Second, save columns by level (e.g. saved campaign/ad group/ad columns no matter which campaign/AG I’m in) – @akaEmmaLouise

admit you didn’t take into account proper feedback up front, scrap it, try again, just call this a loss (like enchanced campaigns) – @JonKagan

PPCChat Participants:

• Julie F Bacchini – @NeptuneMoon
• Amalia – @amaliaefowler
• Robert Brady – @robert_brady
• Melissa Mackey – @Mel66
• Mark Gustafson –  @markpgus
• Tim Halloran – @timmhalloran
• Emma Franks – @akaEmmaLouise
• Elevated Marketing – @elevatedmrktng
• Kirk Williams – @PPCKirk
• Gil Gildner – @gilgildner
• Marccx Media – @marccxmedia
• Mike Freedman – @dotcentrex
• Marccx Media – @marccxmedia
• Mike Freedman – @dotcentrex
• Timothy Jensen – @timothyjjensen
• Mike Crimmins – @mikecrimmins
• MindSwan – @mindswanppc
• Jason Stinnett – @JasonStinnett
• Palani – @Pulse2304
• Jon Kagan – @JonKagan

Related Links:

• Using Ad Schedule Bid Adjustment in AdWords New UI
• Changes To Ads Experiments in New AdWords UI
• How to Assign Negative Keyword List to a Single Campaign in New AdWords UI?