Love it or hate it, the new AdWords (oops, I mean Google Ads) UI is here to stay. PPC marketers are still scrambling to learn all the quirks of the new interface while keeping up with necessary campaign management tasks. As changes have affected many of the most basic of tasks, we’d like to share some tips we’ve learned along the way.

In this article, we’ll cover working with filters in the new UI. If you’ve worked in PPC for a reasonable amount of time, you’re likely familiar with the many benefits of using filters.

Creating a Filter

Note that you can use filters in most sections of Google Ads, to help analyze anything from campaigns to keywords to audiences. To begin creating a filter, select the “Filter” button from directly below the graph. You can also click within the bar right above the data table (in this case, next to where the “Campaign status: All enabled” text appears).

Now, you’ll see a box appear where you can choose the options for your filter. 

As a positive update in the new UI, you can now use a built-in search bar to find whatever metric you’re looking to filter by as opposed to weeding through the dropdown menus to find it.

Once you’ve selected a metric, define your criteria for the filter. To add additional criteria, click the “Filter” button again, or click next to the existing criteria. In this example, we’ve created a filter for all keywords with at least one conversion and a CPA under $100.

Note that (at the time of writing this article), there is no “equals” option when creating numerical filters, just “greater than” or “lesser than.” Therefore, if you need to create a filter for 0, you’ll need to define it as < 1.

Saving Your Filter

To save a filter, click the “Save” icon to the right in the bar where your filter options appear, enter a name, and save it. Note that if you click out of that bar, the “Save” icon disappears; this tripped me up when figuring out how to save a filter. Simply click back in the bar for the icon to re-appear.

Accessing Saved Filters

To access a saved filter, click “Filter” and look for “Saved filters” in the box that appears. You can then select it and adjust criteria as needed. To delete a saved filter, click the “trash can” icon next to it.

Saved filters have been another tipping point for many users of the new UI, as they find themselves constantly having to recreate filters. Note that filters only save within the section of Google Ads where they were created. For instance, since we saved our filter while viewing the Keywords section, we’d have to recreate it to use in Campaigns or Ad Groups.

Improvements We’d Like to See

While filters are easy to set up, and the search function greatly improves finding metrics, we’d still like to see Google continue improving filter capabilities. We’d appreciate an option to be able to quickly copy filters between various sections of the interface where the available metrics are compatible. In addition, a good small fix would be a more obvious “save” icon that doesn’t disappear when you click away from the filter.

How are you using filters in the new UI? What do you like about the current setup for filters, and what improvements would you like to see?