See ya, AdWords. Hello Google Ads

Google has made the executive decision to consolidate its overwhelming abundance of ad products under three brand new umbrellas: Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, and Google Ads Manager. Check out the logos below!

In this article, we are going to focus on Google Ads. Google Ads “represents the full range of advertising capabilities [Google] offers today… to help marketers connect with the billions of people finding answers on Search, watching videos on YouTube, exploring new places on Google Maps, discovering apps on Google Play, browsing content across the web, and more.”

AdWords is very suggestive with search. Having additional channels folded into the same interface has been confusing people for years now. It’s Google’s hope that this rebrand will help to understand and leave the door open to expand advertising options without confusion in the future.

It seems Google wants to transition away from keywords in favor of audience-centric targeting, similar to what you might find in paid social channels like Facebook and LinkedIn.

By stripping “words” from the name of its ever-evolving ad platform, Google has begun the process of shifting advertisers away from keyword intent and to a world where our focus shifts towards audiences.

So what exactly is changing?

Are you looking at crazy campaign overhauls? Probably not.

Any paid and organic initiatives that previously hinged on the keyword “AdWords” or relative keywords related to it will need to be tweaked. Otherwise, it should be business as usual for the most part.

Many people are reluctant to change. Change is a good thing. Deep breaths and embrace.