Tag Archives: adwords_api_v201506

AdWords API v201506 sunset reminder

AdWords API v201506 will be sunset on April 11, 2016, after which all v201506 API requests will begin to fail. This version was deprecated on October 5, 2015. If you are still on v201506, we recommend that you migrate directly to v201601 and skip v201509. Please be sure to migrate prior to sunset to ensure your API access is unaffected.

We've prepared various resources to help you with the migration: As always, if you have any questions about this migration, please contact us via the forum or the Ads Developers Plus Page.

Reporting changes in AdWords API v201509

AdWords API v201509 introduces some changes to reporting columns, particularly Clicks. Recently, AdWords introduced new columns called Engagements and Interactions. It also added reporting columns related to video campaigns such as VideoViews, which have previously been unavailable via API reporting. AdWords API version v201509 has updated its reporting to match these changes.

The new Interactions field, available in API performance reports, can be thought of as the main action a user takes with the ad format: clicks for text ads, engagements for Lightbox ads, and views for video ads. Previously, views for video ads were not returned in API reporting, so having access to this data is new.

Prior to v201509, the Clicks field always included both clicks and engagements. Starting in v201509, the Clicks field includes only click actions, like clickthroughs to a landing page or clicks to call. This means that clicks on video ads, which are unpaid, will be included in this field. However, engagements for Lightbox ads will not be counted.

If measuring performance across multiple ad formats, you might consider using Interactions to view the total number of primary user actions on ads, all in the same column. Clicks, Engagements, and VideoViews are available as well for more fine-grained reporting by ad format.

The table below summarizes the changes in each field for various ad formats.

Field
v201506
v201509
Clicks
Text ads: clickthrough to a landing page

Lightbox ads: hover to expanded ad format
Text ads: clickthrough to a landing page or clicks to call

Lightbox ads: clickthrough to a landing page

Video ads: clickthrough to a landing page
Engagements
N/A
Lightbox ads: hover to expanded ad format
VideoViews
N/A
Video ads: view
Interactions
N/A
Text ads: clickthrough to a landing page or clicks to call

Lightbox ads: hover to expanded ad format

Video ads: views

Please note that reporting in v201506 and previous versions is unaffected; they return the same data that they always have, represented the same way. This means that when comparing the data you receive from older versions of the API to user interface reports, or to v201509 reports, the numbers will not directly match up. Video-related stats will still be excluded from v201506. The Clicks column in v201506 will match the Interactions column from v201509 if you subtract out video interactions.

For ease of reporting, it’s recommended to migrate to v201509 as soon as possible.

Keep in mind these aren’t the only reporting changes in v201509 — for more details on conversion-related reporting changes, please see the release notes.

If you have any questions about this or other aspects of the AdWords API, please contact us via the forum or the Ads Developers Plus Page.

Support for v201506 reports in AdWords Scripts

We have added support for AdWords API v201506 reports in AdWords Scripts. This version adds support for FINAL_URL_REPORT, the Upgraded URLs-compatible replacement for the DESTINATION_URL_REPORT.

This version also introduces several changes to the reporting columns
If you use API versioning in your reports, then you need to modify your code to use v201506 as shown below. If you don’t use API versioning, no code changes are required.

var report = AdWordsApp.report(query, {
apiVersion: 'v201506'
});
If you have any questions about this feature or AdWords scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.

More features now available in the AdWords API

Following the release of AdWords API v201506, we've added a few additional features that are available immediately:
  • Android App ‘first open’ conversion tracking. Recently available in AdWords, this new conversion tracking solution measures when a user first opens an app after clicking on an ad and completing an Android app install. Check out the new FIRST_OPEN conversion type in the AppConversion tracker that also supports Postback URLs for Android.
  • A new report specific to final URLs: FINAL_URL_REPORT. The report replaces the deprecated DESTINATION_URL_REPORT and provides statistics aggregated at the final URL level.
We also launched account hiding support recently—see this announcement if you missed it. If you have any questions, feel free to reach us on the forum or via the Ads Developers Plus Page.

Announcing v201506 of the AdWords API

Today we're announcing the release of AdWords API v201506. Here are the highlights:
  • Location extensions within a geographic area is now configurable through the API, which in previous versions was a read-only feature. LocationGroups provides a feedIdthat is now required when specifying a LocationExtensionOperand in the matching function.
  • Updates to reporting. Gmail Sponsored Promotion stats are now available in reporting. We’ve added new columns to existing reports, including the Final Url column to the Search Query report and start and end dates to Campaign Performance report. See the release notes for the complete list.
  • Improved ConstantDataService. CriterionUserInterest objects now have a new parent ID attribute that allows for navigation of the user interest taxonomy hierarchy.
  • AWQL improvements. You can now explicitly include or exclude zero impression rows when requesting reports using AWQL. Also, the DURING clause became optional when defining ALL_TIME reports. Shared set services were extended with the AWQL query() method. 
  • Improvement to labels. You can now programmatically set label descriptions and colors using the API.
If you're using v201409 of the AdWords API, please note that it's being sunset on July 28th, 2015. We encourage you to skip v201502 and migrate straight to v201506. If you're using v201502, be aware it's now marked deprecated and will be sunset on November 5th, 2015.

As with every new version of the AdWords API, we encourage you to carefully review all changes in the release notes and the v201506 migration guide. The updated client libraries and code examples will be published shortly. With this release, we've also updated the Required Minimum Functionality document to include some of the newly added features. If you have any questions or need help with migration, please post on the forum or the Ads Developers Plus Page.