Tag Archives: sunset

AdWords API – Upgrading to account-level location extensions

On July 14th, 2014, AdWords announced upgraded location extensions, a more efficient way to manage and use business locations in ads by linking Google My Business and AdWords accounts.

The upgrade is taking place in phases for AdWords accounts throughout the coming months. The next phase of account upgrades is scheduled to start on August 25, 2014. All AdWords accounts will to be upgraded by November, 2014.

The upgrade has direct impact to AdWords API client applications. If you are using the CampaignAdExtensionService to manage LocationExtensions or LocationSyncExtensions, then you’re using the legacy location extensions that are being phased out. After an account is upgraded, you’ll need to use the new account-level feed-based location extensions.

How will existing location extensions be upgraded by Google?

Please review the AdWords Help Center article for all upgrade scenarios. For AdWords API developers, most accounts will fall into one of these scenarios:
  • Accounts that don’t have any existing legacy location extensions.
  • Accounts that have existing legacy location extensions not sourced from a Google My Business account (i.e., using LocationExtensions only).
  • Accounts that have existing legacy location extensions sourced from a Google My Business account (i.e., using LocationSyncExtensions).
If you programmatically create AdWords accounts that are not associated with any user, please get in touch with your Google representative for migration support.

Accounts that don’t have any existing legacy location extensions

For accounts that aren’t using any LocationExtensions or LocationSyncExtensions but will begin using location extensions, you should use feed-based location extensions instead.

Accounts that have existing legacy location extensions not sourced from a Google My Business account

If you’re using LocationExtension entities to manage individual locations, the automatic upgrade process will perform the following:
  1. A Google My Business account will be created and linked with the AdWords account. All administrators of that AdWords account will have access to locations in the linked Google My Business account.
  2. A CustomerFeed with the Location placeholder type will be created.
  3. Existing locations in LocationExtension entities will be copied into the Google My Business account. Existing LocationExtension entities will then be removed.
  4. Ads in all campaigns will be served with locations from the linked Google My Business account (you can create a CampaignFeed to further filter or disable location extensions served for a given campaign).
Accounts that have existing legacy location extensions sourced from a Google My Business account

If you’re using LocationSyncExtension to link campaigns to a Google My Business account, then the automatic upgrade process will perform the following:
  1. The campaign-level links to the Google My Business account will be switched to a single link at the account level.
    • A CustomerFeed with the Location placeholder type will be created for the account.
  2. Any existing LocationExtension entities will be removed, so make sure they’re copied to the linked Google My Business account before the upgrade.
  3. Ads in all campaigns will be served with locations from the linked Google My Business account (you can create a CampaignFeed to further filter or disable location extensions served for a given campaign).
If an AdWords account is already linked to Google My Business at the account level using CustomerFeed, any existing legacy location extensions will be removed during the upgrade process.

How do I know if an account has been upgraded?

An account is considered upgraded if either condition is true:
  1. It has a CustomerFeed for the Location placeholder type. You can query CustomerFeedService to check: 

    select FeedId, PlaceholderTypes where PlaceholderTypes = 7
  2. It has neither a CustomerFeed nor legacy LocationExtension or LocationSyncExtension entities.
In an upgraded account, any attempts to create legacy location extensions using the CampaignAdExtensionsService will return the AdExtensionError.INVALID_ADEXTENSION_TYPE error.

How do I continue to manage locations?

There’s currently no API support for Google My Business. Locations are managed via the Google My Business Locations interface, which supports bulk management.

Can I start using upgraded location extensions before an account is upgraded?

Since the upgrade process is complicated for many accounts, the simplest approach is to allow accounts using legacy location extensions to be automatically upgraded (account owners will be notified 30 days before the upgrade).

What about reporting?

For upgraded accounts, you’ll need to use the Placeholder Feed Item Report rather than the Ad Extensions Performance Report to download statistics for each location.

We are here to help

If you have any questions about this upcoming change or anything else related to the AdWords API, please contact us on the AdWords API forum or via the Google Ads Developers Google+ page.

- , AdWords API Team

AdWords and DoubleClick Ad Exchange API users – Only 3 weeks left to migrate from ClientLogin to OAuth 2.0!

ClientLogin authentication support for the AdWords API and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange API will sunset along with v201309 on July 21st, 2014. You only have 3 weeks left to migrate!

We have plenty of resources to help you migrate. It might take longer than you expect to migrate to OAuth 2.0, especially if you don't already use a single top-level MCC to manage your AdWords accounts or if you are a DoubleClick Ad Exchange customer.

Start your migration as soon as possible and reach out to us early on the AdWords API Forum or the DoubleClick Ad Exchange API Forum with any questions.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

AdWords API – Using CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD feed placeholder will throw errors

The CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD placeholder was deprecated on April 28th, 2014. Starting July 21st, 2014, using this placeholder with the FeedMappingService will result in a FeedMappingError.INVALID_PLACEHOLDER_FIELD error for all AdWords API versions.

See this post for details on how to set your conversion duration going forward with the CONVERSION TYPE ID placeholder instead.

If you have any questions about this upcoming change or anything else related to the AdWords API, please contact us on the AdWords API forum or via the Google Ads Developers Google+ page.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

AdWords and DoubleClick Ad Exchange SOAP API users – Only two months left to migrate from ClientLogin to OAuth 2.0!

ClientLogin authentication support for the AdWords API and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange SOAP API will sunset along with v201309 on July 21st, 2014. You only have two months left to migrate - don’t wait until the last minute!

We have plenty of resources to help you migrate. It might take longer than expected to migrate to OAuth2, especially if you don't already use a single top-level MCC to manage your AdWords accounts or if you are a DoubleClick Ad Exchange customer.

Start your migration as soon as possible and reach out to us early on the AdWords API Forum or the DoubleClick Ad Exchange API Forum with any questions.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

AdWords API users – don’t wait to migrate from ClientLogin to OAuth 2.0!

ClientLogin authentication support for the AdWords API will sunset along with v201309 on July 21st, 2014. But it doesn’t mean you should wait till the last minute to migrate!

We have plenty of resources to help you migrate. It might take longer than expected to migrate to OAuth2, especially if you don't already use a single top-level MCC to manage your AdWords accounts.

Start your migration as soon as possible and reach out to us early on the AdWords API Forum with any questions.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

Reminder: AdWords API v201306 and Ad Exchange Buyer SOAP API v201306 to be sunset on March 31

As we have previously announced, if you're using the AdWords API or Ad Exchange Buyer SOAP API v201306, please note that support for this version will end on March 31st, 2014. If you are still using v201306 after that date, all requests will fail and your application will cease working until you migrate to a supported version. You can reference either the v201309 or v201402 migration guides for help upgrading to one of these versions.

In addition, remember that ClientLogin support is deprecated and you will have to migrate to OAuth 2.0 in order to authenticate starting in version v201402. It may be best to get this out of the way now, because with the sunset of v201309 on July 21st, 2014, all support for ClientLogin will go away and OAuth 2.0 will be required to access the API. Please reference our OAuth 2.0 migration guide for help with this process.

If you have any questions about this upcoming change or anything else related to the AdWords API, please contact us on the forum or via our Google+ page.

- Michael Cloonan, AdWords API Team

Changes to GCLID field length in AdWords API

In AdWords API v201309 we released a new Google Click ID field (GCLID) in the Click Performance report. Originally, this field value was limited to 26 characters. We will be extending the maximum length of this field in order to support improvements to our advertising system. Starting March 31st 2014, the value of GCLID can be up to 100 characters long.

Since this value is used in many client systems, we’re giving you advance warning of this change. Make sure your log, storage and redirecting systems can handle the extended size of the GCLID value.

Note: as a result of this change, the Click Performance report will only be available for dates up to 90 days before the time of a request. If you need the older click data, download and store these details before March 31st, 2014.

If you have any questions about the change, reach out to us on the forum or via the Google+ page.

- Danial Klimkin, AdWords API Team