Starting January 2021, over 1500 deprecated Geo Region targeting options will no longer be supported in Display & Video 360. This announcement, along with the full list of deprecated options, can be found on the Geography Targeting Help Center article. These deprecated targeting options reflect outdated geographical regions and, therefore, do not change the serving of line items.
In order to account for these deprecations, it is recommended that you use targetingTypes.targetingOptions.get to confirm that a targeting option is still available before assigning it. This should be done before assigning any option not obtained through the Targeting Options service, including those stored locally or copied from existing targeting. This will avoid errors caused by attempting to assign deprecated targeting.
You can read more about the Targeting Options and Assigned Targeting Options services in our reference documentation and on the Set Targeting page of our Managing Line Items guide.
If you have questions or run into issues navigating this process, please contact us using our support contact form.
How will this happen in the API?
This sunset will be reflected in the Display & Video 360 API through the following sequence of events:- Starting today, we will begin removing deprecated targeting from older resources. These resources consist of Line Items or Insertion Orders that are currently archived or have been paused for more than six months.
- In February 2021, the deprecated targeting options will no longer be retrievable through the Targeting Options service and attempts at assigning or removing deprecated targeting through the Line Item Assigned Targeting Options service will return an error.
- After the deprecated targeting options are no longer able to be assigned, we will begin removing deprecated targeting from all remaining resources. Any line items only using deprecated targeting will be paused upon the removal of said targeting. This concludes the formal sunset of the deprecated targeting options.
What should I do to prepare for this?
In anticipation of this sunset, it is recommended that you do the following:- Check to see if any existing Line Items utilize deprecated targeting options. Use advertisers.lineItems.targetingTypes.assignedTargetingOptions.list to list the assigned Geo Region targeting for each active line item and check the targeting against the deprecated targeting options. Remove or replace any deprecated targeting as soon as possible using advertisers.lineItems.bulkEditLineItemAssignedTargetingOptions.
- If you are storing oft-used targeting option IDs locally, cross-reference them against the list of deprecated targeting options. This will avoid errors caused by attempting to assign sunset targeting options.
Should I expect more deprecations in the future?
Users should expect the occasional deprecation and sunset of targeting options in Display & Video 360 in much smaller quantities than this deprecation. As such, future deprecations likely won’t be announced through a blog post or documentation change.In order to account for these deprecations, it is recommended that you use targetingTypes.targetingOptions.get to confirm that a targeting option is still available before assigning it. This should be done before assigning any option not obtained through the Targeting Options service, including those stored locally or copied from existing targeting. This will avoid errors caused by attempting to assign deprecated targeting.
You can read more about the Targeting Options and Assigned Targeting Options services in our reference documentation and on the Set Targeting page of our Managing Line Items guide.
If you have questions or run into issues navigating this process, please contact us using our support contact form.
- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team