Category Archives: Ads Developer Blog

The official blog for information about the AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick and AdMob APIs and SDKs

April 2024 update to Display & Video 360 API

Today we’re announcing the April 2024 update to the Display & Video 360 API. This update includes:

More details about this update can be found in the Display & Video 360 API release notes. Before using these new features, make sure to update your client library to the latest version.

If you need help with these new features, please contact us using our new Display & Video 360 API Technical support contact form.

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team

Announcing v16_1 of the Google Ads API

Today, we’re announcing the v16_1 release of the Google Ads API. To use some of the v16_1 features, upgrade your client libraries and client code. The updated client libraries and code examples will be published next week. This version has no breaking changes.

Here are the highlights:

Where can I learn more?

The following resources can help you get started:

If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us via the forum.

 - Thanet Knack Praneenararat, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

Google Ads API v14 sunset reminder

Google Ads API v14 will sunset on June 5, 2024. After this date, all v14 API requests will begin to fail. Migrate to a newer version prior to June 5, 2024 to ensure your API access is unaffected.

Here are some resources to help you with the migration: You can view a list of methods and services your project has recently called using the Google Cloud Console:
  1. Open the Dashboard page (found under APIs & Services) in the Google Cloud Console.
  2. Click on Google Ads API in the table.
  3. On the METRICS subtab, you should see your recent requests plotted on each graph. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see the Methods table, where you can see which methods you’ve sent requests to. The method name includes a Google Ads API version, a service, and a method name, e.g., google.ads.googleads.v14.services.GoogleAdsService.Mutate. In this way, you can see all versions that you’ve used recently.
  4. (Optional) Click on the time frame at the top right of the page if you need to change it.
If you have questions while you’re upgrading, reach out to us on the forum or at [email protected].
 - Thanet Knack Praneenararat, Google Ads API Team

Content API for Shopping: Automatic Quota

The Content API for Shopping now automatically increases your products and accounts quotas as your account grows.

Because your API quota now changes dynamically, we have removed the static chart from our published limits guide. To check your current daily quota and usage, and current per minute quota, you can call the quotas.list service.

The following errors are not API quota errors and can’t be resolved by automatic quota increases. They require you to request a quota increase.

  • too_many_items: Merchant quota exceeded
  • too_many_subaccounts: Maximum number of subaccounts reached

Automatic quota only applies to the products and accounts services. If you need an increased API quota for any other service, or if you’re hitting your daily API quota for the products or accounts services or need a temporary increase for the accounts or products services, contact us with the following information:

  • Your Merchant Center ID
  • Which methods you’ve reached your quota limits on
  • An estimation of how many calls per day you need for those methods
  • The reason why you need an increased quota

Note that our general quota policy is you should not update your products more than twice per day, and that you should check your accounts and account statuses not more than once per day.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us via the forum.

Benji Rothman, Content API for Shopping Team

Migration to OpenRTB, deprecation of the Authorized Buyers Real-time Bidding Protocol

To align more closely with industry practices and embrace OpenRTB as the standard protocol, Authorized Buyers Real-time Bidding protocol will sunset February 15th, 2025. Following this date, bid requests will no longer be sent to endpoints configured to use the Authorized Buyers RTB protocol. After this time we will support the OpenRTB protocol only. We strongly recommend that you transition to either the JSON or Protobuf formats of the Authorized Buyers OpenRTB protocol implementation as early as possible to avoid interruptions to your bidding integration.

As a first step in migrating to OpenRTB, we suggest that you read through the OpenRTB migration guide. The guide highlights differences between the Google RTB protocol and the supported OpenRTB formats, identifies how Google RTB protocol fields map to OpenRTB, and provides instructions for complex mappings. We will continue updating our developer content as we approach February 2025 to provide additional guidance, and to ensure a smooth migration.

For any questions or feedback you have concerning the transition to OpenRTB, please contact us using the Authorized Buyers support forum, or [email protected].

- Mark Saniscalchi, Authorized Buyers Developer Relations

Deprecation of Structured Data Files v5.5

Today we’re announcing the deprecation of Structured Data Files (SDF) v5.5. This version will sunset on October 3, 2024.

Migrate to v7, the most recent version, by the sunset date. Instructions on how to migrate to v7 can be found in our migration guide.

Once v5.5 is sunset:

  • The default version of partners and advertisers using those versions will be updated to the oldest supported version, v6.
  • sdfdownloadtasks.create requests using the sunset version in the request body will return a 400 error.

If you run into issues or need help with your migration, please contact us using our support contact form.

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team

Introducing the Performance Max Developer Guide

Today we are pleased to announce the release of a dedicated Performance Max developer guide. With this release, we’ve moved Performance Max content to its own tab in the main navigation of our developer documentation with a dedicated landing page and updated navigation to help you more easily find the information you need to build Performance Max integrations.

Other notable improvements include:

Improving Performance Max integrations Blog Series

This article is part of a series that discusses new and upcoming features that you have been asking for. Keep an eye out for further updates and improvements on our developer blog, continue providing feedback on Performance Max integrations with the Google Ads API, and as always, contact our team if you need support.

- Devin Chasanoff, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

Adding new project-level quota to Display & Video 360 API

On April 2, 2024, the Display & Video 360 API will institute a new project-level quota of 1500 total (read and write) requests per minute per project and 700 write requests per minute per project to help protect our infrastructure and improve the stability of the API for the overall community. All Display & Video 360 API requests that a project makes will count towards this new quota.

This new quota will replace the existing general request quota limits and be enforced along with existing advertiser-specific request quota limits.

Most existing projects don’t exceed the new quota limit, and thus don’t need adjustments. However, if your existing integration can make concurrent API requests to 5 or more advertisers, you are at risk of exceeding this new quota limit and should take the following actions:
  • Update the error handling of your Display & Video 360 API integration to reduce request frequency when receiving 429 error responses.
  • Consider using the Display & Video 360 API BigQuery connector to retrieve Display & Video 360 resource configuration settings in bulk.
See our quota optimization guide for more suggestions on how to further optimize your current integration.

If you have questions about this new quota, please contact us using our support contact form.
- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team

Announcing Android Google Mobile Ads SDK Version 23.0.0

Version 23.0.0 of the Android Google Mobile Ads SDK is now available. We recommend upgrading as soon as possible to get our latest features and performance improvements.

The minimum Android API level is 21

Starting in version 23.0.0, the Google Mobile Ads SDK requires all apps to be on a minimum Android API level 21 to run. To adjust the API level, change the value of minSdk in your app-level build.gradle file to 21 or higher.

Ad Manager builder methods can now be chained

In version 23.0.0, AdManagerAdRequest.Builder methods inherited from its parent can be chained together to build an AdManagerAdRequest using a single call: 

var newRequest = AdManagerAdRequest.Builder()
  .addCustomTargeting("age", "25") // AdManagerAdRequest.Builder method.
  .setContentUrl("https://www.example.com") // Method inherited from parent.
  .build() // Builds an AdManagerAdRequest.

A side effect of this change is AdManagerAdRequest.Builder no longer inherits from AdRequest.Builder.

SDK deprecation and sunset timelines activated

With this Android major version 23 launch and the iOS major version 11 launch last month, we are announcing new deprecation and sunset dates for older major releases. Specifically:

  • Android Google Mobile Ads SDK versions 21.x.x are officially deprecated, and will sunset in Q2 2025.
  • Android versions 20.x.x and iOS versions 8.x.x will sunset on June 30, 2024.
    • While there are currently no plans to disable ad serving on Android versions 20.x.x and iOS versions 8.x.x, we strongly recommend updating to a supported SDK version to avoid being impacted in the future.

For the full list of changes in v23.0.0, check the release notes. Check our migration guide to ensure your mobile apps are ready to upgrade. As always, if you have any questions or need additional help, contact us via the developer forum.

 - Jill Song, Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Removing support for .NET 5.0 in the Google Ads API client library for .NET

Starting with version 19.0.0, the Google Ads API client library for .NET requires .NET version 6.0 or higher. Support for .NET Framework remains unchanged and the minimum required version remains 4.7.2.

Version 18.1.0 of the Google Ads API client library for .NET, which adds support for the Google Ads API v16, will be the last version that supports .NET version 5.0. We will still fix security issues for this client library version until the Google Ads API v16 is sunset in January 2025, but no new features will be added.

.NET version 5.0 reached its end of life in May 2022. Microsoft no longer provides security fixes for this version, so we strongly recommend migrating to newer versions as soon as possible.

The Google Ads API client library for .NET already supports newer LTS versions like .NET 6.0 and 8.0, and we plan to support forthcoming LTS versions as well.

Here are some useful resources to help with the .NET upgrade:

 - Mattia Tommasone, Google Ads API Team