Google Ads Developer Blog: April 2017

Support for BudgetOrders and UserLists in AdWords Scripts

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

We are excited to announce support for two new features in AdWords Scripts: BudgetOrders and UserLists. BudgetOrders: We are introducing read-only support for BudgetOrders. You can now access your BudgetOrders to retrieve information like account-level spending limit and credits from Google (note that your account must be on consolidated billing to use these features). UserLists: You now have the opportunity to read and write some of the fields associated with the UserLists in your shared library. You can retrieve member counts, update membership lifespan, and open or close your user lists to new members. When you're ready to try it out or learn more, check out the BudgetOrder and UserList sections of the left navigation bar under our AdWordsApp documentation. If you have any questions about this new feature or AdWords scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.

Allison Greene, AdWords API Team

Playing streaming ads with the IMA SDK for Android

Thursday, April 6, 2017

With the advent of video players that support streaming media formats such as HLS and DASH, publishers can now easily support these formats with the IMA SDK for Android. Here is a list of steps to make this work:

Use a video player that can play streaming video, such as ExoPlayer.

Inform the SDK of your video player's capabilities.

The latter is done via the SDK's AdsRenderingSettings API. Create a new instance of AdsRenderingSettings and then create a list of MIME types you plan to support: AdsRenderingSettings adsRenderingSettings = ImaSdkFactory.getInstance().createAdsRenderingSettings(); ArrayList arrayList = new ArrayList(); arrayList.add("application/x-mpegURL"); //HLS arrayList.add("application/dash+xml"); //DASH adsRenderingSettings.setMimeTypes(arrayList); Then initialize the AdsManager using these AdsRenderingSettings: adsManager.init(adsRenderingSettings); This will allow the SDK to choose streaming ad media to play in your video player. Make sure to add any additional MIME types you plan to support, such as MP4, as this approach assumes that any MIME types not passed in are not supported. FAQ How do I play HLS ads using the IMA SDK for iOS? The default video player used by the iOS IMA SDK supports HLS, so it is not necessary to set that in AdsRenderingSettings. Will this work with the SDK-owned player? No, currently you must use custom playback by implementing the VideoAdPlayer interface. For an example of how to do this, check out our guide on custom playback or AdvancedExample. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us via the support forum.

- Yury Pavlotsky, IMA SDK Team

Sunset of DFP API v201605

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

May 31, 2017deprecation schedule If you're still using this version, now's the time to upgrade to the latest release and take advantage of new features like native ad styling, additional DAI fields, and the change history table. To do so, check the release notes to identify any breaking changes, grab the latest version of your client library, and update your code. Significant changes include:

The integer AdRule.id was replaced with the long AdRule.adRuleId. The values of existing IDs are the same.

Removed paging support from ProposalService.getMarketplaceCommentsByStatement.

getCustomTargetingValuesByStatement() now properly enforces the requirement of a custom targeting key ID in the filter statement.

Added PROPOSAL_OUT_OF_SYNC_WITH_MARKETPLACE that will be thrown in rare cases where a programmatic proposal is out of sync with its Marketplace version.

ProposalAction.DiscardProposalDrafts has been renamed to ProposalAction.DiscardLocalVersionEdits to more accurately reflect its purpose.

Order.programmaticSettings has been removed in favor of Proposal.ProposalMarketplaceInfo.

AD_SERVER_DELIVERY_INDICATOR has been renamed to LINE_ITEM_DELIVERY_INDICATOR and is now a dimension attribute.

Team.companyIds, Team.adUnitIds, and Team.orderIds have been removed. Use Company.appliedTeamIds, AdUnit.appliedTeamIds, and Order.appliedTeamIds instead.

GrpProvider.COMSCORE has been renamed to GrpProvider.GOOGLE.

This is not an exhaustive list, so as always, don't hesitate to reach out to us with any questions. To be notified of future deprecations and sunsets, join the DFP API Sunset Announcements group and adjust your notification settings.

- Gabe Rives-Corbett, DFP API Team

Reminder to PHP users - upgrade to the new Ads PHP library!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Hello PHP developers! In December 2016, we announced the stable release of the new ads PHP library and the deprecation of the old one. This is a reminder to upgrade to the new library by July 31, 2017.

The new PHP library has many improvements such as support of namespaces and Composer installation. It is currently available as the master branch on GitHub. We also provide an upgrading guide to help you during this upgrade.

The old library has been moved to the deprecated branch with reduced support and will reach end of life (EOL) on July 31, 2017. We recommend you complete your upgrade before that date. Past this date, the deprecated branch can still be used until all of the AdWords / DFP API versions it supports are sunset, but we will not add support and examples for new API versions, nor fix any bugs.

If you have questions about upgrading or need help, as always, feel free to ask on the GitHub issues page. If you have questions regarding AdWords or DFP API, please drop us a line on the AdWords or DFP API forums.

- Thanet Praneenararat, Ads Developer Relations Team

Introducing the Mobile Sites certification, for web developers

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Posted by Chris Hohorst, Head of Mobile Sites Transformation via Google Developers Blog.

Mobile now accounts for over half of all web traffic1, making performance on small screens more important than ever.

Despite this increase, a recent study by Google found that the average time it takes to load a mobile landing page is 22 seconds. When you consider that 53% of mobile site visitors will leave a site if it takes more than three seconds to load, it’s clear why conversion rates are consistently lower on mobile than desktop.

Website visitors now expect their mobile experience to be as flawless as desktop, and the majority of online businesses are failing to deliver.

With this in mind, we’re introducing the new Google Mobile Sites certification. Passing the Mobile Sites exam signals that you have a demonstrated ability to build and optimize high-quality sites, and allows you to promote yourself as a Google accredited mobile site developer.

Through codifying best practice in mobile site development, we hope to improve the general standard of mobile design and speed, and make it easier to find the best talent.

What the exam covers
To pass the exam, you’ll need to show proficiency across mobile site design, mobile UX best practice, mobile site speed optimization, and advanced web technologies. We’ve put together a study guide that covers everything you’ll need to know.

What are the benefits?
We know that a lot of web developers are doing great work on mobile sites - this certification is a way of promoting them to a wider audience. Being certified means being recognized by Google as an expert in mobile site optimization, which will make you more accessible and attractive to potential clients looking for a good match for those services.

The certification will display on your Partners profile, helping you stand out to businesses looking for mobile site development, and can also be shared across social media.

How to sign up
Check out our study guide to get started. Then, to take the exam, please click on the Mobile Sites certification link and log in to your Google Partners account. If you’re not signed up yet, you can create a Partners user profile by registering here.

The exam is open to all web developers globally in English and, once completed, the certification will remain valid for 12 months.

1 Google Analytics data, U.S., Q1 2016 from Find Out How You Stack Up to Industry Benchmarks for Mobile Page Speed

Introducing RateLimiter extension in AdWords API Java Client Library

Monday, April 3, 2017

When making any AdWords API call, you should always remember to handle the possibility of a rate limit error properly. Do you feel this is a bit troublesome and want to solve it in one go?

We’ve just released a new Java client library extension named “RateLimiter”, which automatically adds rate limit error handling logic (wait-and-retry) across all threads in a single JVM, so you can focus on implementing core business logic. More excitingly, you just need to change a few lines of code to use it! Check out this open-source extension on GitHub, and follow the instructions to give it a try.

As always, feel free to ask questions or give us feedback via the forum or the project’s issue tracker.

Zhuo Chen, AdWords API Team

Ads Developer Blog