Have you made the switch to the new AdWords UX/UI yet? If not, you may be missing out on some really cool and very helpful new tools that Google has rolled out this year. Our favorites are the types of features that allow us to further optimize our clients’ PPC campaigns, by giving us strategic insights that we couldn’t get in the old interface. One of the most helpful for us to date is the new Custom Columns feature, which allows us to apply Custom Columns at both the keyword and ad levels for reporting and data mining.

If you were a data junkie, constantly picking through stats in the old interface (like we totally were), you might have run into some frustration trying to pull certain keyword and ad reporting metrics out of AdWords to help drive your optimizations and strategy. Not only were they a bit buried to begin with, but when you would create your own unique formulas or calculations to inform your business, you could only do so at the campaign or adgroup levels.

Now, it truly is a pleasure to announce that Google has heard our cries (or at least mine) and provided us with the ability to create more granular-level Custom Columns with their rollout of the new AdWords UI. They’ve even made the process of creating them very intuitive and easy to implement within our accounts.

To start this process, go to the Keywords or Ads section in the new AdWords UI:

From there, navigate to the “Custom Columns” tab:

At this point, you’ll be taken to this view where you can easily name your new custom column and set up its formula using the straightforward instructions and metrics at your disposal.

Our favorite part of this, and the feature we use most is the ability to include conversion-centric metrics within the new Custom Columns. For example, this easy-to-use feature allows us to view costs-per and other rates much quicker, and without having to use a calculator or excel to do math and find the answers we’re looking for. After all, having quick access to the bottom line, actionable data is the name of the game; especially at the keyword and ad levels.

The following are a couple of more specific examples of how to use this new feature:

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Once you develop the Custom Columns most relevant for your business and your PPC account, you can then view them at a high-level (account or campaign-wide), or even apply them at the keyword and ad levels to see the results. In our examples, we are looking to understand how much it took for our unique assets to drive a form submission or how much return our unique assets were able to generate for a specific type of sale or transaction.

With this new feature, there is no longer a barrier to the data you need, and you can now be better informed on the performance of individual keywords and ads, so that you can continue to make quicker and smarter optimizations.

Not optimizing at the keyword and ad level yet? Contact us today to find out why you should be.