Tag Archives: adwords_scripts

Changes to stats retrieval for Search campaigns with Display Expansion

What’s changing?

We are changing how stats for Search campaigns with Display Expansion (previously known as Search campaigns with Display Select) are reported by the AdWords API, the Google Ads API, and Google Ads scripts.

Starting the week of Feb 17, 2019, we will no longer return display keyword stats for Search campaigns with Display Expansion in

Why is this changing?

Search campaigns with Display Expansion historically used keywords to perform Display Expansion. As we strive to improve targeting for Display Expansion, it is no longer possible to meaningfully and consistently attribute stats to keywords. As a result, this view has been removed from the Google Ads UI. The changes in this announcement aim to create parity between APIs and UI.


What should I do?

Before the sunset date, we recommend switching to alternate reports for fetching stats for Search campaigns with Display Expansion.

If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the Google Ads scripts forum or the AdWords API and Google Ads API forum.
 - Anash P. Oommen, Google Ads API Team

Reporting issues April 30 and May 1, 2019

On May 1, at approximately 5pm PST, a bug caused Google Ads reporting for April 30 and May 1 (Pacific Time) to be incorrect. This bug impacts reports in all Google Ads interfaces, including any report data downloaded via the AdWords API, Google Ads API and Google Ads Scripts.

We are actively working on fixing the bug and correcting the data. Metrics reported for May 2nd will also be delayed until later that morning PST.

We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the forum.
Adam Ohren, Google Ads API Team

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(If you want to continue getting email updates about our blog posts, read on. If you don't want email updates from this blog, you can skip this post.)

For some products, the Google Ads Developer team has used Google groups as a way to allow API users to subscribe and get new relevant blog posts delivered to their email address. Starting now, the way you can get email updates about blog posts is changing. We will no longer send an email to the Google group for each new blog post. We will continue to use the Google groups for other important updates, however.

For users who still want email updates, we've introduced new FeedBurner links on the right-hand panel of our blog homepage. You can subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking on the link for the product you're interested in, or subscribe by email by clicking on the [+] link to the right of the product name.

If you use any of the APIs that we discuss on this blog, make sure you subscribe to the feed to keep up with the latest news and updates: - Mike Cloonan, Ads Developer Relations Team

Support for v201809 reports in Google Ads Scripts

We have added support for AdWords API v201809 reports in Google Ads Scripts. The key changes in this release include:
  • The DESTINATION_URL_REPORT has been removed. Use the FINAL_URL_REPORT instead.
  • New conversion fields have been added to multiple reports:
    • ConversionAttributionEventType (CAMPAIGN_PERFORMANCE_REPORT only)
    • ConversionAdjustment
    • ConversionAdjustmentLagBucket
Read the AdWords API release notes for complete details, including additional features not listed here.

If you use API versioning in your reports, you need to modify your code to use v201809: 

var report = AdsApp.report(query, {
  apiVersion: 'v201809'
});
If you don't use API versioning, no code changes are required. We are updating the default reporting version to v201806 along with this change, and your reports will upgrade automatically.

If you have any questions about these changes or Google Ads scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team

AdWords scripts is now Google Ads scripts

With the recent rebrand of AdWords to Google Ads, AdWords scripts has also been renamed to Google Ads scripts. As a result of this change, we have renamed AdWordsApp and MccApp within the scripts themselves to reflect the new naming. Your existing scripts are not affected and will continue to run as they always have.

Going forward, you should use AdsApp instead of AdWordsApp. Similarly, you should use AdsManagerApp instead of MccApp. We are updating all of our documentation, samples, and solutions to reflect these new names.

If you have any questions about this change or any other API feature, please contact us via the forum.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads scripts Team

Top metrics, absolute top metrics, and average position in the AdWords API and Google Ads scripts

What's new
Starting November 12, 2018, the fields below will be available in AdWords API and Google Ads scripts reports.

Absolute top metrics:
  • AbsoluteTopImpressionPercentage
  • SearchAbsoluteTopImpressionShare
  • SearchBudgetLostAbsoluteTopImpressionShare
  • SearchRankLostAbsoluteTopImpressionShare
Top metrics:
  • TopImpressionPercentage
  • SearchTopImpressionShare
  • SearchBudgetLostTopImpressionShare
  • SearchRankLostTopImpressionShare
AbsoluteTopImpressionPercentage and TopImpressionPercentage are specific indicators of page location. You can use these metrics to determine when and where your impressions are showing above the organic search results.

SearchAbsoluteTopImpressionShare and SearchTopImpressionShare are your share of the eligible top impressions. They are the best indicators of the headroom available to show your ads in more prominent positions. If your goal is to bid on page location, you should use these metrics. Bidding by average position is not recommended since:
  • Average position doesn't actually describe position on the page but position in the auction.
  • Sometimes, average position may decrease as bids increase. This happens as higher bids sometimes allow you to enter more competitive auctions lower on the page.
See our post on the New features & announcements page for more details.

What you should do
Whenever you are using AveragePosition as a proxy to bid to a page location, switch to using the new SearchAbsoluteTopImpressionShare or SearchTopImpressionShare metrics in your bidding logic.

If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the forum.
- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

Upcoming changes to HTML5 template ads in AdWords API & Scripts

Starting August 27, 2018, creating TemplateAds with IDs 419 (HTML5 Ads) may result in an error in AdWords API and Scripts. AdWords API users will see the error AdError.Reason.USER_DOES_NOT_HAVE_ACCESS_TO_TEMPLATE when creating HTML5 ads using various services.AdWords Scripts users may see an error that the ad cannot be saved when using the HTML5AdBuilder class to create a new HTML5 ad.

Existing accounts that have used or are currently using HTML5 ads will be whitelisted, and will continue to be able to upload HTML5 ads. Existing HTML5 ads will also continue to serve after this date.

If your account is new, or has never used HTML5 ads before, you may be affected by this change. We recommend one of the following options to fix this error:
  • You may apply for HTML5 access in your account by filling in the whitelist request form
  • You can use an AMPHTML instead of a regular HTML file in your HTML5 bundle. AMPHTML ads won’t trigger the above error.
  • You will automatically be approved for HTML5 access once you have spent more than $9000 USD on AdWords and your account is more than 90 days old
If you have questions about this change, please reach out to us on the AdWords API forum or AdWords Scripts forum.
- Anash Oommen, AdWords API Team

Changes to YouTube placements in AdWords scripts

We are rolling out a change to the way placements work when specifying YouTube URLs. Starting on August 14, 2018, using generic placements to specify YouTube channels or videos is going to be disallowed and will result in an error.

For more accurate video targeting, even when videos are played across platforms, use the new specific YouTubeChannel and YouTubeVideo placement criteria when you want to target specific channels or videos in AdWords scripts.

If you have any questions about these changes or AdWords scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.
- Mike Cloonan, AdWords Scripts Team

Campaign drafts and experiments now available in AdWords scripts

Today we’re announcing the release of campaign drafts and experiments in AdWords scripts. Drafts and experiments (also known as Trials) will allow you to prepare, test, and apply improvements to your Search and Display Network campaigns using AdWords scripts.

An experiment runs simultaneously with the original campaign, showing its ads to the percentage of traffic that you have configured. Using the experiment to understand the impact of your changes, you can apply the changes directly to the original campaign, or even establish the experiment as an independent, fully operating campaign while retaining the original.

For more information, please refer to our guide to drafts and experiments in AdWords scripts and code samples.

If you have any questions about these changes or AdWords scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.
- Niousha Jafari and Rohan Dhoopar on behalf of AdWords Scripts team

New features in AdWords scripts

Today we're announcing the launch of a few new features in AdWords scripts:
  • Support for reporting version v201806
  • Multi-file script support
  • Support for final URL suffix for parallel tracking
Reporting
Support for v201806 of reports has been added. The main features in this reporting version are:
  • New fields for Responsive Search Ads and Multi-Asset Responsive Display Ads.
  • The ClickType and CampaignSubType columns will return new values to reflect changes in product names. The underlying data is unaffected; the rendered value is the only change. For example, the CampaignSubType of "Product Listing Ads" will now be "Shopping ads", and there are similar changes for ClickType.
Read the AdWords API release notes for complete details, including additional features not listed here.

If you use API versioning in your reports, you need to modify your code to use v201806: 

var report = AdWordsApp.report(query, {
  apiVersion: 'v201806'
});
We will also be updating the default reporting version from v201710 to v201802 on July 23, 2018. This will affect you if you do not use API versioning as outlined above.

Multi-File Support
Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out support for scripts with multiple files. This lets you separate your utility logic from your business logic, organize your code however you see fit, and generally produce more maintainable scripts. Please try it out and let us know what you think on the forum!

Parallel Tracking Support
We have added methods to support the final URL suffix for parallel tracking. You can use the new getFinalUrlSuffix, setFinalUrlSuffix, and clearFinalUrlSuffix methods on objects that have final URLs.

As announced earlier this year, starting October 30, 2018, parallel tracking will be required for all AdWords accounts. You can consult the AdWords API documentation on click tracking for more details on how to migrate, as the same concepts apply to scripts. Please make sure to update your scripts before the deadline.

If you have any questions about these changes or AdWords scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.
- Mike Cloonan, AdWords Scripts Team