1. Double headlines and more characters

Advertisers will now have two 30-character headlines instead of the current 25-character headline and one 80-character line of description copy instead of two 35-character lines.

2.Uncoupling desktop and mobile bidding

Previously we could bid on desktop, or desktop and mobile, but not mobile on it own. And there was one base bid level for both with adjustments available for mobile.  The change in bidding is significant in that it accomplishes two things: 1. Untethers desktop and mobile bids; and 2. Allows us to make mobile the focus of your campaigns, where relevant.

3. Google Display Network (GDN)

Google announced responsive ads for display that automatically resize and adjust to the look and feel of the content to tap into publishers’ native ad inventory.   We provide headlines, a description, an image and a URL and Google dynamically builds the ads – taking away the need for multiple ad versions for all the required dimensions.

4. Better Measurement of In-Store Conversions

AdWords can now help more businesses bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds by measuring in-store conversions. Technically this isn’t “new” (Google says more than 1 billion store visits have been measured so far in the past two years), but it’s still a pretty big deal. Soon in-store conversions will become more widely available to more types of businesses, which is critical considering 90 percent of sales will happen in stores, as opposed to online.  Google simply looks at phone location history to determine whether the person who searched and clicked on your ad ended up walking into the store.

5. New Local Search Ads to Appear on Google Maps

Google had unveiled what it calls the “next generation” of local search ads. These new ads will appear within Google Maps (on the app as well as both the desktop and mobile versions of the site), as well as across Google.com. Google noted that location-related searches account for nearly a third of all mobile searches and have grown 50 percent faster than overall mobile searches in the past year.

In the new ads, brand logos and offers will appear directly on the surface of the map, rather than just alongside the map. For example, if you were to search on Google Maps for [electronics store], you’d see the following:

6. Google redesigning the AdWords platform (due for completion by end of 2017)

Google are completely redesigning its platform.  It will be introducing a small number of advertisers to facets of the redesign that are built starting today. For example, advertisers running video campaigns will see video campaign management views, while others running Shopping campaigns will see that area of the platform. 

Information sourced from (and for more information):

• Search Engine Land
  
• WordStream