Upgrade to Gmail ads from Gmail template ads

On August 15, 2018, creating TemplateAds with IDs 464 (Gmail single promotion template), 466 (Gmail multi-product template), and 497 (Gmail multi-call-to-action template) will result in the error: AdError.Reason.USER_DOES_NOT_HAVE_ACCESS_TO_TEMPLATE. These template ads are now considered deprecated, but existing template ads with these IDs will continue to serve after this date.

If you would like to create a Gmail ad, use the new GmailAd introduced in v201802. Use this new entity instead of the deprecated Gmail template ads going forward.

Here are some tips to ease the transition:
  • Create new GmailAds in a paused campaign with the AdvertisingChannelType as DISPLAY and the AdvertisingChannelSubType as DISPLAY_GMAIL_AD.
  • Use MediaService to upload images or retrieve existing media IDs.
  • Enable the new campaign when the ads are ready, letting it run in parallel with the Gmail template ad campaign.
  • Pause and remove the Gmail template ad campaign when you’re comfortable with the new Gmail campaign.
For an implementation example, see the Add a Gmail ad to an ad group sample in any of our supported client libraries: Java, PHP, Python, Ruby, Perl, C#, and VB.NET.

If you have questions while you’re upgrading, please reach out to us on the AdWords API forum.
Nadine Sundquist, AdWords API Team