If you haven’t made the jump to the new AdWords interface yet (guilty as charged) you may have noticed an unexpected update in the old interface when you go to change keyword-level bids. I was really surprised so I thought I’d show you what I’m seeing.

New Keyword Bidding Interface

While you used to just see the original bid and have an “Apply” button next to it, all in-line, this pops a much larger box. The first “flavor” I spotted was this one:

This allows AdWords to show the suggested first page bid ($22.90 in this case, which is far below our current bid) along with the box to change the bid. It also explains how leaving the box blank will apply the ad group default bid and tells you what that bid will be. A nice improvement in my opinion, but if it seems like there is a lot of dead space you’re right.

have also seen other “flavors” too. Here’s another one:

This seems to be a more informed box because AdWords can see my bid has already exceeded the first page bid. Therefore, they give me the estimated bid to ensure my ad shows “Above all organic search results”. Just Google being friendly and helping me bid even more 😉

Shout out to Twitter user @Pulse2304 who shared a screenshot of an even more filled out box:

New kw level bidding feature in adwords Old UI .#ppcchat #Adwords #GoogleAdWords #semrushchat #PPC pic.twitter.com/lObsjhEc78

— Palani (@Pulse2304) November 1, 2017

Here, they’re willing to offer an even further bid that will get you above all the organic search results and above competitors too. Basically just a top of page suggestion, but you start to get the feel that AdWords is trying really, really hard to get you to bid higher.

What Does This Mean?

Probably the biggest thing is that it shows that AdWords is still changing the legacy interface while pushing toward its sunset early in 2018. It almost begs the question of whether the legacy interface is being used as a sandbox to test things now, INSTEAD of the new interface. Keep in mind that this is the current “New” interface look/feel:

So maybe this will make it into the new interface or maybe it won’t. But it shows that Google is always experimenting and every detail can be optimized.

Have you tried this new feature? What do you think of it? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!