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If you’re not already using Google AdWords Editor to manage your AdWords campaigns, you should check it out.

AdWords Editor is a free, downloadable application for managing your AdWords Campaigns. A few things I like about it are:

• You can download and manage your campaigns offline
• It’s easier and more powerful than the online interface
• It offers new tools for grouping keywords and removing duplicates
• You can export campaigns into a variety of formats
• You can circulate proposed changes and get feedback

Grouping Keywords and Removing Duplicates
To get the best performance out of Google AdWords, you should create tightly knit Ad Groups with keywords, ad text and destination click-thru pages all based on a common theme. This makes your ads and click-thru pages most relevant to the visitor.

To help you with this, the Keyword Grouper takes your existing list of keywords and intelligently divides them into smaller Ad Groups based on common themes. You can then add or remove words from the list of common terms or organize your keywords around other themes. Next you can create related ad text for the new Ad Groups or just use existing ad text from within your account.

The Find Duplicate Keywords tool locates keywords that are repeated across your account, specific campaigns or ad groups.
When I used this tool I had several keywords unintentionally appearing in two ad groups – so I removed the keywords from my ad groups that were not quite as relevant as the primary ad group.

Unnecessary duplicate keywords can complicate your account management, skew performance statistics and drive visitors to less relevant ads and click-thru pages.

Exporting and Sharing Ads
AdWords Editor allows you to export your entire Account, a single Campaign or a single Ad Group into a number of formats:

• CSV – Share a spreadsheet containing your account information with someone who doesn’t use the AdWords Editor.
• HTML – Ideal for viewing your text ads and keywords together, along with campaign and ad group settings.
• Export for Archiving – gives you the future option of restoring your account to its present state.
• Export for Sharing – Allows you to send your changes to other AdWords Editor users for review. They’ll be able to see your changes, accept or reject them, and add comments.

Don’t Forget to Synchronize
Since AdWords Editor works offline, you’ll need to Post Changes when you’re ready to upload and activate your updates in Google.

Also if you’re not the only one making changes to your Google AdWords Campaigns and Ad Groups, when you launch the editor you’ll want to click on Get Recent Changes in the toolbar. This will download any changes that occurred in your AdWords account since the last time you downloaded it to AdWords Editor. When you download the updates, what you’ll notice is:

• Downloaded changes are green.
• Unposted local changes are purple.
• Conflicts between downloaded and unposted changes are red.

You’ll also want to refresh statistics frequently. You can download recent performance statistics any time by selecting a Sats Interval in the tool bar. You’re limited to statistics for yesterday, the Last 7 Days or Last 30 Days. So if you want to view performance statistics for a different time interval, you’ll need to jump back over to Google AdWords online.

Just Try it!
If you’re using Google AdWords, you’ll want use this new tool for managing your campaigns. It has more functionality and you’ll find your more productive — especially for mass changes, additions and collaborating with others.

Remember, it’s FREE so download it and give it a try. And then the next time you’re offline and have a great AdWords idea…you’ll be able to capture it and later upload when you next connect!