Google Ads Developer Blog: January 2014

Reminder: AdWords API v201306 and Ad Exchange Buyer SOAP API v201306 will sunset on March 31st, 2014

Thursday, January 30, 2014

We’d like to remind you that v201306 of the AdWords API and Ad Exchange Buyer SOAP API are scheduled to be sunset on March 31st, 2014. Start your migration to v201309 now to avoid having your API calls fail on the sunset date. If you are still using ClientLogin, we strongly recommend that you also migrate to OAuth2.

The following will help you to migrate to v201309:

Announcement blog post for v201309 — includes highlights of v201309
Release notes — lists every API change and version diffs
Migration guide — includes a listing of breaking changes between v201306 and v201309
Client libraries and samples page — updated official client libraries

ClientLogin to OAuth2 migration

For migration help, contact us on the AdWords API forum or Ad Exchange Buyer API forum. Our Google+ page is also a great resource for keeping up-to-date with the latest announcements and communicating with us.

Mark Saniscalchi, Ads Developer Relations Team

Ending support for iOS 5 in the IMA SDK

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

On February 18, 2014, we will stop providing forum support or bug fixes for iOS IMA SDK issues specifically related to iOS 5. This applies to the current beta of the iOS IMA SDK as well as all future releases.

What does this mean if an app is currently targeting iOS 5?

There will be no specific SDK change on February 18th that will break compatibility, so the iOS IMA SDK should continue to work with iOS 5 in the short term. However, after that date, the SDK won't be guaranteed to work for iOS 5 apps.
Bugs that only affect iOS 5 will no longer be prioritized.
If a specific iOS IMA SDK release significantly breaks functionality in iOS 5, it will be documented in the release notes.
This support change will not require you to make any changes to your app specific to the iOS IMA SDK, but you may have to make some changes to your app to set its Deployment Target to iOS 6+.

What about other iOS versions?

We periodically stop supporting older iOS versions when adoption levels fall below a small threshold. Any time we are preparing to end support for a major iOS release, we will make an early announcement on our blog and release notes page.

If you need any help with iOS IMA SDK issues encountered when targeting your application for iOS 6, or about the iOS IMA SDK in general, let us know on the IMA SDK forum or check out the IMA SDK iOS Quick Start Guide. Follow our Google+ page for other announcements and updates.

- Bret McGowen, IMA SDK Team

Reminder: Change to contentBid setting in “Display Network Only” campaigns

Monday, January 27, 2014

As previously announced, we are removing the ability to set contentBid for “Display Network only” campaigns in the AdWords API on February 18th, 2014. Once this change happens, you will start receiving a ReadOnlyError.READ_ONLY error for all versions of the API if you set contentBid for a “Display Network only” campaign. You can use the fieldPath of the ApiError object to identify the operation triggering the error.

To make sure your applications and scripts work properly, you should make the following changes to your application code before February 18th, 2014:

modify your code to set the default ad group bid instead of contentBid for “Display Only Campaigns”
clear out the contentBid field for “Display Only Campaigns” so that AdWords will start using the default ad group bid when serving your ads
if you store campaigns in a local data store, re-sync your data store with AdWords to pick up the updated default bid values

If you have any questions about this change or the AdWords API in general, you can post them on our developer forum. You can also follow our Google+ page for updates about the AdWords API.

Anash P. Oommen, AdWords API Team

Ensuring reliable performance with new filter limits for AWQL and reports

Thursday, January 23, 2014

To ensure reliable performance for all developers and advertisers, AdWords API and AdWords scripts will start enforcing a limit of 10,000 matching values as arguments for the IN and NOT_IN operators starting March 31, 2014.

You may be affected by this change if you construct large queries that have thousands of matching values using these operators in one of these use cases:

Once this change goes into effect, our servers will start throwing a SelectorError if your queries contains more than 10,000 matching values for IN and NOT_IN operators. For AdWords API v201309, the error reason would be set to SELECTOR_ERROR. In newer versions, the error reason would be set to TOO_MANY_PREDICATE_VALUES.

To make sure your applications and scripts work properly, check any code that constructs queries for reports and AWQL and add necessary limit checks before March 31, 2014.

If you have any questions about this change, you can post them on AdWords API or Scripts developer forums.

Anash P. Oommen, AdWords API Team

Making creative more intelligent

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

[Editor's note: repost from DoubleClick Advertiser Blog. --Stan Grinberg]

Your media plan is only as good as your creative message. Once you reach the right people, are you telling them something they actually want to hear?

- Pete Crofut, Creative Platforms Evangelist, Google

For the past six months, we’ve partnered with iMedia Connection on a series of articles that explore modern storytelling and the ways that new digital technologies are making ad creative more intelligent. We laid out the challenges advertisers face, examined engaging and data-infused creative examples, and discussed how to make these ads captivating across screens, measurable and scalable.

Today, we conclude this series with a final article, “Technology makes creative more intelligent”, which provides new creative examples and explains how the creative imperative fits into Google’s broader perspective on the "what,” "why" and "how" of modern brand building (entitled the Engagement Project.)

The tools and technology are available to help make your stories come to life online. Now’s the time to embrace the opportunity and think about your creative from a cross-screen, digital-first perspective, to craft messages that will engage people wherever they are.

Posted by Becky Chappell, DoubleClick Marketing

New Google Mobile Ads SDK Adds Support for DFP, Search Ads, and Ad Exchange

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of new Google Mobile Ads APIs as part of the Google Play services 4.1 update. The update includes:

Support for DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), Search Ads for Apps, and DoubleClick Ad Exchange

A new location API

DoubleClick for PublishersThis release adds new DFP specific APIs to the com.google.android.gms.ads.doubleclick package. For example, you can use the new APIs to request a 320x50 banner ad from DFP as follows:PublisherAdView adView = new PublisherAdView(this); adView.setAdUnitId("MY_DFP_AD_UNIT_ID"); adView.setAdSizes(AdSize.BANNER); LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.mainLayout); layout.addView(adView); PublisherAdRequest request = new PublisherAdRequest.Builder().build(); adView.loadAd(request); Check out the DFP docs for more examples on how to use the new DFP APIs. If you’re migrating from the old AdMob Android SDK to Google Play services, be sure to also consult our migration guide which summarizes implementation details for the new APIs.Search Ads for AppsSearch Ads for Apps support has also been added in this release, with new APIs in the com.google.android.gms.ads.search package. A search ads banner request in Google Play services looks like this:SearchAdView adView = new SearchAdView(this); adView.setAdUnitId("MY_ADSENSE_ID"); adView.setAdSize(new AdSize(320, 60)); LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.mainLayout); layout.addView(adView); SearchAdRequest request = new SearchAdRequest.Builder() .setQuery("flower") .build(); adView.loadAd(request); Consult the Search Ads documentation for more information on how to customize your SearchAdRequest.DoubleClick Ad ExchangeThe latest release now supports DoubleClick Ad Exchange, which shares the same AdView and AdRequest classes with AdMob in Google Play Services:adView = new AdView(this); adView.setAdUnitId("MY_AD_EXCHANGE_ID"); adView.setAdSize(AdSize.BANNER); LinearLayout layout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.mainLayout); layout.addView(adView); AdRequest request = new AdRequest.Builder().build(); adView.loadAd(request); See the Ad Exchange documentation for more information on implementing Ad Exchange with the new library.LocationWe’ve added back the setLocation method to enable you to provide location to an ad request. Note that location should only be provided if your app already makes use of location.Assuming you’ve grabbed location via a suitable method, you can pass the location when building an AdRequest:Location location = … // get location. AdRequest request = AdRequest.Builder().setLocation(location).build(); The new library can be downloaded from Android’s SDK manager. Consult the setup guide for detailed installation instructions. You can see a full list of changes on our release notes page.Give us a shout on our forum with any questions or concerns about the release, and stay tuned on our G+ page for the latest updates (and maybe even a tips/tricks campaign!) on Google Mobile Ads APIs.

- Eric Leichtenschlag, Mobile Ads Developer Relations

IMA SDK Samples are now available on GitHub

Thursday, January 16, 2014

The IMA SDK samples (Flash, HTML5, iOS and Android) have been moved to GitHub under the Google Ads organization. You can find the links to these repos on the updated downloads page.

With the move to GitHub, you’ll no longer have to clobber your existing sample files to get updates - you can clone the repo and pull updates as they’re released. If you like the old way, we’ve got you covered - you can still get the zipped samples from the downloads page.

Note: The IMA SDK binaries have not been moved to GitHub.

If you have any questions about the IMA SDK, contact us on the forum. Keep an eye on our Google+ page for announcements and updates.

- Shawn Busolits, IMA SDK Team

Ads client libraries are now on GitHub!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

We have moved all our client libraries to GitHub. Here’s a complete list of all our client libraries, with their new locations:

	AdWords and DoubleClick Ad Exchange Buyer	DoubleClick for Publishers	DoubleClick for Advertisers
Java	googleads-java-lib	googleads-java-lib	googleads-java-lib
.NET	googleads-adwords-dotnet-lib	googleads-dfp-dotnet-lib	googleads-dfa-dotnet-lib
PHP	googleads-php-lib	googleads-php-lib
Perl	googleads-perl-lib
Python	googleads-python-lib	googleads-python-lib	googleads-python-lib
Ruby	google-api-ads-ruby	google-api-ads-ruby

We have also moved all Wiki pages and open issues to the corresponding GitHub projects. You can find downloads for a project under its releases page. All future client library releases will be published on GitHub only, so make sure you follow us on GitHub to keep track of new releases and report issues. If you tracked the git repository on code.google.com for a client library, you should update your master branch to point to the GitHub repository instead.

If you have any questions about the client libraries, you can post them on our forums. Check out our Google+ page for client libraries and Ads APIs updates.

- Anash P. Oommen, Ads Developer Relations

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