Category Archives: Ads Developer Blog

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

Improved support for service accounts in the Google Ads API

Google Ads has rolled out a new feature that allows Google Ads account administrators to grant access to a service account. Once the access has been granted, you can use the service account credentials to make API calls to that Google Ads account and other accounts in that hierarchy, if applicable. Refer to the service account guide to learn more about this option.

This new approach simplifies the Google Ads API authentication process in two important ways:

  1. If your application works entirely offline without any user interaction, then you no longer need to generate a refresh token. This means you can also avoid other steps such as configuring an OAuth consent screen and performing OAuth App verification.
  2. The new service account flow doesn’t require you to be a Google Workspace user or configure the service account for domain-wide impersonation.

We hope this simplifies your experience when working with the Google Ads API.

How to get help

If you have any questions or need help, check out the Google Ads API support page for options.

 - , Google Ads API Team

Announcing v202411 of the Google Ad Manager API

We're pleased to announce that v202411 of the Google Ad Manager API is available starting today, November 21, 2024. This release brings support for INVENTORY_FORMAT reporting dimensions and removes GOOGLE as a GrpProvider.

In the PublisherQueryLanguageService Line_Item table, the field EndDateTime has been renamed to ServingEndTime. In both v202411 and earlier versions, the value is inclusive of any grace period. The new name differentiates the PQL field from the LineItem.endDateTime field which is exclusive of any grace period.

Version Service End time including grace period End time excluding grace period
v202411 PublisherQueryLanguageService ServingEndTime Not available
LineItemService endDateTime + autoExtensionDays endDateTime
v202408 PublisherQueryLanguageService EndDateTime Not available
LineItemService endDateTime + autoExtensionDays endDateTime

For the full list of changes, check the release notes. Contact us on the Ad Manager API forum with any API-related questions.

- Chris Seeley, Ad Manager API Team

Introducing lower confidence reach data in the Bid Manager API

Starting today, you can populate reports in the Bid Manager API with data that had been previously omitted due to lower statistical significance by using a new filter, FILTER_UNIQUE_REACH_SAMPLE_SIZE_ID, and setting the value to “0”.

This filter setting only impacts reach metrics with the following Metric prefixes as defined in the Bid Manager API:

  • METRIC_UNIQUE_REACH_
  • METRIC_VIRTUAL_PEOPLE_DUPLICATE_
  • METRIC_VIRTUAL_PEOPLE_EXCLUSIVE_
  • METRIC_VIRTUAL_PEOPLE_OVERLAP_

queries.create requests with queries that filter by FILTER_UNIQUE_REACH_SAMPLE_SIZE_ID but don’t include impacted metrics will return a 400 error.

On February 4, 2025, Display & Video 360 will include unique reach data with lower statistical confidence by default. If you want to ensure that your reports continue to only return high-confidence data, we recommend that you update your integration to use the new filter value to filter to "1" when creating reports with any of the impacted metrics.

Read more about these changes in our release notes.

If you run into issues or have questions about these changes, please contact us using our new Bid Manager API Technical support contact form.

- Trevor Mulchay, Bid Manager API Team

Google Ads API 2025 release and sunset schedule

We’re announcing our tentative 2025 release and sunset schedule for upcoming versions of the Google Ads API to bring greater clarity to your planning cycle. Please keep in mind that these dates are only estimates and may be adjusted going forward. Additionally, releases may be added, removed, or switched between major and minor versions.
Version Planned Release
Type* 		Projected launch* Projected sunset*
V19 Major February/March 2025 February 2026
V19_1 Minor April/May 2025 February 2026
V20 Major June/July 2025 June 2026
V20_1 Minor August/September 2025 June 2026
V21 Major October/November 2025 October 2026

*Estimated and subject to change

Where can I learn more?
Check back for any updates as the blog is the best place to stay informed about developments in this space.

If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us via the forum.
- David Stevens, Google Ads API Product Manager

Launching Structured Data Files v8

Today we’re announcing the general availability of Structured Data Files (SDF) v8. All users can now use SDF v8 to upload and download SDFs in the Display & Video 360 UI, and to download SDFs through the Display & Video 360 API.

SDF v8 adds support for Demand Gen Line Item, Ad Group, and Ad resources, as well as the companion banner field for YouTube and Demand Gen Ads.

Full details on the changes made in v8 can be found in our Structured Data Files release notes and instructions for migrating from v7.1 to v8 can be found in our migration guide. If you are currently using SDF v6, follow the instructions in our v7 migration guide first before migrating to v8.

If you run into issues or need help with this new version, please follow the instructions on our support guide or contact us using our contact form.

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team

Consent unbundling in Google Ads scripts

Starting in January 2025, we will enable consent unbundling in Google Ads scripts. This is a new feature of OAuth that allows you to customize which specific scopes you want to authorize, rather than the current all-or-nothing approach. Consent unbundling is being rolled out in all Google OAuth applications.

Google Ads scripts already runs a static analysis on your code before presenting the OAuth consent screen, and only requests the specific features that are required to run the script. Therefore, when you authorize Google Ads scripts, ensure that you select all the boxes on that screen, or else you will experience execution errors.

Any existing scripts you already have will continue to work without any user action needed when this feature rolls out, unless you make changes that require reauthorization. Existing unmodified scripts will continue to run as usual.

If you have any questions about consent unbundling or other Google Ads scripts features, please post them in the Google Ads scripts forum.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team

Announcing Budget Prefills with the Google Ads API

With v18 of the Google Ads API, you can now use the Recommendations.GenerateRecommendations method during campaign construction to retrieve optimized budget suggestions for Performance Max and Search campaigns.

When using the GenerateRecommendations method with a recommendation type of CAMPAIGN_BUDGET, you can supply inputs, such as final URL and bidding strategy, which Google machine learning models will use to generate budget recommendations. Google Ads API users that provide a campaign creation interface can provide budget prefills that fit into the campaign creation workflow. As with many recommendation types, campaign budget recommendations provide projected impact metrics to help understand the effect that implementing the recommendation will have on account performance.

Explore additional Recommendations API features

Recommendations in the Google Ads API offer several ways to increase your campaigns' performance through customized suggestions like adding new keywords or updating your bidding strategy. With RecommendationSubscriptionService, you can subscribe to automatically apply specific recommendation types of your choosing for your account. To retrieve and process recommendations directly, you can leverage the recommendation reporting resource.

To explore the full recommendations offering, check out our implementation guide.

 - Laura Chevalier, Google Ads API Team

October 2024 update to Display & Video 360 API

Today, we’re announcing the October 2024 update to the Display & Video 360 API. This update adds the following:

  • Support for cost-per-view performance goals and the targeting of connected devices.
  • The ability to generate and download Structured Data Files (SDFs) using SDF v8. This version is currently in beta and only available to limited partners.
  • Additional Adloox brand safety settings under third-party verifier targeting.

In addition, we’ve also officially deprecated the SDF v5.5 enum value given the sunset of v5.5 earlier this month.

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 v18 of the Google Ads API

Today, we’re announcing the v18 release of the Google Ads API. To use the v18 features, you will need to upgrade your client libraries and client code. The updated client libraries and code examples will be published next week.

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

New data retention policy for Google Ads

Starting November 13th, Google Ads will be implementing a new data retention policy. All account data, including performance metrics, billing information, and historical reports, will now be retained for a period of 11 years.

This means that when querying the Google Ads API using either GoogleAds.Search or GoogleAds.SearchStream you will only be able to retrieve data up to 11 years before the date of your API request and data before that will not be returned.

Required actions

If you need historical data for more than 11 years ago, we recommend you retrieve it and store it before November 13th, 2024.

Otherwise, no action is required on your end. This update will be applied automatically to your account and GoogleAds.Search and GoogleAds.SearchStream continue to work as usual.

However, be aware that you may notice differences in your reporting due to different values being returned.

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

 - Mattia Tommasone, Google Ads API Team