Adwords Keyword Planner Gets A New Update

Google seems to be rolling out an overhaul of AdWords Keyword Planner in the brand new AdWords interface.

The workflows in the new Keywords Planner are considerably more streamlined than the current/old version, and it makes use of Google’s Material Design, matching the new AdWords interface. The perfect sign of this new approach is immediately noticeable from the start screen. While the previous version had numerous options and links, the new start screen condenses things right down to just two options: “Find new keywords” and “Get metrics and forecasts for your keywords”.

Here are some of the changes that you will find in the new Keyword Planner.

Keyword ideas

The keyword ideas chart in the new Key Planner will allow you to see the total monthly search volumes just like the previous version. Also, it will show the mobile search volume on the main chart. In the old version, mobile search volume would have only been available from the search volume trends drop-down menu.

 

Nevertheless, the capability to see ad impression share side by side comparisons to competitor and market leader domains is not available from the search volume trends dropdown in the new Keyword Planner.

To filter out negatives or keywords already included in the account, users can click the filter icon below the chart.

There are basically two new metrics available for Keyword ideas. Users can now see Organic impression share and Organic average position for the keywords if a site ranks for them and enough data is available. To see this data, the AdWords and Search Console accounts need to be linked and users need to add the columns to the Keyword ideas report.

 

Forecasting

In the forecasts section of the tool, the old version requires users to set a bid to get forecasting, and users can adjust the slider in the chart to see how bid changes affect the other performance metrics, as shown below.

 

The new forecasts section immediately shows total estimated performance impact, including a max CPC, from the keywords. There is an option to play with bid settings by clicking the drop down on the plan estimates or by selecting the max. CPC field.

Rather than having to toggle between menu tabs to see device and location breakouts, a new plan overview includes cards for devices and locations. Users can adjust the metrics shown in those cards.

It’s not clear how widespread the roll out of the new Keyword Planer is at this point, so you may not see it in your accounts yet. We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update here if and when we get a response.

It will take a bit of getting used to, but overall these changes do seem to be an improvement on the old Keyword Planner, which had become cumbersome to navigate.