Here’s how to copy old AdWords column settings to the new Google Ads UI

If you’ve been putting off the hassle of rebuilding your beautiful columns layouts from the old AdWords interface, Google has acknowledged your pain. This week, Google added the ability to copy your columns preferences from the old AdWords interface to the new Google Ads interface.

How to do it. Go to the Tools icon in the upper right corner of the UI and select Preferences (under the Setup column). Expand the new “Columns preference” option to copy your previous column preferences to your Google Ads account.

Important to note. There are a couple of things to keep in mind before selecting this option. First, the change is permanent. If you click the “Copy Columns” (shown in the screenshot above), you’ll see the following notice before confirming the change:

“Copying columns replaces all of your existing Google Ads columns – in all accounts – with your previous AdWords columns. This change can’t be undone and takes up to 24 hours. You can see your column status in your column preferences.”

Second, if you’re logged into an MCC (master account), the columns preferences will copy over to all of the accounts under that MCC.  If that’s not what you’re looking for, log in to the individual accounts to apply your old copy settings.

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About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin was Third Door Media’s former Editor-in-Chief (October 2018 to December 2020), running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.