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This July, Google AdWords (and other ad services Google owns) is changing its name. It will be Google Ads going forward. Here’s the rundown on what’s happening and why.
What’s Happening
The new AdWords/Google Ads UI was built from the ground up – and has been far from universally welcomed – and so the brand is launching at the same time as the new, formerly beta, UI takes over completely from the old experience.
In addition to the Google Ads rebrand Doubleclick and Google Analytics will simply be named “Google Marketing Platform,” within which will be a single, unified platform what was “Doubleclick for Publishers” and “Doubleclick Ad Exchange” now to be called “Google Ad Manager.” All of these new brands are cleverly structured so you MUST say “Google” when you refer to their products rather than some form of shorthand (e.g. “AdWords”).
Acquisitions
Google has taken some time to absorb their Doubleclick purchases both branding and technically, but they’ve also been heavily investing in Google Analytics and a new User Interface (UI) for AdWords. This is the culmination of all of this work.
Practical Changes
To be clear, this is far from a purely rebranding exercise and the new tools will be significantly different from, say, a year ago too. However, the biggest change – and the one that has led to miles of blog and community discussion threads – is the AdWords/Google Ads UI.
We won’t dwell on the intricacies of this but there is a growing belief that the dropping of “Words” from the name for the PPC platform suggests a continued and ongoing de-emphasis on keywords for advertiser control.
Areas to note beyond this are that there will be new campaign formats coming (seemingly aimed primarily at small advertisers) and in-market advertising is now available on search (again, giving you the option of stretching more away from search keywords and towards search audiences).
Conclusion
So, we’re looking at different brands, different UIs and we’re going to embrace a different way of managing PPC during 2018. Now, as much as any time in this industry, it will really pay to stay very attentive to all these changes over the next 6-12 months in order to keep ahead of the pack.