Google Ads Developer Blog

Deprecation of assisted-conversions reporting fields

Monday, August 20, 2018

Starting September 10, 2018, AdWords API and AdWords scripts reports will start returning no values (two dashes) for the following assisted-conversions fields for all API versions:

Why are we deprecating these reporting fields?
Often, the last click before a conversion gets all the credit. But along the way, other clicks and impressions might have guided your customers toward that conversion. Previously, assisted-conversions reporting fields were created to give conversions to the clicks and impressions that assisted in such a scenario. However, it’s still not easy to compare those conversion values between campaigns, ad groups, and keywords, as conversion metrics are double-counted and not normalized.

With the advent of attribution models that allow you to assign fractional credits to multiple clicks that contribute to conversions, you can now distribute credits among many clicks in a way that they can be summed up to 1.00. Conversion reporting fields, such as Conversions, AllConversions, and CrossDeviceConversions, are now returned based on the fractional-credit model, so please migrate to those reporting fields instead.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please post on our forum.

- Thanet Praneenararat, Google Ads API Team

Announcing v3.2 of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Today we're releasing v3.2 of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API. Highlights of this release include:

Support for responsive creatives and placements
Additional signal fields for offline conversions

Details of these and all other changes are covered in our release notes.

Deprecation and sunset reminder
In accordance with our deprecation schedule, this release marks the beginning of the deprecation period for v3.1, which will sunset on February 28, 2019. After this date, any requests made against v3.1 will begin returning errors.

As a final reminder, API version 2.8 will be sunset on August 31, 2018. To avoid an interruption in service, all users are required to migrate to a newer version before the sunset date.

Learn More
As with every new version of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API, we encourage you to carefully review all changes in the release notes. For those of you looking to get going right away, updated client libraries are now available. If you're just starting out, the Get Started guide is a great reference to help you get up and running quickly.

Give it a try and let us know if you have any questions!

- Jonathon Imperiosi, DCM API Team

Announcing the Mediation Test Suite Beta

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Today we're announcing the release of Mediation Test Suite Beta. Mediation Test Suite is a lightweight SDK that enables Google AdMob publishers to easily test mediation ad network integrations without having to make changes in the AdMob UI, saving you and your developers time. It is available on Android, iOS, and Unity.

Mediation Test Suite allows you to:

View a full list of mediation ad source configurations for your app

Automatically check your project for missing SDKs, adapters, and manifest changes required by partner ad sources

Load a banner, interstitial, rewarded, or native ad for any ad source using a certified Google Mobile Ads SDK implementation

Batch test multiple ad sources for the same ad unit

Test both open source mediation adapters and custom event adapters

Integrating Mediation Test Suite is easy -- once you have the SDK imported, it can be launched with just a single line of code. All you need is your AdMob app ID. On Android, the launch code looks like this: import com.google.android.ads.mediationtestsuite.MediationTestSuite; ... String appId = "YOUR-ADMOB-APP-ID"; MediationTestSuite.launch(MainActivity.this, appId); On iOS, all that's required is importing the correct header and launching the Test Suite: #import "GoogleMobileAdsMediationTestSuite.h" ... NSString* appId = @"YOUR-ADMOB-APP-ID" [GoogleMobileAdsMediationTestSuite presentWithAppID:appId onViewController:self delegate:nil]; Unity is just as simple, but please note that you need to use the appropriate app ID for your platform: using GoogleMobileAdsMediationTestSuite.Api; ... #if UNITY_ANDROID string appId = "YOUR-ANDROID-ADMOB-APP-ID"; #elif UNITY_IPHONE string appId = "YOUR-iOS-ADMOB-APP-ID"; #else string appId = ""; #endif MediationTestSuite.Show(appId); Including Mediation Test Suite in production builds is optional You are not required to keep the Mediation Test Suite library in the production release of your app; however, you may choose to leave it in and hide it behind a debug gesture. Doing so enables you to launch Mediation Test Suite within your production build. You can find more information about how to use Mediation Test Suite in the developer guide (Android | iOS | Unity). Remember that Mediation Test Suite is a beta product, so if you have any questions or feedback, please contact us on the developer forum.

- Jon Weisbaum, Mobile Ads Developer Relations

Announcing Google Ads scripts 2018 workshops

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

We are pleased to announce the locations and dates for the 2018 Google Ads (formerly AdWords) scripts workshops. These events will be taking place across the United States, Europe, and Asia in September and October. Please join us for some informative talks and interactive codelabs.

We will be offering multiple sessions for two levels: beginner and advanced users. The beginner sessions are designed for new users of Google Ads scripts and business managers who are considering automation for their existing manual Google Ads processes. The advanced sessions will cater to experienced Google Ads scripts users who want to explore advanced scenarios and keep up with the latest developments.

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

New York City (Advanced) on September 4, 2018
San Francisco (Advanced) on September 7, 2018
Hamburg (Beginner) on September 27, 2018
Hamburg (Advanced) on September 28, 2018
Tokyo (Beginner) on September 28, 2018
London (Beginner) on October 3, 2018
London (Advanced) on October 4, 2018
Singapore (Beginner) on October 15, 2018

We hope to see you there!

- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team

Multi-factor authentication policy for Google Ads accounts

Monday, August 6, 2018

Today, we are rolling out a feature that allows the administrative users of Google Ads accounts to set a required multi-factor authentication policy, including 2-Step Verification. When this new authentication policy is enabled on a particular Google Ads account, all users who want to access that account must have their Google accounts enrolled in 2-Step Verification.

Note: The Google account users can alternately fulfill this requirement by enrolling their accounts in Advanced Protection.

What will happen to your API access?
If 2-Step Verification is required for a particular Google Ads account, then 2-Step Verification also needs to be set up for the Google account used to generate the OAuth2 refresh token accessing the Google Ads account. Follow this link to opt in to 2-Step Verification. Failing to do so will result in the AuthorizationError.TWO_STEP_VERIFICATION_NOT_ENROLLED error when you try to access the Google Ads account.

Access to the Google Ads account will be restored once you opt in to the 2-Step Verification. The multi-factor authentication policy does not affect the way you access the AdWords API or the Google Ads API Beta in any other aspects--you can still use an OAuth2 refresh token and a developer token to access the AdWords API and the Google Ads API Beta as usual.

2-Step Verification ensures only strongly verified users have access to your Google accounts. Opt in now to avoid hitting the AuthorizationError.TWO_STEP_VERIFICATION_NOT_ENROLLED error in advance.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please post on our forum.

- Thanet Praneenararat, AdWords API Team

Upcoming changes to HTML5 template ads in AdWords API & Scripts

Thursday, August 2, 2018

Starting August 27, 2018, creating TemplateAds with IDs 419 (HTML5 Ads) may result in an error in AdWords API and Scripts. AdWords API users will see the error AdError.Reason.USER_DOES_NOT_HAVE_ACCESS_TO_TEMPLATE when creating HTML5 ads using various services.AdWords Scripts users may see an error that the ad cannot be saved when using the HTML5AdBuilder class to create a new HTML5 ad.

Existing accounts that have used or are currently using HTML5 ads will be whitelisted, and will continue to be able to upload HTML5 ads. Existing HTML5 ads will also continue to serve after this date.

If your account is new, or has never used HTML5 ads before, you may be affected by this change. We recommend one of the following options to fix this error:

If you have questions about this change, please reach out to us on the AdWords API forum or AdWords Scripts forum.
- Anash Oommen, AdWords API Team

Changes to YouTube placements in AdWords scripts

Thursday, July 26, 2018

We are rolling out a change to the way placements work when specifying YouTube URLs. Starting on August 14, 2018, using generic placements to specify YouTube channels or videos is going to be disallowed and will result in an error.

For more accurate video targeting, even when videos are played across platforms, use the new specific YouTubeChannel and YouTubeVideo placement criteria when you want to target specific channels or videos in AdWords scripts.

If you have any questions about these changes or AdWords scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.

- Mike Cloonan, AdWords Scripts Team

Ads Developer Blog

Deprecation of assisted-conversions reporting fields

Announcing v3.2 of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API

Announcing the Mediation Test Suite Beta

Announcing Google Ads scripts 2018 workshops

Multi-factor authentication policy for Google Ads accounts

Upcoming changes to HTML5 template ads in AdWords API & Scripts

Changes to YouTube placements in AdWords scripts

Feeds

Labels

Archive

Feeds

Primary Feed

AdWords API

AdWords scripts

Content API for Shopping

Google Ad Manager API

DCM API

Mobile Ads

IMA SDK

More Google blogs