Google Ads Developer Blog: August 2013

Streamlining AdWords Test Accounts

Monday, August 26, 2013

Based on your feedback, we have made AdWords Test Accounts easier to manage and accessible via the User Interface (UI). AdWords test accounts allow execution of AdWords API requests against the production environment for development and testing purposes. All calls made with the AdWords API require a developer token, but the token doesn't have to be approved for calls made to Test Accounts. Having UI access provides a visual representation of your API changes during application testing, and assists with learning the API.

You can now create an MCC test account at https://adwords.google.com/um/StartNewMccAccount?testAccount=true. All client accounts created within this MCC will also be test accounts. As a result, the web form for Test Account application is no longer needed and has been deprecated. Any pending application requests will be processed. If you have an existing test account, you may continue using it as well.

Test accounts are designated with a prominent red “This is a test account” label.

For more information about test accounts, please reach out to us on the forum or G+ page.

- Stan Grinberg, Ads Developer Relations Team

Achievement Unlocked: monetizing online games with TrueView and AdX

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Editor's note: repost from the DoubleClick Publisher Blog --Stan Grinberg

With every new plot planted and zombie zapped to bits, the online games industry is changing the way we interact with entertainment. Online games publishers work with us to grow their gaming empires across all screens, from distribution and downloads through to in-game advertising. We’ve also recognized a growing advertiser demand to reach highly engaged games audiences. So we were especially excited to announce two launches at Europe’s Game Developer Conference: we’re launching the TrueView video ad format across our games monetization platforms, and opening up the DoubleClick Ad Exchange to monetize desktop games.

TrueView creates a better ad experience for gamers, and higher monetization for publishers

We all know how important it is to create a gamer-friendly ad experience, which is why we’re bringing one of our most successful ad formats to games: the skippable video ad. TrueView Instream skippable video ads drive a lot of advertiser demand on YouTube, the Ad Exchange, and AdSense for video. Following on Susan Wojcicki’s beta announcement earlier this year, we’re now making TrueView video ads available to all games publishers on AdX, AdSense for games, and select mobile publishers on AdMob. During the beta, we found that TrueView video ads contributed to lower abandonment rates and greater monetization compared to normal instream video ads.

The Ad Exchange posts a new high score with desktop in-game ads

Programmatic channels have revolutionized the way we buy and sell online advertising - and now the launch of in-game ads on the Ad Exchange gives developers the same sophisticated platform to accelerate their monetization efforts. Publishers who have desktop Flash and HTML5 games can now access the global advertiser demand, top-performing ad formats, and finely-tuned controls offered by the Ad Exchange. Advertisers can now specifically target online games’ highly engaged audiences with wide range of gamer-friendly ad formats. These include image and text overlays and interstitials, right through to standard video ads and the skippable TrueView video ad format.

We think that opening the programmatic channel and the rise of gamer-friendly ad formats like TrueView will drive even better monetization for games - which is great news for game publishers, but perhaps not for the zombies.

Posted by
Rebecca Illowsky and Allen Huang
Product Managers, Games Monetization

Tune in into the AdWords API Overview

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

For new users, we hope the video is a useful introduction to the key features of the AdWords API. For more experienced users, you might learn about a great feature that you might have missed previously.

You can watch the entire 25 minute video or use the links below to navigate to content that interests you most. We've embedded links to additional learning resources on specific topics right in the video.

Video sections:

Part I: What is it?
Part II: How to use it?
Part III: First Request
Part IV: Reporting
Part V: Tools
Part VI: The Reference Manual
Part VII: Support

Our team is here to help you keep to up to date and productive with the AdWords API, so please take a minute to view Part VII: Support if you're not yet plugged into our various support channels.

Thanks for watching!

- Paul Matthews, AdWords API Team

Today we're releasing a new video overview of the AdWords API.

- Paul Matthews, AdWords API Team

UPDATED: AdWords Display-only campaign NetworkSetting will become immutable in early October

Monday, August 19, 2013

Update: any change to NetworkSetting.targetGoogleSearch will throw a TargetError.TARGET_ERROR after this update takes place.

We'll soon be updating the AdWords API to prevent a subset of CampaignOperation modifications to theNetworkSetting for existing campaigns. Display-only campaigns have been evolving over time, and have developed unique features which make switching these campaigns between Search-only and Search-and-Display unreliable. Today, these modifications can unintentionally change campaign behavior (for instance, disabling certain display-specific targeting), potentially causing confusion and negatively impacting the advertiser experience. So starting in early October, we'll begin returning errors for these NetworkSetting changes.

What this means for you: If you do not make use of the NetworkSetting to change the network for existing campaigns, this change will not affect you.

In a few weeks, any change to NetworkSetting.targetGoogleSearch will throw errors for all versions of the API.

All other NetworkSetting modifications will continue to behave as before.

Posted by
Adwords API team

AdWords API: Upgrading your Ad Extensions - a reminder

Friday, August 16, 2013

If you allow your legacy extensions be auto-upgraded, the system will do its best to detect and avoid creating duplicate extensions. We recommend that you check all your extensions after the upgrade is finished to ensure they’re configured as you’d like.

Resources
To learn more about managing upgraded extensions with the AdWords API, make sure to consult the Feed Services guide. For a code example on how to upgrade extensions on your own, look in the migration folder in all client libraries.

If you have questions or need help with the upgrade, please visit us on the developer forum or the G+ page.

- David Torres, AdWords API Team

As previously announced, starting on September 23, 2013, call, app and sitelink extensions will automatically upgrade to their new formats. If you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to upgrade your extensions ahead of the September 23 deadline so you can take early advantage of the new features, accrue statistics on the upgraded extensions sooner, and ensure that your extensions continue to show.

Starting on the upgrade date, the following changes will take place:

You won’t be able to use CampaignAdExtensionService.mutate to update your legacy extensions.
The 25 characters limit will take effect. Make sure you adjust your sitelink text to 25 characters or less so your extensions continue to show.

The use of CampaignAdExtensionService.get for legacy call, app and sitelink extensions, will be available through October 23. You can use it to consult and compare your legacy extensions data with their upgraded counterparts.

- David Torres, AdWords API Team

DFP small business changes and our API

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

helping publishers grow with DFP small businessCreativesLineItemCreativeAssociationService.createLineItemCreativeAssociationLineItemCreativeAssociation.creativeIdCustomCreativesTemplateCreatives

FlashExpandableCreative → TemplateCreative.creativeTemplateId of 10001160.

FlashPushdownCreative → TemplateCreative.creativeTemplateId of 10001400.

FloatingFlashCreative → TemplateCreative.creativeTemplateId of 10000560.

TextAdCreative → TemplateCreative.creativeTemplateId of 10000440.

Targeting and DeliverymatchTypesCustomTargetingValueCustomTargetingServiceLabelServiceLineItem.appliedLabelsAdUnits.appliedLabelsReportsReportService’sreach report columnsreach report date range typescity dimensionsNetwork administrationUserService.getAllRolesassign them to your usersDFP API forumsAds Java client library’s DFP examples

- Vincent Tsao, DFP API Team

AdWords scripts now uses OAuth2

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

We are glad to announce that AdWords scripts now uses OAuth2 for authorization. In addition to streamlining the authorization flow, this change also increases the limit of number of scripts per user to 250.

When you create a new script, you will be prompted to authorize the script to access your account on your behalf. When you click the “Authorize Now” button, a “Request for Permission” dialog that lists the Google services required by your script will be displayed. You can review and grant the requested permissions to authorize the script. As of now, AdWords scripts request permissions for the following Google services:

Send email as you
View and manage your spreadsheets in Google Drive
Manage your AdWords campaigns
Perform these operations when you are offline.

As we add support for more Google services in AdWords scripts, this list may expand to include newer services.

To list all the scripts you have authorized:

Sign in on the Google Accounts homepage.
Click the Security tab, and select "Manage access" under "Connected applications and sites." This page lists the third-party sites you selected to always approve for Google authentication. Your authorized AdWords scripts can be found on this page.

If you wish to revoke access to a script, you may do so by clicking the corresponding “Revoke Access” button.

We hope you enjoy this new feature. If you have questions or feedback, please visit us on our official forum.

- Anash P. Oommen, AdWords Scripts Team

Local time zone reporting in the AdSense Management API

Monday, August 5, 2013

You may have heard that we launched local time zone reporting for AdSense, a fantastic feature for publishers far from the Pacific Time Zone (PTZ)! On the API side we’ve been asked some questions about it, as in some cases this may lead to the AdSense web interface and the AdSense Management API showing different data.

In Version 1.3 of the AdSense Management API, the report.generate call has a new, optional parameter called useTimezoneReporting. If set to true, the report will be generated in the local time zone configured in the web interface. Note that billing is still based on PTZ, so if you want to fetch actual earnings you may want to make sure that useTimezoneReporting is set to false or you might see small discrepancies.

The default value for this parameter is false resulting in PTZ being respected, as it was before the feature was added. If an AdSense user doesn’t choose a local time zone it will default to PTZ, so this parameter won’t make a difference.

Our recommendation is that developers let users choose if they want reports in their “Billing time zone” or their “Local time zone” (to match AdSense’s terminology).

Bear in mind that users changing their local time zones can generate spikes or dips in the local time zone reports, as it makes the day of the change longer or shorter.

You can read more about this in the AdSense blog, and the AdSense help center has instructions on how to enable the feature.

- Jose Alcérreca, AdSense API Team

Retiring AdSense Management API v1 and v1.1

Monday, August 5, 2013

With the release of v1.2 (and the subsequent v1.3) of the AdSense Management API, older versions became deprecated, and we announced we would be retiring them later this year. The turnoff date will be August 12, 2013.

If your application is still using v1 or v1.1, please be sure to update it to use v1.2 ‒ or preferably, v1.3. The new versions build on top of the old ones, so all previous functionality will still be available and work exactly the same, which should make for an easy upgrade.

If you have any questions or need any help, be sure to join us in the forum!

- Sérgio Gomes, AdSense Management API Team

Improvements to AdWords Quality score ratings

Thursday, August 1, 2013

As part of our ongoing efforts to help improve our reporting, we recently announced an update that changes how each keyword’s 1-10 numeric Quality Score (QS) is reported in AdWords. This reporting update will tie your 1-10 numeric Quality Score more closely to its three key sub factors: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience.

This is only a change to how Quality Score is reported. It does not change how Quality Score is calculated in real-time for each auction, and thus won't have any direct effect on your ad performance. Therefore, unless you have automated rules or Adwords Scripts tied directly to your reported 1-10 QS, your ads should continue to behave as they did before.

If you use the qualityScore field from AdGroupCriterionService or QualityScore from CRITERIA_PERFORMANCE_REPORT, KEYWORDS_PERFORMANCE_REPORT or MANAGED_PLACEMENTS_PERFORMANCE_REPORT to adjust bids, then you may notice that the keywords that meet your criteria may change after this update.

We hope this change makes it easier for you to improve your ads and to know when your changes are working. If you have questions or feedback, please visit us on our official forum.

Anash P. Oommen, AdWords API Team

Ads Developer Blog

Announcing v1.3 of the Ad Exchange Buyer REST API