Category Archives: Ads Developer Blog

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

Authorized Buyers OpenRTB migration reminder, and updates to blocked categories

The Google Real-time Bidding protocol is deprecated and will sunset on February 15th, 2025. As previously announced, Google plans to no longer send bid requests to endpoints configured to use that protocol after it is sunset.

Additionally, starting September 1st, the protocol will enter maintenance mode, and stop receiving non-critical feature and quality of service updates. If your real-time bidding integration uses the deprecated Authorized Buyers RTB protocol, Google strongly recommends that you start migrating to either our JSON or Protobuf OpenRTB implementations in order to continue accessing the latest real-time bidding features, and avoid interruptions on the sunset date.

You can use the OpenRTB migration guide as a reference while you work on your migrations.

The OpenRTB protocol uses IAB Content 1.0 taxonomy rather than Google’s product and sensitive category IDs when describing categories blocked by publishers with BidRequest.bcat. You can use the new detectedCategories field in Real-time Bidding API’s creatives resource to find the detected categories for a given creative in IAB’s taxonomy. Google recommends that you use this to reduce bid filtering by only placing bids with creatives having detected categories that aren’t blocked by the publisher. Learn more about changes related to categories.

If you have questions or feedback about how we can ease your migration, please contact us using the Authorized Buyers support forum, or [email protected].

- Mark Saniscalchi, Authorized Buyers Developer Relations

Google Ads API v15 sunset reminder

Google Ads API v15 will sunset on September 25, 2024. After this date, all v15 API requests will begin to fail. Migrate to a newer version prior to September 25, 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 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, the Methods table shows which methods you’ve sent requests to. The method name includes a Google Ads API version, a service, and a method name, such as google.ads.googleads.v15.services.GoogleAdsService.Mutate. In this way, you can see all versions that you’ve used recently.
  4. (Optional) Click 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

Improvements to conversion adjustment uploads

Starting on September 9, 2024, Google Ads API users will no longer need to wait 24 hours before uploading conversion adjustments - they can be uploaded immediately after the original conversion has been uploaded or recorded by Google tags.

This means that you will no longer need to keep track of the 24-hour window before uploading conversion adjustments, and can stop checking for certain error codes and retrying those upload requests.

Specifically, the following changes will take effect:

  1. The following error codes will no longer be returned in responses from the UploadConversionAdjustments method, and will no longer be visible in diagnostic reports:
  2. Conversion adjustments that would previously be rejected with these error codes will count towards the pending_count in diagnostics until they’re processed, at which point they’ll be counted towards either the successful_count or failed_count fields. This might take up to 24 hours.

Here is how these changes will affect older Google Ads API versions v15 and v16:

  1. The following error codes will no longer be returned in responses from the UploadConversionAdjustments method, and will no longer be visible in diagnostic reports:
  2. Any conversion that would have triggered these codes will, in diagnostic reports, count towards the total_event_count metric while being processed. Once processing is completed they will be counted towards either the successful_count or failed_count. This might take up to 24 hours.

What do I need to do?

  1. Remove any logic from your application that waits before uploading adjustments, and begin uploading conversion adjustments at any time after the original conversion has been uploaded.
  2. Modify your application logic and business processes so that you are not tracking the two conversion adjustment errors that are being removed.
  3. If you rely on the successful or failed event count metrics, revisit your application logic with the understanding that some uploaded events may, at times, when using v17, be represented as pending.

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

- Ben Karl, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

Promotion of Structured Data Files QA format to general availability

Today we’re announcing the promotion of the Structured Data Files (SDF) QA format to general availability.

The SDF QA Format was initially released in open beta on May 30, 2024. The QA format allows you to download SDFs for Line Item and YouTube Ad Group resources that use human-readable values, such as display names, in place of numeric IDs to make it easier to review resource settings in bulk. These QA format files are read-only and can’t be uploaded to modify or create Display & Video 360 resources.

The two new file types using this format are Line Item - QA and YouTube Ad Group - QA and are available in SDF v6 and later. These files can be downloaded in the Display & Video 360 interface or by using Display & Video 360 API v3, by either:

To help you decide whether the SDF QA format is right for you and your integration, we’ve added information and recommendations to the existing Bulk Tools guide.

If you run into issues, please contact us using our new Display & Video 360 API Technical support contact form.

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team

Announcing v17_1 of the Google Ads API

Today, we’re announcing the v17_1 release of the Google Ads API. To use some of the v17_1 features, you will need to 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

Upcoming Changes in Python Version Support for the Google Ads API Client Library for Python

In October, 2024, Python 3.8 will reach end-of-life and will no longer be supported by the Python Software Foundation. Once Python 3.8 officially reaches end-of-life status, it will also no longer be supported by the Google Ads client library for Python. That means we will not make updates to the library, or address any issues related to compatibility with Python 3.8, outside of critical security updates.

In Q1 2025 we will release a new major version of the library that is incompatible with Python 3.8. This new version will include support for Python 3.13. Users of deprecated, or soon-to-be deprecated versions of Python, are at risk of losing access to the Google Ads API. Please note the below timelines:

  • Python 3.7 users will lose access to the API when v15 is sunset on September 25, 2024
  • Python 3.8 users will lose access to the API when v18 is sunset in Q3 or Q4 2025.

Any library users currently relying on Python 3.7 or 3.8 should upgrade their systems to Python 3.9 or higher as soon as possible.

If you have any questions about this change, please file an issue on the client library repository.

- Ben Karl, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

Google Ads shopping report outage starting August 1, 2024

Update (August 2, 2024 13:30 PST): Follow our Google Ads dashboard at ads.google.com/status for updates. See this Google Ads entry for details on this outage.

We are actively looking into an issue with Google Ads. As of August 1 at about 2 PM EDT, the following reports are down and are returning internal API errors:

Thank you for your patience as we resolve this issue.

Nadine Wang, Google Ads API Team

Deprecation of Structured Data Files v6

Today we’re announcing the deprecation of Structured Data Files (SDF) v6. This version will sunset on April 30, 2025.

Migrate to SDF v7 or higher before the sunset date to avoid any interruption of service. Instructions on how to migrate from v6 to v7 can be found in our migration guide.

After April 30, 2025, the following changes will apply to all users:

  • The default version of partners and advertisers using those versions will be updated to v7.
  • sdfdownloadtasks.create requests using SDF_VERSION_6 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 new Display & Video 360 API Technical support contact form.

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team

Watch Performance Max and the Google Ads API On Demand

As previously announced, Ads Developer Relations hosted a workshop on July 17: Performance Max and the Google Ads API. We are grateful to all the Google Ads API and Performance Max enthusiasts who tuned in for the live workshop.

If you didn't get a chance to watch the workshop live, or you want to review content you previously watched, you can still view sessions on demand at the event site.

We hope you will take advantage of this awesome resource to learn more about the power of Performance Max campaigns, and hear from Google Ads API experts on how to build, manage, and report on Performance Max campaigns using the API.

 - Laura Chevalier, Google Ads API Team

Display & Video 360 API v2 will sunset on September 3, 2024

As announced in February 2024, Display & Video 360 API v2 will sunset on September 3, 2024. Please migrate to Display & Video 360 API v3 before the sunset date to avoid an interruption of service.

You can read our release notes for more information about v3. Follow the steps in our v3 migration guide to help you migrate from v2 to v3.

If you run into issues or need help with your migration, please contact us using our new Display & Video 360 API Technical support contact form.

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team