Disabling "lead" category mutates in AdWords API

On March 8, 2021 we're disabling mutates to the Lead category in the AdWords API. The Google Ads API ConversionActionCategory is not affected. This is a follow-on to the conversion category changes and expanded conversion categories announced in September 2020, which provided a finer grained categorization of conversions.

We are making this change because we are seeing some advertisers change their new category conversion types back to Lead category through the AdWords API, resulting in ambiguity since multiple new categories map to this old category. The following table summarizes how the AdWords API will respond to mutates that set the conversion category to Lead.
Existing Category AdWords API READs (Existing behavior) AdWords API Mutate to LEAD Response
Lead Lead OK
“Old” category “Old” category ERROR
“New” lead category Lead OK
“New” non-lead category “Old” category ERROR

Since the AdWords API does not support all the new conversion categories, reading in a new fine grained Lead conversion category will be mapped to Lead upon read, but will continue to be persisted as the finer grained new category. If read through the Google Ads UI or Google Ads API, the new conversion category will be accurately retrieved.

As a recap from our September 2020 announcement, here is the mapping of new conversion category types to existing AdWords API ConversionTracker.Category enum values:
New Conversion Category Mapping to ConversionTracker.Category
Add to cart LEAD
Begin checkout LEAD
Purchase PURCHASE
Subscribe PURCHASE
Sign-up SIGNUP
Phone call lead LEAD
Imported lead LEAD
Submit lead form LEAD
Book appointment LEAD
Request quote LEAD
Get directions LEAD
Outbound click LEAD
Contact LEAD
Download DOWNLOAD
Page view PAGE_VIEW
Engagement DEFAULT
Store visit DEFAULT
Store sale PURCHASE
Other DEFAULT

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