Tag Archives: AdSense

Register now for the AdWords scripts workshops!

We’re pleased to announce the first ever workshops for AdWords scripts. The workshops will be held at the following locations:

        New York: June 29th, 2015
        San Francisco: July 10th, 2015

This round of workshops will cater to both beginners and advanced scripters. We'll have code labs where you will build your own scripts from scratch, with the help from the Scripts team. Bring your laptop and an idea to get it scripted!

Whether you’re an advertiser who wants to learn about how scripts can automate your account management tasks, a developer who wants to polish your scripting skills, or a scripts enthusiast who wants to meet fellow scripts experts, you can find it all in these workshops.

Visit our website to check out the full agenda and sign up.

If you have any questions about the workshops, you can post them on our forums. Check out our Google+ page for Ads APIs updates.

Anash P. Oommen, AdWords scripts Team

New features and guides in AdWords scripts

Shopping Content API
AdWords scripts now support Google Shopping Content API which gives Google Merchant Center users the ability to upload and manage their product listings and manage their Merchant Center accounts. The Shopping Content API can be enabled through the Advanced APIs dialog. See our guide and code snippets to learn more about this feature.

Account level extensions
AdWords scripts now support account-level extensions: AccountCallout, AccountMobileApp, and AccountReview. You can access these extensions using the extensions() method of the Account object. Appropriate creation and deletion methods are also available for these extensions on the Account object. See our guide for more details and usage examples.

Resolve geo names in reports
The AdWordsApp.report() method now supports an option named resolveGeoNames, which controls whether or not to convert Geo Criteria IDs (e.g., CountryCriteriaId or CityCriteriaId) into names ('United States', 'San Francisco', etc.). Set this option to true to get names, false to get numerical IDs. This option defaults to true.

Updated best practices guide
We have updated the best practices guide to cover a lot of common performance issues that your scripts may run into, and how to improve them.

New weather-based management script
The new weather-based management script improves upon the the popular bid-by-weather script by providing a framework where you can add your own campaign management logic.

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

Anash P. Oommen, AdWords scripts Team

Reminder: AdWords Destination URLs will become read-only on July 1, 2015

We would like to remind you that as previously announced, destination URL fields in AdWords will become read-only on July 1, 2015. Starting on that date, we will also begin upgrading your URLs (if eligible) to the new Upgraded URLs structure.

Once this change goes live, you will get the following errors from the AdWords API: In AdWords scripts, all methods that set the destination URL of various entities have been marked deprecated, and will generate a user error after July 1, 2015.

Before then, be sure to update your AdWords API and scripts code. Use the Upgraded URL fields instead of the destination URL field when creating entities such as ads, keywords, or sitelinks. You can refer to our migration guide to learn how to upgrade your URLs, or our feature guide to learn more about Upgraded URLs. All our client libraries fully support upgraded URLs, and provide code examples that show you how to use this feature and upgrade your URLs.

If you have any further questions about this change, let us know via our API or scripts forum, or Google+ page.

Anash P. Oommen, AdWords API Team

More reasons for you to go multi-screen

"Mobile to overtake fixed Internet access by 2014"* was a memorable headline a few years ago. We're passing the mobile tipping point and seeing a 70% year over year increase from AdSense impressions on mobile devices. This is just one reason why it’s more important now than ever before for your website to be multi-screen friendly. Here are a few more reasons why you should take an action now.

1. Mobile Google Search algorithm has been changed 

Recently, we announced that Google Search uses a website’s multi-screen friendliness as a ranking signal. This means that websites that are mobile friendly are now easier to find than those that aren’t, for users searching on their mobile devices.  If your website is not mobile friendly, this change will affect its discoverability, which may impact your traffic and AdSense long-term revenue.

2. More publishers are seeing success from going multi-screen

Shifting your website strategy to multi-screen takes time. The good news is that more publishers are starting to see a positive impact including: increased traffic, longer user engagement, and higher AdSense performance. Check out these stories from publishers who have successfully shifted to multi-screen: digiSchool, Famous Birthdays, ThriftyFun.com, and more.

3. More resources are available to ease your policy concerns 

Policy concerns, such as ensuring proper ad placement on a small screen, might be one of the reasons stopping you from going multi-screen, so we’ve created some new resources for you. Check out our Policy FAQs for mobile optimized (multi-screen) websites to help you understand what you should consider when placing ads on your mobile site.

4. Additional resources are available to help you go multi-screen

Do you lack the time or the expertise needed to build your multi-screen friendly website? We’ve identified some vendors** who can help you transition to a multi-screen friendly site easily. You can search these vendors by location, type of website, and services provided.

New vendors added in the past 6 months:
Keep your mobile strategy going with our Multi-Screen Guidelines. This guide will give you everything you need to know about multi-screen strategy from the basics to beyond. If you’re starting out, the Starter Guide will walk you through how to build a multi-screen friendly website. If you’ve already got a multi-screen friendly website, the Implementation Guide can give you more tips around monetization, user experience and SEO.

*Mary Meeker, 2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update
**Note that recommended vendors are independent companies and not affiliated with Google in any way. Google assumes no liability for any vendor's actions.

Posted by Maiko Fujita - Multi-Screen Strategist
Was this blog post useful? Share your feedback with us.

Source: Inside AdSense


AdWords API 2015 Workshop slides and videos now available

Did you miss our recent series of workshops? Did you attend a workshop, but can't seem to remember what was on slide 32 of the upgraded URLs presentation?

If so, then you're in luck! The videos and slides are now available at adwordsapiworkshops.com for your enjoyment. The Resources section has links to individual presentation videos and slides, or you can just grab a coffee, find a comfortable chair, and watch the complete list of videos.

Have questions? Feel free to visit us on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

Upgrade former AdWords interest category campaigns

In December 2014, we announced that “Other interests” has been superseded by affinity and in-market audiences. As a part of this transition, the associated criteria are no longer supported in AdWords API v201502.

To finalize this sunset, we’ll be auto-upgrading existing deprecated criteria of this type to supported ones. The auto-upgrade will happen gradually over several weeks starting May 15, 2015.

Campaigns that target "Other interests" will be automatically upgraded to one or more of the following options:
  • Affinity audiences for driving brand awareness and engagement from a defined list of categories;
  • In-market audiences for reaching customers actively researching and intending to make a purchase;
  • Topic targeting to target websites about specific topics.
Campaigns with "Other interests" exclusions will be converted to Topic exclusions during this upgrade. Campaigns that don’t target "Other interests" will not be affected by this upgrade. If you'd like to keep full control of your campaign targeting, make sure to upgrade your campaigns before May 15.

If you have any questions or need help with the upgrade, please post on the forum or the Ads Developers Plus Page.
 - , AdWords API Team.

Change to default filters within AdWords API Reporting

Starting this week AdWords API reports will by default return all objects regardless of their status. API users will need to specify a custom predicate in order to filter out removed entries.

With AdWords API v201502 we made the handling of removed items consistent across services by changing the default filter of all services to exclude all removed entries.

We also included a few reports in this change, but based on your feedback, we’re reverting back to the old behavior. The new filters proved to be confusing and caused discrepancies between reports on different levels. In practice, most API users like to see historical stats of all objects regardless of their current status, so we are making it the default.

As of this week, we’ll start returning all entries in AdWords API Reports regardless of their status by default. This fully matches the old v201409 behavior. You can still filter out removed entries by specifying a custom predicate. Note that non-reporting services will still filter out removed entries by default in v201502 and later, as they do now.

If you have any questions or need help with the migration, please post on the forum or the Ads Developers Plus Page.

 - , AdWords API Team.

Sunset of MobileAd and MobileImageAd Ad Types

Starting June 2015, AdWords will no longer support WAP mobile ads for devices without a full-featured browser, including feature phones. At that time, the AdWords API will no longer support creation of new MobileAds or MobileImageAds. Any remaining ads with these types will stop serving and be converted into DeprecatedAds with status REMOVED. These changes will be visible in all supported versions of the API, though the DeprecatedAd.type field may be UNKNOWN until it can be added to the WSDL in a subsequent API release.

Historical performance metrics for any removed ads will still be available for download via the API’s AD_PERFORMANCE_REPORT.

Next steps
To reach the broadest set of mobile users with your campaigns, we recommend that you: Still have questions? Feel free to visit us on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

- Adam Ohren, AdWords API Team

AwReporting: Upgraded to use AdWords API v201502

We’ve upgraded the AwReporting tool to use the latest AdWords API version, v201502. The code changes were made according to the migration guide.

Note that besides code changes, the database tables’ column names have also been updated to reflect the new report field names. Since these changes are scattered around many tables, you can run this version of AwReporting on a new database schema, then use the schema generation command to generate both database schemas and compare them. You can also create SQL scripts to import data from old database tables to new ones with updated column names.

We’ve put the code changes in the v201502_upgrade branch. Please feel free to pull this branch and give it a try. Remember to update the properties file to use the new report field names. This upgrade branch will be merged into the master branch at the end of May.

If you have any questions or feedback regarding this upgrade, let us know via the project’s issue tracker.

Zhuo Chen, AdWords API Team

Upcoming changes to mobile app install ads on the Search Network

As part of our ongoing effort to improve app promotion features in AdWords, we are making some changes to mobile app install ads (also known as click-to-download ads) on the Search Network. Starting July 1, 2015, we will support the creation of app install ads for the Search Network only in the Search Network only - Mobile app installs campaign type. In addition, app install ads created for the Search Network outside of this campaign type will stop running in July 2015. This includes any app install ads running together with website text ads in a Search Network only - All features campaign.

If you are a developer who manages app install ads for the Search Network using the AdWords API, you need to perform the following changes on your end:
  • When creating new app install ads for the Search Network, make sure you create them only within Search Network only - Mobile app installs campaigns. These campaigns have their advertisingChannelType set to SEARCH and advertisingChannelSubType property set to SEARCH_MOBILE_APP.
  • If you have app install ads in your regular search campaigns, you need to move them to a Search Network only - Mobile app installs campaign. This may be done as follows:
    • Retrieve your Search campaigns containing app install ads.
    • For each campaign, create a new campaign with similar settings (such as location targeting, device targeting, ad delivery, etc.) with the advertisingChannelSubType changed to SEARCH_MOBILE_APP.
    • Mirror over your ad groups in the old campaign to the new campaign.
    • Mirror over your app install ads from the first campaign to the second campaign, in the corresponding ad groups.
    • Run an ad performance report to see how much you’ve spent on app install ads during the last month. Update your campaign budgets as follows:
      • new_campaign_daily_budget = app_install_cost / 30
      • old_campaign_daily_budget = old_campaign_daily_budget - new_campaign_daily_budget
  • [Optional] Delete or pause app install ads in the old campaign.
See our Help Center guide for more details.

To ensure uninterrupted serving of app install ads on the Search Network, make sure you move them to a Search Network only - Mobile App installs campaign before July 1, 2015.

If you have any further questions about this change, let us know via our forum or Google+ page.

Anash P. Oommen, AdWords API Team