A couple weeks ago we had a post about reporting metrics in the new AdWords UI. This post explained the metrics that wouldn’t be migrated as well as how you can create custom columns in the new interface.

This post is going to look at additional features/functionality that won’t be migrated, some renaming that has occurred, and what still hasn’t made it into the new UI. While no official announcement has been made by Google, the current rumor in the industry is that the old UI will be retired sometime in Q3 this year (nearly 2 1/2 years since the new UI was announced, which is an eternity for a company with Google’s resources).

Retired Features/Functionality

The big one here is the retirement of Display Planner as a standalone tool. While it wasn’t the best tool in the world, it was a quick way to get some ideas for display campaign targeting. Some of that functionality will be retained in the display campaign creation flow, but it won’t be as useful.

Almost equal in scope is the change to conversion tracking. The new AdWords UI will use a global tag with page specific tags for events. This is great if you’re a Javascript buff and/or really good at Google Tag Manager. No word on how long they’ll support legacy conversion tracking, but my advice is to figure out the new way sooner rather than later.

Moved And/Or Renamed

The “Opportunities” tab has now been renamed to be “Recommendations”. I’ve written in the past about the increasing intelligence behind these as well as the dangers associated with blindly implementing them. But if you go looking for them now, you’ll find them named “Recommendations” in the left navigation, just below “Overview”

The “Dimensions” tab is no more, but you can still find the reports. Just click the reporting icon in the upper right corner and select “Predefined reports”. All your favorites are still in there, but you’ve just got to know where to look.

What Still Isn’t There Yet

Fortunately, this list continues to get shorter, but there are still some things missing from the new UI at the time of publishing:

• Historical Quality Score – I was excited when they added this to the old UI. It’s very helpful if you’re not automatically downloading and archiving your QS already. But if you want it you’ll need to “Return to previous AdWords”.
• Google Analytics columns – Again, a really helpful metric to have right next to your click data, but it’s still not included.
• Image ads for Search campaigns with Display expansion
• App re-engagement
• Download functionality for placements and placement exclusions – Again, not a huge issue, but annoying if that’s what you’re going for. Use Editor or the old interface to handle this stuff because usually, it’s a bulk thing.

To keep up to speed on Google’s progress, here is a link to the support page on their progress. For newer advertisers who’ve never used the old interface this will seem silly, but for long-time advertisers who are comfortable in the old interface, I hope this helps you get oriented so that you’re prepared for the big switch.

What do you like or dislike about the new AdWords UI? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!