Goodbye "Keyword Tool". Hello "Search-based Keyword Tool"

I remember the days I needed to rely on the so-called official AdWords keyword tool to help brain storm keyword ideas. I did not like it from day 1. The most important reason is the interface. You simply can’t believe that it’s so “primitive” — it’s like my HTML coursework when I studied multimedia design many years ago.

But the simplicity in interface design should not be a problem if it does not sacrifice functionality. I used to urge my clients and agency friends to try out the keyword tool, but most of them were not very impressed with it. After understanding with them, I found some of them did not realize they could enter an URL of their website to ask the tool to suggest keywords. Some did not see a link on the tool where they could choose country and language to narrow the keyword suggestions to suit their target users. Their “misunderstanding” or “lack of understanding” of the tool is because its interface is not very user friendly.

And finally this year, the long-awaited enhanced keyword tool arrived — Search-based Keyword Tool . To me, it’s an ultimate keyword tool that caters the 3 aspects that Google cares the most — user, advertiser and budget.

Similar to the old keyword tool, Search-based Keyword Tool lets you choose country and language to find keywords. But finally it’s now in a more prominent position so you won’t miss it. It’s also for existing advertisers to review the competition of the keywords in their campaigns and decide if they want to add more keywords. Well, campaign budget is always a concern for advertisers. The tool provides a “suggested bid” column to give you a sense about the CPC level of the suggested keywords.

So, maybe it’s time for us to move on to the new keyword tool and say goodbye to the old tool.