What’s New in AdWords Editor 12?

At the back end of June, AdWords finally rolled out their new AdWords Editor, their free downloadable application where you can rapidly edit campaigns, without having to go into the AdWords platform itself.

We’ve always been big fans of AdWords Editor, especially when it comes to rolling out bulky changes to accounts, which, without Editor, days or even weeks of time would be lost.

So, what have we spotted so far on the latest edition, AdWords Editor 12?

A Much Improved Interface

AdWords needed to improve what was starting to look like a pretty dated interface from the previous version of Editor. Since the AdWords platform and Analytics are also getting shiny new aesthetics, it comes as no surprise that Editor got the same treatment.

It’s now much more in-line with the rest of the collection of Google products. It’s easier to navigate which is a real bonus, but more importantly, what’s ‘under the hood’?

Faster Account Downloading

First things first, importing account data has seen a huge boost in speed. Gone are the days of grabbing a quick cuppa whilst Editor imports multiple campaigns – they’re now there in a flash. We’ve since learnt that this happens because more data from previous versions is transferred over, giving us a real speed boost for future downloads – handy!

Custom Rules Introduced

AdWords Editor 12 has come packed with a whole host of custom rules to ensure following Google’s best practice is a doddle. Before uploading any changes, these rules will alert you if your campaigns are lagging behind Google’s high standards. It’s actually a really great way of making sure your changes are what Google want to see or not – a very welcome addition.

‘Maximize Conversions’ Added

In late May Google introduced us to their ‘Maximize Conversions’ feature in campaign settings. If you haven’t had chance to try it out yet, it’s well worth a go. It uses Google’s ridiculously intelligent machine learning, taking into account remarketing lists, time of day, browser and operating system.

This Smart Bidding to automatically set the correct bid for each auction, to gain the maximum amount of conversions, in line with your daily budget. This can be found at campaign level within the Editor, under the Bid Strategy dropdown.

Note: This can only be turned on if you’re using Manual CPC, Budget Optimiser or Maximise Clicks bid strategies.

Universal App Campaigns Taken to The Next Level

Google’s machine learning comes into play again here. Using advertiser’s creative, Google will generate the most relevant image or video to promote the advertiser’s app across its search, display network and YouTube. Editor 12 now lets you upload up to 20 pieces of media (e.g. images or videos) to these campaigns, allowing advertisers to really push their app campaigns further than before.

All in all these changes are really great and help to us as advertisers make the most of our times spent on AdWords accounts. If we can reduce data input (when it’s safe to do en masse), more time can be put towards in-depth campaign optimisation. This means happy advertisers, and happy clients!

Are you looking for a new PPC agency to take your campaigns to the next level? Get in touch today to see what we can do for you.