The Search & Social Blog From Amplify Interactive

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Google Adwords released a few new features this week that got me pretty excited. I can already see multiple ways these new features can be used. If you’re not excited enough already let me show you why you should be. I’m most excited about the addition of labels to add another layer of organization to campaigns. Here are three new features released this week starting with my favorite, labels:

*All of the sub headings are links to the blog posts on the Adwords blog

Slice and dice your data using AdWords labels

I’ve been using label type hacks for years. I will append information to campaign names to help me quickly identify different campaign parameters or settings. Labels are an easier and cleaner way to sort and filter campaigns. Here’s a screen shot of labels in action:

Here’s a few applications of labels:

• Sales cycle – You can label campaigns, ad groups, or keywords based on what part of the sales cycle this group falls into. This is useful to personalize ad copy and landing pages based on what stage of the cycle you estimate the user is at. I’ve seen sales cycles/funnels with anywhere between 3-7 different stages. Here’s an example of one:

• Geo targets – Label cloned campaigns that are geo targeted differently.
• Divisions – Label campaigns to group campaigns based on different budgets or key performance indicators.
• Networks – Label campaigns with either “Search” or “Display”. I like cloning campaigns from Search and then modifying for the Display network.

Making campaign planning and build-out faster and more accurate

Google Adwords made some changes to both the Keyword Tool and the Traffic Estimator. Here’s a couple features that will start saving me time right away:

• Seamless Traffic Estimator integration – I’ve always wondered why these tools are separate. Historically I’ve created an Excel spreadsheet with a VLOOKUP that would combine data from these tools for campaign forecasts. Combining the data in these tools means one less tab and one less VLOOKUP in Excel for me.
• See keyword ideas grouped by themes – I like to use the Keyword Grouper tool in Adwords Editor to help me identify patterns in keywords and organize campaigns and ad groups. I’m excited to see similar functionality in the Adwords online interface.

Increasing transparency in Quality Score

This one isn’t as exciting to me but it’s a step in the right direction. On my Adwords wish list is historical quality score. To track historical quality score we take a snap shot of quality score with this spreadsheet from Wordstream each month. We then compare and measure how quality score is changing each month to guide optimization efforts.

Releasing new features like these are one of many reasons Adwords is miles ahead of Adcenter. How do you plan to use the new Adwords labels? Or some of these other new features?