Google Ads Developer Blog

Deprecation of DBM API v1 and SDF Download Service

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Today we’re announcing the deprecation of the Doubleclick Bid Manager (DBM) API v1 and the DBM API v1.1 Structured Data File (SDF) Download service. These services will no longer be supported and will be fully sunset on June 15, 2020. Refer to the table below to verify if methods you’re using will be available in v1.1 after June 15, 2020:

Service	Methods	Available in v1.1 after June 15, 2020?
Reporting	queries.createquery queries.deletequery queries.getquery queries.listqueries queries.runquery reports.listreports	Yes
Line Item Settings	lineitems.downloadlineitems lineitems.uploadlineitems	Yes
SDF Download	sdf.download	No. Use the new Display & Video 360 API instead.

If you are using the DBM API v1 Line Item Settings service or Reporting service, you must migrate to v1.1 by the sunset date to avoid an interruption of service. Consult the API release notes for the finer details of the changes between v1 and v1.1. Important things to know are:

Queries created and accessed through the Reporting service require more specific filters in the params.groupBy field in v1.1. You might have to add more values to the params.groupBy field in order to create the same report structure they generated in v1.
Responses from listqueries and listreports calls are paginated in v1.1. Users have to update their implementation to traverse multiple pages if they wish to consume more than the first 100 items returned.
The Line Item Settings service had no changes between v1 and v1.1. Users only have to update the version they are using.

The SDF Download service is deprecated in DBM API v1 and v1.1. Users should immediately migrate to the new Display & Video 360 API, which was released earlier this week. The Display & Video 360 API offers a new asynchronous SDF Download Service featuring new filter options and a new download format compared to its DBM API counterpart.

Guides are available to help you set up the new Display & Video 360 API, as well as use it to get started downloading SDFs.

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team

Preventing App engagement campaigns for prohibited apps

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Starting on April 1, 2020, the Google Ads API will prevent the creation of new App engagement campaigns for apps in prohibited categories.

The Google Ads API currently allows you to create App engagement campaigns for any category of app. But if an app from a prohibited category is chosen, those campaigns are prohibited from serving ads. This can lead to confusion among advertisers.

Enabling the API to validate that such campaigns are indeed eligible to serve before their creation will allow developers to take corrective action early on and also ensure client accounts are able to serve their intended ads.

Change details
App engagement campaigns are identified in the API as campaign objects with the following properties.

Once this change goes into effect, API calls to create campaigns of the above type will fail if the campaign’s app_campaign_setting.app_id references an app in a prohibited category.

Versions v3 and later of the API will throw a SENSITIVE_CATEGORY_APP error. Earlier versions of the API will throw a more generic UNKNOWN error, since the error code is not published in those versions. These errors may surface from the following services and operations.

API Version	Service	Operation	Error
v3+	`CampaignService`	`create`	`CampaignError.SENSITIVE_CATEGORY_APP`
v1, v2	`CampaignService`	`create`	`CampaignError.UNKNOWN`

For instances of error code CampaignError.UNKNOWN, the GoogleAdsError’s details.unpublished_error_code field will indicate, “CampaignError.SENSITIVE_CATEGORY_APP”.

Implementation and support
If you create App engagement campaigns with the Google Ads API, please add error handling for apps in prohibited categories. In order to leverage the new SENSITIVE_CATEGORY_APP error, please upgrade to v3 of the Google Ads API first where possible.

If you’re unable to upgrade versions before the change goes into effect, please check for error code CampaignError.UNKNOWN upon campaign creation, and verify that the error’s details.unpublished_error_code string matches the error name documented in the previous section, to indicate a prohibited category may be in use.

For more details on implementing support for App campaigns, see our App Campaigns developer guide for more information. And as always, if you have any questions about this change, don’t hesitate to reach out to us on the Google Ads API developer forum.
Adam Ohren, Google Ads API Team

Introducing Display & Video 360 API v1

Monday, March 9, 2020

Today we’re releasing the Display & Video 360 API v1. It offers a new, improved way to interact with your Display & Video 360 resources programmatically.

This initial API release includes new asynchronous Structured Data File (SDF) download functionality. This allows for the generation and downloading of large SDFs without worrying about individual API requests timing out. This is a change compared to the existing DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM) API SDF Download service. Along with this change, other major changes include:

New default version logic that utilizes the default version of the partner or advertiser specified by the user.
New filter capabilities, including the ability to specify the exact resources to include in the generated files.
New response format that returns the generated SDFs as a .zip file to download, rather than JSON.

The Display Video 360 API SDF Download service will be replacing the DBM API SDF Download service. The deprecation of that service will be announced soon, and an immediate migration to the new API is advised. You can get started setting up the Display & Video 360 API here, and downloading Structured Data Files here.

More functionality will be coming to the Display & Video 360 API in the coming months, including line item management and targeting. Keep an eye out for future announcements!

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team

Announcing v3_0 of the Google Ads API beta

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Today we’re announcing the v3_0 release of the Google Ads API beta. To use the v3_0 features via the new endpoint, please update your client libraries. If you are upgrading from v1 or v2, some of your code may require changes when you switch to the new v3 endpoint. Please see the migration guide for more information on breaking changes.

Here are the highlights:

Added the ability to stream results from GoogleAdsService.SearchStream(). This is the recommended way for retrieving large scale data from GoogleAdsSearch. Please see this guide for more details.
Added support for moving a client customer to a new manager customer with CustomerManagerLinkService.MoveManagerLink().
Added PaymentMode.GUEST_STAY to enable the pay per stay mode of Hotels Commissions campaigns. This payment mode can only be used in conjunction with campaigns with AdvertisingChannelType.HOTEL, BiddingStrategyType.COMMISSION, and BudgetType.HOTEL_ADS_COMMISSION.

Where can I learn more?
The following resources can help you get going with the Google Ads API:

The updated client libraries and code examples will be published next week. If you have any questions or need additional help, please contact us via the forum.

Nadine Wang, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

Responsive Display Ads in Google Ads Scripts

Monday, February 24, 2020

Today we are adding support for new responsive display ads in Google Ads scripts. Starting last year, you could no longer create legacy responsive display ads, but you could still fetch your existing ads.

These new responsive display ads have added support for multiple text, image, and video assets in the same ad. The ResponsiveDisplayAd object gained new methods to support the new associated fields, and you can begin adding new responsive display ads in your scripts.

The new and legacy responsive display ads are both represented via the same ResponsiveDisplayAd object. Make sure to read the full object documentation to check which methods are relevant for legacy ads or new ads. We also have a short guide demonstrating some of the key changes.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us via the forum.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads scripts Team

Announcing v202002 of the Google Ad Manager API

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

We're happy to announce that v202002 of the Google Ad Manager API is available starting today. This version includes several new features around video ads.

For “Ad Exchange historical” reports, there are several new video Columns available beginning with “AD_EXCHANGE_VIDEO_”. Here are a few of the new metrics:

AD_EXCHANGE_VIDEO_START – the number of impressions where the video was played for video ads by Ad Exchange properties
AD_EXCHANGE_VIDEO_SKIPS – The number of times a skippable video is skipped
AD_EXCHANGE_VIDEO_UNMUTE – The number of times a user unmutes the video ad

You can now associate a video Creative with an ad registry, such as Ad-ID or Clearcast. Video metadata is also getting enhanced with the addition of Content.contentBundleIds to show which ContentBundles a Content object belongs to and Content.cmsMetadataValueIds to show which CmsMetadataValues are associated with a Content object.

The release notes contain the full list of API changes for v202002 and all other active API versions.

Feel free to reach out to us on the Ad Manager API forum with any API-related questions.

- Donovan McMurray, Ad Manager API Team

Gmail on standard Shopping campaigns

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Beginning the week of Mar 4th, 2020, Shopping ads (both Product Shopping ads and Showcase Shopping ads) in your standard Shopping campaigns that target the Google Display Network will be eligible to appear on Gmail in addition to YouTube and Google Discover. This means that reporting information will include Gmail in addition to YouTube and Google Discover for the following configurations:

Google Ads API - Where the standard Shopping campaign advertising_channel_type is SHOPPING and the NetworkSettings for target_content_network is true, the reporting metrics for segment field ad_network_type of CONTENT will include Gmail in addition to YouTube and Google Discover.
AdWords API - Where the standard Shopping campaign AdvertisingChannelType is SHOPPING and the NetworkSetting for targetContentNetwork is true, the SHOPPING_PERFORMANCE_REPORT metrics for segment fields AdNetworkType1 and AdNetworkType2 of type CONTENT will include Gmail in addition to YouTube and Google Discover.

To allow your advertisers to opt-in/opt-out of Gmail, YouTube and Google Discover for standard Shopping campaigns, you will need to enable or disable the following setting:

Google Ads API - Modify the NetworkSettings of the standard Shopping campaign and set target_content_network to true (opt-in) or false (opt-out).
AdWords API - Modify the NetworkSetting of the standard Shopping campaign and set targetContentNetwork to true or false.

If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the forum.

- Ian Ballantyne, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

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