Google Ads Developer Blog: March 2019

Announcing v1_1 of the Google Ads API

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Today we’re announcing the v1_1 release of the Google Ads API. With this version, you’ll continue pointing to v1 as your endpoint; however, you'll need to update your client libraries in order to use v1_1 features. If you're still on the AdWords API, now is a good time to give the new API a try.

Here are the highlights:

Ads. Create assets for asset-based ads using AssetService.
Campaigns. Create App Campaigns (equivalent to Universal App Campaigns in AdWords API) by creating a Campaign and setting the advertising_channel_type to MULTI_CHANNEL and the advertising_channel_sub_type to APP_CAMPAIGN.
Conversions. Adjust conversions with the new ConversionAdjustmentUploadService. Upload call conversions with the UploadCallConversionsRequest in the ConversionUploadService.
Hotel Ads. Hotel Ads now includes more metrics and segments. See the release notes for details.
Recommendations. Added Recommendation types MoveUnusedBudgetRecommendation and KeywordMatchTypeRecommendation.
Reporting. Views were expanded to include more metrics and segments. See the Reporting section in the release notes for exact details.

What resources are available?
Check out these helpful resources:

The updated client libraries and code examples will be published by March 29, 2019. If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the forum.

Nadine Sundquist, Google Ads API Team

Announcing v2.1 of the Content API for Shopping

Monday, March 25, 2019

Updated (Feb 27, 2020): Updated timing of v2 support.
Today we're announcing the release of v2.1 of the Content API for Shopping. This version has been available as an experimental version since late last year and is now ready for production use by all Content API users.

Highlights
You can find a complete list of changes in the release notes and accompanying migration guide, but here are some highlights:

A more consistent product validation experience. Product insert requests no longer report non-fatal warnings or errors. This allows you to insert products and make subsequent updates to resolve issues via feed rules in the Merchant Center UI, just as you would with feeds maintained outside the API.
A better experience for managing Shopping Actions. Multiple improvements have been made to the Orders API based on feedback from beta users.
More features are on the way! Today's release contains many improvements, but more are on the way, including new ways to supply local inventory data and features to support supplemental feeds.
v2 support. We strongly encourage you to migrate to v2.1. Subscribe to this blog to ensure you receive important updates on Content API releases and deprecations.

Updated client libraries
Updated client libraries with support for v2.1 are now available in multiple languages.

Learn more
Check out the v2.1 API reference documentation to explore the new version of the API, and read through the list of behavior changes and deprecations in the migration guide to help plan your upgrade to v2.1.

If you have any questions or need help with migration, please head over to our support forum.
- Josh Radcliff, Content API for Shopping Team

Structured Data Files v4.2 now available in the DoubleClick Bid Manager API

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Today we're announcing the general availability of Structured Data Files (SDF) v4.2 in the DoubleClick Bid Manager API. Highlights of this release include:

Support for TrueView connected TV bid adjustments
Ability to inherit Insertion Order start and end dates at the Line Item level
Renaming changes to better align SDF with the Display & Video 360 UI

All SDF users are encouraged to begin requesting v4.2 files to take advantage of these new features. To do so, simply pass 4.2 as the value of version when calling Sdf.download. For users with workflows that are dependent on older SDF formats, details of the file format changes between versions can be found in the release notes.

- Jonathon Imperiosi, DBM API Team

Registration open for Google Ads scripts 2019 workshops

Monday, March 18, 2019

Join us for informative talks and interactive codelabs at our 2019 Google Ads scripts workshops in Europe, Asia, and Australia from April through June.

The curriculum at each of the 6 workshops will be the same, so make sure to sign up for the one that's most convenient for you.

Please visit the event sites below for more details and to register for an event near you. We will be hosting the following sessions:

We hope to see you there!

- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team

Introducing the Google Ads Query Builder tool

Monday, March 11, 2019

Today we are excited to announce that the Google Ads Query Builder tool is now available on the Google Ads API Developer Site.

The Google Ads API has a robust reporting system that utilizes our new Google Ads Query Language. The language’s syntax allows you to select from all the resources that are available for reporting, and also filter or sort the result set on the server before they are returned to your application.

This tool provides a friendly web interface for you to explore our API’s reporting capabilities, and generate queries that you can copy and paste right into your applications. You can visit the site and try out the tool today!

Example usage of the Google Ads Query Builder: A screenshot showing a sample usage of the Google Ads Query Builder UI, including both filtering and ordering.

A screenshot showing a sample usage of the Google Ads Query Builder UI, including both filtering and ordering.

Happy reporting!

- Cory Liseno, Google Ads API Team

Google Ads API Policy Notes

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

In our recent blog post we announced the launch of Google Ads API v1. Since the Google Ads API and AdWords API can both be used in production systems, we'd like to clarify a couple of policy items.

Terms and Conditions
You will need to accept our updated Terms and Conditions to access production-ready versions of the Google Ads API. If you attempt to access v1 without accepting the new terms, your request will fail with the error AuthorizationError.MISSING_TOS. Existing AdWords API users will not be required to re-accept the new Terms and Conditions to access the legacy API. For instructions on how to accept the new terms, please take a look at this blog post.

Rate Limits
All Google Ads API rate limits are independent of a developer's use of the AdWords API. If a developer token with Basic Access sends a request to one Ads API, the daily request limit for the other API will not be affected.

Furthermore, daily limits for Basic Access developer tokens are different in the Google Ads API than in the AdWords API. They have been set to accommodate the new GoogleAdsService, which is the unified object retrieval and reporting service. Developer tokens with Basic Access can issue 15,000 requests per day. GoogleAdsService.Search requests with the page_token field set, will not count towards the Basic Access limit.

Note: All developer tokens are subject to the daily limit of 1,000 get requests.

Required Minimum Functionality (RMF)
Standard Access tools will continue to be subject to RMF policies. As these tools migrate their functionalities off of the legacy API, they can achieve RMF compliance by using either the AdWords API, Google Ads API or a combination of the two. Required features that are available in both APIs will be documented on both developer sites.

The Google Ads API RMF guide will contain the most up to date RMF list. This list will be made up of RMF items available in the AdWords API as well as new required functionalities that will be made available only in the Google Ads API. RMF due dates for new features will take into account migration efforts from the AdWords API to the Google Ads API.

Resources
For more information on these policy updates, please take a look at the following Google Ads API resources:

If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the forum.
--Google Ads API Team

AdWords API v201806 sunset reminder

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

AdWords API v201806 will be sunset on April 2, 2019. After this date, all v201806 API requests will begin to fail. You have the option of migrating directly to Google Ads API v1, which is ready for your production systems. If you’re not ready for the v1 migration, then please migrate to v201809 prior to April 2, 2019 to ensure your API access is unaffected.

We've prepared various resources to help you with the migration:

If you have questions while you’re upgrading, please reach out to us on the forum.

Nadine Sundquist, Google Ads API Team

Upgrade to the new Google Ads API to get the latest services

Monday, March 4, 2019

Today we’re announcing the production-ready release of the Google Ads API. You should start using v1 in your production systems as we are now out of beta. The v0 beta version of Google Ads API will sunset on April 30, 2019. After this date, all v0 requests will begin to fail. You’ll be pointing to a new v1 endpoint which is different from the v0 endpoint. Please update your client libraries to use the v1 endpoint.

What is the Google Ads API?
The Google Ads API is the replacement of our AdWords API and brings significant advances in innovation and developer productivity. It can be accessed via gRPC with our client libraries and JSON REST for debugging. We are working on getting the last few features released so that all the features in the AdWords API also exist in the Google Ads API. In addition, new features are being added to the Google Ads API that will not be available in the AdWords API.

Google Ads Query Language makes querying more flexible.
Querying returns objects that can immediately be updated in the API.
Coding becomes easier as interacting with lists is more intuitive.
Querying and managing budgets is available to everyone for accounts using consolidated billing.
You can query, apply, and dismiss Recommendations.
Most resources can be mutated synchronously through a single service.
Querying change status in the API is more detailed.

How do I get started?
For existing AdWords API developers:

Use your existing developer token from the AdWords API.
Important: The Terms and Conditions have changed. You’ll need to accept the updated Terms and Conditions and update your contact information in API center. If you don’t, you will get an error when trying to access v1.
- Sign into the API Center of the manager account where you have your developer token at ads.google.com/aw/apicenter.
- Scroll down to API contact email, and update it.
- Scroll down to Principal place of business, accept the new conditions, and click Save.

For new API developers, sign up for a developer token.

Everyone should go through our Quickstart guide to enable Google Ads API and retrieve the newest client libraries.

What resources are available?
Check out these helpful resources:

The updated client libraries and code examples will be published by March 6, 2019. If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the forum.

--Google Ads API Team

Ads Developer Blog