Why is the Google Adwords UI so difficult to use?

I agree with . Google has made the interface as simple as possible considering how complicated and intricate the product is. You wouldn't want it any simpler because that would necessitate stripping product features. As an example, just AdWords against BingAds. Both products in spirit was the same, though BingAds' UI is TERRIBLE. Awful. Horrendous. It pains me (literally pains me) to work in. Granted, it has gotten a lot better over the past year, it is still terrible. FOR EXAMPLE: Pull a search query report in AdWords. EASY. Do it in BingAds? Build negative keyword lists within each UI. Check historical performances at different time windows. Check publisher performance of your content campaigns. Do you even know where to find that in BingAds? Filter several campaigns' keyword lists at once. In one page. Try it. I could go on all day but I have to go back to drudging through more BingAds campaigns. FML. EDIT: Worst of all, and somewhat unrelated, BingAds reports numbers with a 3 hour delay. THREE HOURS. When you're spending nearly a thousand dollars an hour (sometimes more) this is extremely frustrating.

I have to admit, this is the first time I've heard anyone refer to that interface as confusing. AdWords is a complex system, the UI presents that system in a simple way. Some find the Editor easier to use, give that a shot.

I'm not sure why so many people think the adwords UX is simple and well designed. Perhaps if you use it all the time you'll figure out all the quirks, but that doesn't mean that the interface is well designed. People will eventually figure out any kind of crappy interface giving enough time. For example: how do you change a campaign date? Every single time I want to do this, it confuses the hell out of me (and my job is building products). You go to campaigns, there is no setting to change the date. Up at the top it says "one of your campaigns is ending" so you click on that, but it just brings you to the campaign list (with nowhere to change that setting). Eventually you figure out you have to click on the Settings tab. Why does there need to be a settings and campaigns tab? They both display different settings of the campaign. This is just one example of how adwords has a really poorly designed UX.

I admit, when it comes to AdWords there there is a lot to chew on and you can get lost down the rabbit hole; here are the things that I personally focus on: PERFORMANCE As far as the performance of my ad-groups and campaigns go this is what I look at initially: CPC: How much I'm paying per click; this is really one of the first things that I'm constantly looking at and basing my campaigns on. Impressions: For a lot of campaigns that are in the early stages its good to see how much visibility each individual keyword (or ad on display advertising) is getting. Cost-Per-Conversion(1-per-click): This is the grand-daddy of them all and on some campaigns I'll refresh every 30 minutes to see where I'm at and whether my landing page is converting at an acceptable rate. ADS So you are either going to be running a display or search campaign within an ad-group, you can drill down and break down each ad-group to be either a desktop or mobile campaign (go even deeper and advertise just on WAP devices) but what I do as far as the ads are concerned are: Display Ads: Either I'm writing/building my own ad or I'm using their "ad-builder", my experience is that as far as performance is concerned you're going to get more bang for your buck (generally speaking based on my experience across a several different industries) running text ads on Google's content network and drilling down specific "placements"(websites) and "keywords"(keywords on those websites) are where the high intent, converting customers are. Search Ads: By far the most economical and effective(more so if you are in a geographically specific, service industry) search campaign is running mobile, search ads with a clickable phone #. Like I mentioned earlier the rabbit hole goes deep when it comes to the AdWords, but depth is good as far as PPC/CPM ad networks go. If you have ever played around with some of the 2nd tier ad networks or something like Pulse360 or even AOL you can see that simplicity can actually be more frustrating because you will not be able to decipher why your ads aren't performing with only a limited dashboard and data to work with. If you need any help hit me up on skype: angle45media

Are you serious? Please try to name one platform that has better UI than Adwords. I found it so simple that I felt like I have taken it for granted. Every time I have to use any other platform, always missed Adwords badly :(