Put simply – it looks much better and more modern. The interface makes much better use of the screen space and features a nice colour palette. Some might find it a bit spread out, but I, on the other hand, am glad that the controls are large and the necessary information isn’t crammed into a corner somewhere, even if it means a bit of scrolling. You’ll be doing plenty of that, because Sklik has finally got graphs!
The graph is located at the top, between the toolbar and the statistics. You can gradually activate various metrics within it, even all six at once. The metric toggle buttons are located above the graph and also display summary statistics for the selected period, which previously required scrolling all the way down. If you hover your cursor over a point, it will show you data for a specific time period, just as you’re used to in AdWords or Analytics. You can also switch between daily, weekly and monthly views, and there’s an option to display graphs for search only or content only. I probably speak for many when I say that these graphs are a feature that has been long awaited by countless Czech ‘PPC specialists’, and which, together with the recent launch of the search queries feature, will make their lives much easier. Perhaps because we’ve been waiting for them for so long, the graphs are truly massive; however, if they start to get on your nerves despite this blessing, you can hide and show them again with a single click.
The second fairly significant feature is the option to view cost-to-revenue ratios (PNO). I won’t go into detail about that here; more information can be found on the Sklik blog (http://sklik.cz.sblog.cz/2013/06/28/118
).
Another change is switching between accounts. If you use multi-login – meaning you manage multiple accounts accessible via a single set of login credentials – you can now use the search function. It works simply by starting to type the account name, and the account names are filtered as you type. I certainly have no objections to this, though I would still welcome a ubiquitous ‘managed accounts’ link, as was the case in the old version. Now you have to switch to your multi-login account in a somewhat cumbersome manner, and only from there can you access the list of all your accounts.
Adding new keywords to a campaign has also changed. We now have a keyword suggestion tool available straight away when adding keywords. A search function has also been added to the account, which can search for keywords, ads, campaigns and ad groups.
I definitely view Sklik’s new design positively. There are many changes; I won’t list them all here, but I’d like to mention what I miss the most. The first thing is the speed of the entire interface – the Sklik blog states that the code has been rewritten to make the whole interface faster and accommodate further planned features. That’s great news, and for now I have to say that it really is easier to work with. About six months ago, I wrote to Sklik support asking if they were planning anything similar to labels, as they work in AdWords. The answer was yes, and I’d certainly welcome this, at the very least at the level of client lists, campaigns and reports within accounts. The second thing I’d like to see would be shared budgets within an account. And thirdly, I’d like to see the option to use modified broad match. I could, of course, go on listing ideas for a long time, but the fact remains that compared to AdWords, Sklik is still a relatively basic solution. On the other hand, it fulfils its function, and does so well; you can see the effort to accommodate advertisers and improve the product.
And finally, I mustn’t forget to mention that a market position such as Seznam’s vis-à-vis Google is rarely seen elsewhere in the world. For that reason alone, it deserves our support. 🙂 You can read more about the new look in an article on the authors’ blog: http://sklik.cz.sblog.cz/2013/06/17/116.
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