As a follow up to my last post about the (not that) New Google Adwords Tool, I thought I’d report on the latest change made by the Google Adwords Team : adding a new button that offers you Google’s estimate of search traffic for your campaign. I will also give you my initial impressions on how this may benefit or affect the way you manage your Adwords campaigns.
The aptly titled “Estimate Search Traffic” button is available after you have signed in to your Adwords account. It is grayed out until you have select a keyword (or keywords). Selection, as usual, is done by clicking on the radio button next to the keyword.
Click on the “Estimate Search Traffic”:
- A pop-up window appears showing you your campaigns.
- Select your Ad Groups and then Google runs off and comes back with estimates of your Average Estimated CPC, Estimated Clicks and Estimated Cost.
Look Ma, Less Columns…
The other side (downside) of this feature is that you will lose the ability to add the following columns to your keyword tool report:
- Estimated Impressions
- Estimated Ad Position
- Estimated CTR
- Estimated Clicks
- Estimated Cost
- Estimated Avg. CPC
These are still available using the separate Google Traffic Estimator Tool. Some of you may feel a wave of nostalgia at this point, as for many of us this was one of the first tools we used with our PPC campaigns. You will have to cut and paste your keywords into this tool – but hopefully you already have good habits and have your keywords on a spreadsheet anyway.
Some people may bemoan the fact that you need a separate tool (and need to cut and paste) but on the plus side it means that you can ensure you only get data for the keywords you are interested in, rather than experience the tsunami of numbers that you can get using the old/current Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
Those with a persistent, masochistic bent of a numeric persuasion who want to get it all in one place, can still get their ‘rush’ by downloading the Keyword reports. (Masochists of other tastes please apply elsewhere – this is not that kind of blog).
So what’s in it for me? It’s Easier to Play Around with Keywords
The main benefit I can see from this change is that it will be easier to see the effectiveness of keywords for specific adgroups, as now you can do it directly from your keyword search results rather than having to add the keywords to your ad group.
This makes it simpler to play around with keyword choices.
You only see a summary, nothing at the keyword level – you either have to use the Google Traffic Estimator tool or go into your actual campaigns – so it really doesn’t assist with micro-management.
It would be great if Google gave you this option so you could see the results at a keyword level in the pop up window. However, given the tendency of some PPC’er to test keywords with the same delicacy as a carpet bombing B-52 you can imagine the resultant window as something that would dwarf a panel from Versailles.
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Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!