Category Archives: Google Ads Developer Blog

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

Manual ad break playback in the IMA SDKs

We recently launched manual ad break playback across our iOS, Android, HTML5, and Flash SDKs. For more info on what this means and how to use it, read on!

What is manual ad break playback?

Under a standard IMA SDK implementation, when an ad rules or VMAP response is returned, the SDK will automatically play each ad break at its cue point. With manual ad break playback, the SDK will instead fire an event when it’s time to play an ad break, and let you decide if or when you’d like to play it.

What are the implications of this change?

If you’re happy with your current ad rules or VMAP performance, this change doesn’t require you to do anything - your implementation will continue to work just as it does now. If you’d like more fine-tuned control over ad break playback timing, then we recommend using this feature.

What are the benefits of this change?

We see two major areas in which this change will help publishers. The first is when a user starts a stream somewhere in the middle of the content instead of at the beginning. (The most common scenario is that the user watched part of the video previously, left the app or page, and returned to continue watching the rest of the video). With a standard implementation, the user will be greeted by (in some cases) a pre-roll, followed by the most recent mid-roll that they watched previously, then the content. By using manual ad break playback you can prevent the pre- or mid-roll (or both) from playing so that the user can go straight to the content, and then resume mid-rolls when the user sees their first mid-roll break for the new session.

The second major use case is misaligned ad breaks. If you’re playing long form content with mid-rolls, and your video fades in and out for mid-roll breaks, you want to make sure that your ad breaks properly align with those fades. In some cases, publishers have told us that the ad break scheduling changes slightly between pieces of content, causing the ad to cut off content for some streams. With this new system, if you know exactly when an ad break should play, you can listen for the AD_BREAK_READY event and delay the ad break playback until the exact time your stream is ready for it.

How do I implement this new feature?

We have guides for each of the SDKs on implementing this new feature:

As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact us via the support forum.

 - , IMA SDK Team

New features in AdWords Scripts

We have made the following changes to AdWords scripts.

Full screen mode for Scripts IDE

You can now toggle fullscreen mode for the Scripts IDE by clicking the Expand icon on the top right corner of the editor toolbar.


Clear methods for Upgraded URLs

We have added new methods to clear various fields in Upgraded URLs: Clear methods for sitelink descriptions

You can now use the clearDescription1() and clearDescription2() methods to clear the corresponding description fields in the Sitelink, AdGroupSitelink and CampaignSitelink classes.

Sunset support for updating destination URL

As previously announced, support for updating destination URL has been sunset completely. If any of your scripts use this field, make sure you upgrade your scripts to use the upgraded URL fields. We have also added clearDestinationUrl() to the Keyword class and clearLinkUrl() to various ad extension classes. These methods may be used to clear the destination URL field when you upgrade your URLs.

See our sunset tracker page for more details.

If you have any questions about this feature or AdWords scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.

Anash P. Oommen, AdWords Scripts Team

Announcing v2.2 of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API

Today we are releasing v2.2 of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API. Highlights of this release include:
  • User requested enhancements: You asked and we listened! Based on your feedback, new fields--such as computed click-through URL for ad creative assignments--have been added.
  • Placement search improvements: You can now search for placements and placement groups by start and end date.
  • Ins tag support: When the new ins tag is enabled for your account, requests for iframe and javascript tags will return an updated tag format. We've introduced 4 new legacy tag values you can use to access the older versions of these tags, to ensure a smooth transition to the upgraded format. You can begin requesting these legacy tag values today, even if your account hasn't upgraded yet.
Retiring older API versions

Along with this release, we're introducing a new deprecation schedule and announcing the deprecation of all versions prior to v2.1. Moving forward, we will generally only support 3 versions of the API and sunset the oldest version 4 months after a new release. In order to help developers adjust to this new schedule, we're providing an extended migration period for users of these newly deprecated versions:

API Version
Deprecation Date
Sunset Date
v1
3 Aug 2015
29 Feb 2016
v1.1
3 Aug 2015
29 Feb 2016
v1.2
3 Aug 2015
29 Feb 2016
v1.3
3 Aug 2015
29 Feb 2016
v2.0
3 Aug 2015
29 Feb 2016

These versions will remain active and supported until the sunset date, and we encourage you to use this time to update your applications.

Learn more

As with every new version of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API, we encourage you to carefully review all changes in the Release Notes. For those of you looking to get going right away, updated client libraries are now available. If you're just starting out, the Get Started guide is a great reference to help you get up and running quickly.

Give it a try and let us know if you have any questions!

 - , DCM API Team

Changes to DFP Reporting, now with more deprecation!

After our last round of spring cleaning, we've gone back to the drawing board to take another look at how we could make reporting better. There currently is an abundance of Dimensions, DimensionAttributes, and Columns (and more coming with each release), so in an effort to simplify the list of fields, we will be sunsetting the following reconciliation-related dimension attributes / columns in all versions. This will happen on September 1, 2015.

Columns with equivalent replacements:

Columns without equivalent replacements:

While the first two have equivalent replacements, the latter ones are not being replaced, as they don’t exist in core product reporting either.

This means that usage of these columns / dimension attributes will begin throwing errors in all versions starting September 1st. If your network is actively using any of these, please update your reports to switch to the supported fields or remove them entirely. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this, you know where to reach us!

 - , DFP API Team

Help me help you (improve the DFP API)

Believe it or not, the DFP API Team eat, breathe, and live the DFP API. We wake up in the morning thinking, "How can I make the DFP API even better?" Seriously, I have had dreams about the API. It’s weird, but I’m not embarrassed to admit that.

In an effort to delight our developers even more, we’re turning the proverbial mic over to you - our customers - to help us help you. Here’s your chance to let us know how we could be better – better support, better features in the client libraries, better content in workshops, better examples, better haircuts... really, anything. Simply fill out our survey with your thoughts here.

 - , DFP API Team

What’s new with IMA iOS SDK Beta 15?

Last week, we released beta version 15 of the IMA SDK for iOS. This release includes two new features:

  • Ad buffer events via IMAAdsManager delegates
  • Debugging mode

Ad buffer events

We’re providing more information on ad buffering by introducing new buffering events via the following optional IMAAdsManagerDelegate methods:

  • adsManagerAdPlaybackReady:
  • adsManagerAdDidStartBuffering:
  • adsManager:adDidBufferToMediaTime:

Collectively, these delegate methods provide more transparency into buffer events, giving you more control over the user’s ad experience. For more detailed information on these new methods, take a look at the reference documentation.

Debugging mode

We’ve introduced a new debugging mode setting to allow for more verbose logging to the console. You can now set IMASettings.enableDebugMode to YES to enable debug mode. This should not be used in production, as it will show a watermark on the ad player.

A note about CocoaPods

If you’re using CocoaPods with the IMA SDK, please make sure to use at least version 0.38.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us via the support forum.

 - , IMA SDK Team

Relaxing constraints on ad group name uniqueness

Have you ever found it frustrating that you can never reuse an AdGroup name after removing the AdGroup, since a removed AdGroup cannot be modified? We have awesome news for you!

Now, AdGroupService doesn’t consider REMOVED AdGroup names when verifying that an AdGroup name is unique within a Campaign. If an AdGroup is in a REMOVED state, then the name of that AdGroup can be reused. This is already the case for Campaigns, and we’ve extended this relaxation of constraints to AdGroups.

If you have questions or need clarification, visit us on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

Nadine Sundquist, AdWords API Team

New guide for setting up AdWords API authorization using the OAuth 2.0 Playground

For those of you who’d prefer to generate an OAuth refresh token using only a browser, there's a new guide on how to use the OAuth 2.0 Playground:

https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/guides/oauth_playground

The guide walks you through the authorization setup required by the AdWords API for a Web application--via a browser session--without the need to execute any command-line scripts.

More OAuth resources
Still have questions? Feel free to visit us on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

FeedMappings for location targeting available via the AdWords API

What's changing?
Starting on or after July 23, 2015, if you are using v201506 of the AdWords API, then FeedMappingService.get and FeedMappingService.query will return FeedMapping objects created for location targeting. These FeedMapping objects will have criterionType 77, and will not have a value for placeholderType. There will be no change in behavior for v201409 or v201502.

You will start seeing these objects if either of the following is true:
  • You created a Feed linked to your Google My Business account.
  • You created a Location targeting feed through the AdWords user interface, under Shared library -> Business data.
Why the change?
Starting with v201506, LocationGroups.feedId is required if your matching function includes a LocationExtensionOperand.

Specifying a feedId in this situation allows AdWords to target the areas surrounding the locations in a location targeting feed. This may be the same feed you are using for location extensions, or a separate feed containing additional locations you want to use strictly for targeting. The key point is that the Feed referenced by LocationGroups.feedId must have a FeedMapping with criterionType 77.

What should you do?
If your application retrieves FeedMapping objects, make sure it will properly handle objects where placeholderType is null and criterionType is set.

If you want to create LocationGroups objects that use a LocationExtensionOperand, you can now use FeedMappingService to find the ID of feeds that have a FeedMapping with criterionType 77.

Learn more
Check out the following resources for more information on Location Groups: Still have questions? Feel free to visit us on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.
- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

DFA API sunset reminder

As we announced in December 2014, with the release of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API, we will be sunsetting the legacy DFA API on September 30th, 2015. To avoid an interruption in service, all DFA API users are required to update their application to use our new API by this date. If you haven’t yet started migrating, we strongly encourage you to do so.

If you’re new to the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API, you can use our Get Started guide to get up and running quickly. You can also reference our Migration Guide to help in transitioning legacy DFA API applications to the new API. If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to us on the developer forum.

 - , DCM API Team