Google AdWords
As a long-term user of Google’s AdWords Editor, I have a strong (but treasured) love-hate relationship with the software.
I love it because it saves me time and makes my life easier. And I hate it because it’s quirky, ugly and feature-limited.
But as is often the case in a love-hate scenario, love wins. And I wouldn’t be without it. At least not at my own choosing.
However I’m starting to think that the life of AdWords Editor may soon be over.
It’s been more than five months since version 7.0 was released, and since then there hasn’t been a single update.
Version 6.5 was released in October 2008, and version 6 in June of the same year.
So we had a major release, four months later an update, two months later another major release, followed by 5+ months of silence.
I also get the feeling from Google’s Support that they handle a lot of AdWords Editor problems, but seem to have limited resources to deal with them. I myself have had some serious problems with Editor over the years, and Support were never once able to help me.
I’d also like to present my second piece of evidence: the new AdWords interface.
Buried in the midst of a small ocean of changes, we can also find the ability to copy keywords and ads into different ad groups, the ability to set up a new campaign based on existing settings and more. We can also see quite a lot of new information and settings, none of which are included in Editor.
The new interface, whether you love it or hate it, certainly looks new. AdWords Editor looks like a Windows 3.1 application.
From Google’s point of view, why should they continue to support and update a free piece of software? It isn’t going to convince people without an account to sign up, and ultimately, Google have us right where it hurts.
If they withdraw support for AdWords Editor, and announce that it will no longer work as of a certain date, what are we going to do? Close our accounts and defect to Yahoo?
I suspect that Google have decided when they’re going to kill AdWords Editor. I hope I’m wrong.
He may be a little odd, and he’s certainly ugly to look at, but he’s nice to have around.
Long live AdWords Editor.
I certainly agree with you. Adwords Editor is an unvaluable resource in managing big PPC campaings. I really hope your guesses are wrong…
I hope I’m wrong too. I would say it doesn’t happen often but…
It would be a very sad day if AdWords Editor was killed off and would make my life a lot more difficult. AE allows changes to be made so quickly and easily without having to wait for pages to load and it also gives the flexibilty of working even without an internet connection.
Surely there would be a huge outcry if the killed it off!
Gavin Turley
e-inbusiness.co.uk
I agree. It would indeed be a sad day.
And while there would be an outcry, would this make Google change their minds?
People may complain, but we’re still going to stick with the platform.
Honestly, AdWords Editor has kept me sane!
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to copy-paste Ad text from one campaign to another – there is always only the last one that’s avaliable.
And in Editor? Drag-and-drop! Brilliant!!
And before you tell me off for copying – I DO change stuff, I just want it “comparable”
Yes, it’s good for a lot of people’s sanity I think.
> And before you tell me off for copying – I DO change stuff, I just want it “comparable”
I know! I won’t tell you off today
Interesting post. I sincerely hope you are wrong – from what I’ve seen, the new interface doesn’t hold a candle to AW Editor in terms of making quick bulk changes and working offline. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve left Editor open all day and chipped away at sweeping account updates – something you can’t do in the UI b/c it will time out on you. I also use Editor when I’m away from a wifi connection – just make updates offline & upload them when I’m connected again. Editor has its faults but it is still one of a few tools that I use daily and can’t live without.
Count me in with those hoping it’s not cancelled. Just yesterday I spent 1/2 hour restructuring a new client’s poor campaign and creating new campaigns and ad groups. If I used the web interface, new or old, I would have been looking at hours of work.
And as mentioned above, the offline option is fantastic. I’ve used it many times on the train ride home.
They’ll have to pry AWE from my cold, dead hands.
I think Google is preparing new version of Editor for New Interface…that seems perfectly logical. Editor is too valuable for medium to advanced users, I don’t think G would go for retirement…
I would not yet start worrying.
I dont even think most novice bidders even use Adwords Editor. That does mean the user base may be small but they are the more advanced users and I think having them access to it probably makes them happier.
And if they were forced onto the web interface I think many would complain quite vocally. And would then use some other tool that does Yahoo and MSN. And then they would be more likely to move clients to them. Google having a good software tool that only works with them , encourages Ad Agencies to stay on Google.
And the new interface is slow and a bit buggy. I logged in the other day and as soon as I decided I needed to do a lot of work on a clients site I went into Adwords Editor.
I think the extra month or two is just from a large amount of the Google Adwords programming team working a significant web interface update on the online version. They couldn’t work on the downloadable version. And maybe they were doing support training on the new online version.
“That does mean the user base may be small but they are the more advanced users and I think having them access to it probably makes them happier.”
Why do you think that Google cares if these account managers are happy?
If that were the case they’d offer financial rewards for agencies. Oh wait a minute, they did that, and scrapped it.
“And if they were forced onto the web interface I think many would complain quite vocally.”
And Google are swayed when people complain vocally? Do you really think so?
“And would then use some other tool that does Yahoo and MSN. And then they would be more likely to move clients to them. ”
Have you worked with Yahoo and MSN? Even added together they don’t generate a fraction of the traffic of Google. As an agency, you’d be causing a lot of damage and lost revenues to your clients.
Google actually mentioned that their recent many-per-click conversion metric (previously ‘transactions’) would eventually also be incorporated in Editor: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2009/04/updates-to-adwords-conversion-metrics.html
So that’s a small indication that they won’t kill it off and are actually still working on it. I am guessing that the latest upgrade is a long time ago since the tool has been upgraded many times and works fine as it is. Their new online features will probably, to a certain extent, fine their way in the next upgrade and this takes time.
I personally love Google’s editor, don’t find it particularly quirky nor buggy (I use the Mac version)
Besides that, it is their cash cow. It is the only tool that allows you to upload hundreds or more keywords/ads at once, equaling hundreds of clicks and thus many $$$ for Google. From an advertiser perspective, apart from their search market share and quality score, it is the single most thing which distinguishes them from Yahoo and they know it. They only thing keeping me from having the same amount of kw’s on Yahoo as I have on Google is NOT that fact that Yahoo is smaller but the fact that without editor, it takes me 5 times more work to advertise on Yahoo for 5-10 times less clicks. So the editor, as much as it is indispensable for us advertisers, also is for Google. That’s why it’s “free” and Google will never charge for it, at least not accounts with a certain min. size.
Finally, everything Google does, little by little, is to make life easier for the advertiser. Think enhanced search queries and the display ad builder which keeps on getting better and is already fantastic. Google does that since productive advertisers are happy advertiser meaning more $$. Abolishing the editor would have the opposite effect and by far outweigh their recent online interface enhancements. Whatever the online improvements, they still require you to be online while the editor doesn’t. That’s exactly the reason why they won’t replace the editor’s core functionality.
Looks like it’s not dead yet. Version 7.5 has just been released:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2009/06/adwords-editor-751-for-windows-and-mac.html
Feel free to use the interface. I have have a better idea, use Yahoo’s or MSN’s version of… oh wait, nevermind. Ok, even better idea, use another free tool that allows you to make quick, large scale changes through the google API… oh, right, there isn’t one. Looks aren’t everything, it’s designed to be crisp and lightweight. Would you rather they apply the engineering resources to make it look pretty?
Thanks, Alwin, for sticking up for AE. The new version allows for csv uploads and multiple column sorting, which should make the product even faster and more flexible. Granted, this post came out before then, but seriously? Whining because they come out with updates only every couple of months? Next you’ll complain that they put out new versions too early without fully bug-checking.
There are some big changes coming in the next Adwords API, odds are that a new adwords editor version will come out after that and after feedback on new web interface flows in. I just want it to be faster/responsive, somewhere after 6.5 it became like molasses, “click-and-wait-for-screen-refesh-don’t-click-again-or-it-will-get-confused-and-take-longer” . It may be running into ui speed limitations of xulrunner.
I absolutely agree with Jesse. Yahoo/MSN…? Really???