Tag Archives: adwords_api

Feed-based Extensions Sunset in Google Ads APIs

Google Ads has recently introduced Asset-based extensions. This new paradigm reduces the complexity of managing extensions when compared to the existing Feed-based extensions. Asset-based extensions will only be supported in Google Ads API.

Asset-based extensions will replace the current Feed-based extensions. All existing Feed-based extensions will automatically migrate in two batches. Other services that use Feeds, such as Location extensions, Dynamic Ads, and Page Feeds, will be discussed in future announcements.

Extension
Type 		Asset
Available to
Test
Accounts 		Asset
Available to
Production
Accounts 		Auto
Migration
Date 		Feeds
Sunset
Date
Lead Form Google Ads API v6 Google Ads API v6 October 20, 2021 February 15, 2022
Promotion Google Ads API v7 Google Ads API v7 October 20, 2021 February 15, 2022
Callout
Sitelink
Structured Snippet		 Google Ads API v7 Google Ads API v8
(tentative)		 October 20, 2021 February 15, 2022
App
Call
Hotel Callout
Image
Price		 Google Ads API v9
(tentative)		 Google Ads API v9
(tentative)		 February 15, 2022 April 8, 2022


What do I need to do?
You should migrate any Feed-based extensions and related code that you intend to continue to use to Asset-based extensions as soon as is feasible. You should remove Feed-based extensions after migrating; for a given extension type, any Asset-based extensions will serve instead of Feed-based extensions. See our extensions migration guide for details. Consider developing and testing your Asset-based extension implementation using a test account so as to access all the currently available Asset types.

After the automatic migration dates, you will no longer be able to create or mutate Feed-based extensions in the AdWords API or the Google Ads API. Feed-based extensions will no longer generate new data. You will still be able to issue Feed-related report queries until August 2022; thereafter all Feed-based extension data will be removed and report queries will return errors.

What if the October date is too soon?
You can request to opt individual accounts out of the October auto migration; the process for doing so will be announced in a subsequent blog post. Note that the Feed-based extensions in the first batch will still become unavailable for all accounts in February 2022.

If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please contact us via our forum.
Andrew Burke, Google Ads API Team

AdWords API and Scripts: Deprecation of Automatic Placements in the Placement Performance Report

Starting June 10, 2021, the Placement Performance Report for the AdWords API and Google Ads scripts will exclude automatic placements according to data retention policy changes. Afterwards, the Placement Performance Report will only contain the data for managed and excluded placements at the ad group level.

What's changing?
The schema (attributes, segments and metrics) of the Placement Performance Report will remain the same, but only the data for managed and excluded placements will be available. The data for automatic placements that have not been explicitly targeted will be removed from this report, and queries for the automatic placements data (WHERE Id = 0) from this report will return empty results.

Who will be impacted?
All developers that access the Placement Performance Report using the AdWords API or Google Ads scripts today for automatic placements reporting will be affected.

What should you do?
Before June 10, 2021, review and modify the reporting queries in your AdWords API and Google Ads scripts applications to use the Automatic Placement Performance Report instead for automatic placements reporting.

If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us through the Google Ads API and AdWords API forum or at [email protected].
Fan Wang, Google Ads API Team

Upgrade to the Google Ads API from the AdWords API by April 27, 2022

If you are a developer currently using the AdWords API, you need to upgrade to the Google Ads API by April 27, 2022. On that date, the AdWords API will sunset and requests to the AdWords API will fail. With Google Ads API v7, we reached feature parity with the AdWords API making it possible for all developers to upgrade with a few exceptions listed at the top of the Migrating Features guide.

With the Google Ads API, you’ll see faster rollouts of new features and updates for tools like recommendations, asset management, and new ad types. We’ve also made improvements to existing features like Keyword Planner, change history, and billing. This provides more features to manage your campaigns and increases overall productivity.

Where do I start?
Any developers applying for a new developer token after today will only be given access to the Google Ads API. The following are useful resources for new API users: Existing AdWords API developers should start upgrading. Here are some resources to get started: Where can I get support?
If you have questions while you’re upgrading, please reach out to us on the forum or at [email protected].
Nadine Wang, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

Announcing v7 of the Google Ads API

Today, we’re announcing the v7 release of the Google Ads API. To use the v7 features, you will need to upgrade your client libraries and client code. The updated client libraries and code examples will be published next week. For more information on breaking changes, see the migration guide.

Here are the highlights:
  • We now have new assets that are available in test accounts:
    • Callout assets
    • Structured snippet assets
    • Sitelinks assets
  • The promotion assets we’ve added are available in production and test accounts.
  • The Google Ads API now supports reporting for Apple’s SKAdNetwork. This feature allows advertisers to query how many SKAdNetwork conversions they receive from their iOS apps as well as the SKAdNetwork conversion value of those conversions.
  • Keyword Planning now supports:
    • Refining keywords using annotation data
    • Selecting a custom date range for search volume
    • Requesting aggregate metrics for generated keyword ideas and for keywords in a keyword plan
  • We’ve added ad_group_ad_label and ad_group_criterion_label labels for easier filtering and selection.
  • You can now manage bidding strategy and campaign simulations.
  • We updated our resource exceeded errors to include more detail such as what type of limit was exceeded and how many resources are allowed by that limit.
  • You can now use marginal ROI campaign budget recommendations. This recommendation suggests adjusting a campaign's budget if we predict that its ROI will go up.
See the release notes for details and for more features.

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.
Nadine Wang, Google Ads API Team

Upcoming Change to the Enforcement of Temporary IDs with Product Partitions and Listing Groups

Beginning in May, 2021 we will enforce a requirement that temporary IDs be unique for all objects in newly created listing groups (used for Hotel Ads and Shopping Ads in the Google Ads API) and product partitions (used for Shopping Ads in the AdWords API). This change will affect all versions of both the AdWords and Google Ads APIs.

Temporary IDs must be unique across an entire mutate request–even if the objects are in separate listing group trees or product partition trees.

In order to avoid unnecessary breakages, API users should update their applications to ensure that all temporary IDs used in individual requests are unique.

Here is a snapshot of the expected behavior for requests that continue using non-unique temporary IDs:

API and mutate method Current Behavior New Behavior
BatchJobService with the Google Ads API Customers will receive a non-specific error, meaning it may not specify that the issue is related to temporary IDs. Customers will start receiving failed operations that contain the error: MutateError.MUTATE_ERROR_TEMP_ID_ALREADY_EXISTS
BatchJobService with the AdWords API Customers will receive a non-specific error, meaning it may not specify that the issue is related to temporary IDs. Customers will start receiving failed operations that contain the error: NewEntityCreationError.DUPLICATE_TEMP_IDS
AdGroupCriterionService or GoogleAdsService.Mutate with the Google Ads API Customers will not receive an error. Customers will start receiving the error: MutateError.MUTATE_ERROR_TEMP_ID_ALREADY_EXISTS
AdGroupCriterionService with the AdWords API Customers will not receive an error. Customers will start receiving the error: NewEntityCreationError.DUPLICATE_TEMP_IDS


If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us via the forum or at [email protected].
- Ben Karl, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

AdFormat in Search Query Performance Report will start returning UNKNOWN starting 2021-05-12

On 2021-05-12 we will deprecate the  AdFormat column in the Search Query Performance Report for AdWords API and Google Ads scripts. From then onwards, the report will return UNKNOWN for this field. This does not affect the Google Ads API.

The AdFormat column provides the type of creative that was triggered such as text, image, or video. If you still require this information, you can instead select AdGroupId and CreativeId from the same report, then call AdGroupAdService.get() to retrieve the Ad.type field.

This completes the migration that was started in January 2020 to remove AdFormat from all reports.

If you have any questions about this or anything else related to the AdWords API, please reach out to our support team on the forum.

Nick Birnie, Google Ads API Team

Combining Similar Bid Strategies

The v6 release of the Google Ads API added support for Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value bid strategies in Search campaigns. This includes a new read-only MaximizeConversions.target_cpa field. Bid strategies having either this new target_cpa field or the read-only MaximizeConversionValue.target_roas field act identically to TargetCpa and TargetRoas bid strategies, respectively. In the future, bid strategies for Search campaigns will be reorganized for simplification.

What’s Changing

For Search campaigns, TargetCpa and TargetRoas will no longer be separate from the MaximizeConversions and MaximizeConversionValue bid strategies. Instead, they will be represented as MaximizeConversions and MaximizeConversionValue bid strategies with their respective target_cpa and target_roas fields set. Use of TargetCpa and TargetRoas as separate strategies will be deprecated.

There will be no impact to bidding behavior due to these changes. The MaximizeConversions bid strategy using the new optional target_cpa setting will still behave like the TargetCpa strategy does today, and likewise, MaximizeConversionValue using the new optional target_roas setting will behave like TargetRoas.

Before After
TargetRoas MaximizeConversionValue.target_roas
TargetCpa MaximizeConversions.target_cpa


Starting in April 2021, the Google Ads UI will start allowing some users to create MaximizeConversions and MaximizeConversionValue bid strategies with their target_cpa and target_roas fields set, in lieu of the old-style TargetCpa and TargetRoas bid strategies. This change will gradually ramp-up to more accounts over time.

The target_roas and target_cpa will remain read-only to API users until a future version of the API enables mutate functionality.

What to Do
Developers should ensure their code treats Search campaigns that have MaximizeConversions with a set target_cpa field and MaximizeConversionValue with a set target_cpa field the same way it treats TargetCpa and TargetRoas bid strategies, respectively.

We will publish an update on the blog when the above fields are mutable, along with several months' notice before TargetCpa and TargetRoas strategies are deprecated in Search campaigns.

If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us via the forum or at [email protected].
Adam Ohren, Google Ads API Team

Combining Similar Bid Strategies

The v6 release of the Google Ads API added support for Maximize conversions and Maximize conversion value bid strategies in Search campaigns. This includes a new read-only MaximizeConversions.target_cpa field. Bid strategies having either this new target_cpa field or the read-only MaximizeConversionValue.target_roas field act identically to TargetCpa and TargetRoas bid strategies, respectively. In the future, bid strategies for Search campaigns will be reorganized for simplification.

What’s Changing

For Search campaigns, TargetCpa and TargetRoas will no longer be separate from the MaximizeConversions and MaximizeConversionValue bid strategies. Instead, they will be represented as MaximizeConversions and MaximizeConversionValue bid strategies with their respective target_cpa and target_roas fields set. Use of TargetCpa and TargetRoas as separate strategies will be deprecated.

There will be no impact to bidding behavior due to these changes. The MaximizeConversions bid strategy using the new optional target_cpa setting will still behave like the TargetCpa strategy does today, and likewise, MaximizeConversionValue using the new optional target_roas setting will behave like TargetRoas.

Before After
TargetRoas MaximizeConversionValue.target_roas
TargetCpa MaximizeConversions.target_cpa


Starting in April 2021, the Google Ads UI will start allowing some users to create MaximizeConversions and MaximizeConversionValue bid strategies with their target_cpa and target_roas fields set, in lieu of the old-style TargetCpa and TargetRoas bid strategies. This change will gradually ramp-up to more accounts over time.

The target_roas and target_cpa will remain read-only to API users until a future version of the API enables mutate functionality.

What to Do
Developers should ensure their code treats Search campaigns that have MaximizeConversions with a set target_cpa field and MaximizeConversionValue with a set target_cpa field the same way it treats TargetCpa and TargetRoas bid strategies, respectively.

We will publish an update on the blog when the above fields are mutable, along with several months' notice before TargetCpa and TargetRoas strategies are deprecated in Search campaigns.

If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us via the forum or at [email protected].
Adam Ohren, Google Ads API Team

Changes to Showcase Shopping ads

On April 5, 2021, support for Showcase Shopping ads will be removed from the AdWords API. Users will no longer be able to create or update the following Showcase Shopping objects, and attempts to do so will result in the following errors.

Object Error
AdGroups

with adGroupType SHOPPING_SHOWCASE_ADS		 OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CAMPAIGN_TYPE
AdGroupAds containing ShowcaseAds OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_AD_GROUP_TYPE


Any remaining Showcase ad groups will be set to REMOVED status, and remaining AdGroupAds containing ShowcaseAds will be set to DISABLED status and stop serving. Developers can still retrieve historical metrics for these ads and ad groups by fetching reports that explicitly filter to include REMOVED or DISABLED objects.

This change only affects AdWords API users. Management of Showcase Shopping ads is not supported by Google Ads API or Google Ads scripts.

If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us via the forum or at [email protected].
Adam Ohren, Google Ads API Team

New Personalized Advertising Policies Enforcement in Google Ads API and AdWords API

Starting March 25, 2021, we are rolling out a change in the Google Ads API and AdWords API, to require advertisers who apply to the latest Personalized advertising policies to acknowledge these changes in the Google Ads UI. Campaign creation requests via the API will be rejected for these advertisers until they click to accept the changes.

Who will be impacted?
Advertisers promoting housing, employment, or credit products or services to audiences in the U.S. and Canada will be impacted.

What's changing?
You will receive the following errors when trying to create new campaigns via the API if the new policies have not been acknowledge:

API Version Error Code Error Message
Google Ads API v6.1 CampaignError.HEC_AGREEMENT_REQUIRED Customers with Housing, Employment, or Credit ads must accept updated personalized ads policy to continue creating campaigns
Google Ads API (older versions) CampaignError.UNKNOWN Same as above.
AdWords API (v201809) CampaignService.OperationAccessDenied Same as above.


What should you do?
  • Before March 25, 2021, make sure to add support for the new policy errors in your application.
  • Ensure that the account administrators have accepted the policy changes in the Google Ads UI following this guide.
If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us through the Google Ads API and AdWords API forum or at [email protected].
Fan Wang, Google Ads API Team