Whilst Google has come up with some brilliant innovations in Adwords over the past few years; it is far from flawless, and unashamedly there are still times where I want to scream at my computer.
Having read through a number of blogs, forums and discussions with other Adwords advertisers it is clear there are a few features that could streamline the way we work and improve the advertisers experience within Adwords.
So here is a short and by no means exhaustive list of innovations that I believe could improve Adwords:
Show us the Quality scores in the Display Network
We are all aware of the fact that Google outline the rough guide of how they calculate Quality Score for the search and display networks of our accounts. But why do they only display the QS for the Search Network?
Surely it would be beneficial to advertisers if they told us the QS for the display network so we can optimise and improve our campaigns especially as a lot of advertisers find the display network ineffective.
Compare date ranges.
Another major gripe I have is not being able to compare two date ranges of data easily in Adwords. We know this is easily achieved in Analytics so why not provide advertisers with the same functionality in Adwords?
When we review the campaign performance over time it makes sense that we can select our desired date ranges to compare. If I wanted to compare advert performance throughout the year I currently need to do so one time period at a time, this is a clunky and longwinded approach.
Make Search Query Reports and negative matching easier
We are provided with the ability to match type our negative keywords, yet when you review through the “See All Search Terms” report to determine any inappropriate matches for you keywords you are automatically provided with the Exact Match Type for the negative keyword.
More often than not though, you would rather target the broader match type for the term, as the likelihood of the term being searched for exactly are rather slim.
The sensible solution is to provide advertisers with the ability to select the match types without having to trawl through the list and amend all the exact matches by hand.
Better control over on the search partners.
Another oversight is the inability to change the bidding strategy on Google’s Search Partners, You have the option of opting in or out of the program but why should it stop there?
Where is the option to adjust your bidding to accommodate for lower-converting traffic? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to the advertiser to adjust their bids like they can anywhere else in the account?
Give us a proper keyword tool.
I know I am not alone is wishing that it just worked properly! Make search volumes reflect what we can truly expect. Make estimated CPC bids closer to real values, not just some obscure figure plucked out of the sky.
I know from my own experience that the only way to perform effective keyword research is to build campaigns, run them, test them and monitoring the search volumes and costs. But this makes it very difficult to provide clients/potential leads with realistic estimated search figures for new campaigns without building campaigns.
Incorporate Revenue figures in Adwords.
Now I know that revenue is available in Analytics, but why has it never been included in Adwords?
We can track conversions with ease but to find out our revenue figures we have to start playing around with Analytics, the most natural place for these figures should be within the Adwords interface where we can view the revenue and ROI in a single place.
I am sure that you all have different opinions of features you would like to see integrated, and by all means feel free to share them.
