New to AdWords: Change and Percent of Change Comparison Metrics

New AdWords ‘Compare Dates’ Data Now Available in the UI

As I was perusing my accounts today, I happened to stumble upon a surprisingly useful feature that I had never noticed before.  I can’t say how long it’s been available but it’s there now and I think many people are going to find it quite useful.

As there is no current documentation available, I reached out to some of my friends and colleagues to find out more information.   This is currently a beta feature available on many accounts but no official information has been released yet.  I also heard that if this is not currently available in your accounts, it will be very soon.

How to Find Date Range Comparison Data

For some time now, we’ve had the ability to look at date range comparisons within the AdWords UI but only in graph form.

This is all changing now and here is how you can see this for yourself:

1. Log into your AdWords account and select a primary date range.  I selected ‘Last Month’ in the figure to the right.
2. Then, make sure to enable the ‘Compare Dates’ feature.
3. Choose the corresponding time period that you would like to compare.
4. Finally, don’t forget to click ‘GO’.

Once you’ve applied your date range and have enabled the compare dates feature, you can then browse to any campaign or ad group level reporting in your AdWords interface.  What you are looking for are plus signs at the top of your data columns.

If you find these plus signs (+), simply click on them to unveil the new date comparison data columns.  What you should find should look something like this:

As account managers, we’re constantly reviewing, analyzing and comparing data across various date ranges.  Whether you look at data from week to week, month to month or year to year, the addition of date range comparison data in the AdWords UI is going to make this a much easier process to execute.

One final note I’d like to add, you should probably avoid using this functionality when reviewing current time frames or when looking at data from yesterday and today.  The nature of delayed reporting may give the wrong impression as not all information has been properly collected and compiled.

Let us know what you think about this new feature and how you plan to use it in the comments below.  As always, our Pay-Per-Click team is here to answer any questions you may have.