System maintenance - December 30

We will be performing routine AdWords system maintenance starting at 8pm PDT on Friday, December 30, 2005, and ending at approximately 2am PDT on Saturday, December 31. While all AdWords advertisements will continue to run as normal, you will not be able to perform any API operations during this maintenance period.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

System Maintenance – December 16

We will be performing routine AdWords system maintenance starting at 8pm PDT on Friday, December 16, 2005, and ending at approximately 2am PDT on Saturday, December 17. While all AdWords advertisements will continue to run as normal, you will not be able to perform any API operations during this maintenance period.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Link Two MCCs to an AdWords Account

Over the last several months we’ve received feedback from API developers who are unable to link their My Client Centers (MCC) to their clients’ accounts. In every case, these developers were unable to link to their clients because another MCC (typically an agency’s MCC) was already linked to the accounts. This creates obvious challenges for the developers as they try to secure API quota credit for the spend they manage.

Therefore, we would like to announce that we’ve enhanced the MCC linking function in order to allow two different MCCs to link to the same AdWords account.

How does it work?

In order to properly define roles and access privileges under this new dual-MCC structure, MCC owners will now have to choose one of two access levels when linking to an AdWords account: “User Interface & API” or “API Only” access.

While all MCCs will be able to access AdWords accounts via the API, only the MCC designated for "User Interface & API" access can manage AdWords accounts via the AdWords interface.

All current MCC links have been automatically granted “User Interface & API” access (the traditional level of access you are used to). Therefore, there is no action required of you at this point, and you may continue to use your MCC as you have in the past.

So what does this mean for AdWords API developers?

API developers who co-manage accounts with partner agencies can now receive credit for 100% of an account’s spend toward their API quota.

How will this affect quota calculations?

How you link to a client account will impact your monthly API quota allocation.

• If you are the only MCC linked to a given account, then we will apply 100% of that account’s spend towards your API quota.
  
• However, in a situation where there are two MCCs linked to the same account, the “API Only” MCC be credited 100% of that account’s spend towards their API quota, and the “User Interface and API” MCC be credited 10% of that account’s spend towards their API quota.

Therefore, if you are the sole manager of an account, then you are free to choose either access level (since, as the sole MCC manager, you can claim 100% of the account's spend toward your API quota no matter which access level you have).

However, if you are a bid manager or API developer who co-manages an account with a “traditional” agency, then you should link to your clients’ account using the “API Only” access level (so you can ensure that 100% of the account’s spend is credited toward your API quota).

How do we get started?

This functionality is available today under the “Link Existing Account” link on your My Client Center dashboard. Next time you attempt to link to an account, you will have to specify whether you want full user interface and API access, or simply API-only access.

Some Final Notes

• Account managers can run MCC Report Center reports on all of their linked accounts (regardless of whether those accounts are linked via “User Interface & API” or “API Only” access)
• Two MCCs cannot both establish an "API Only" link to the same AdWords account.
• For account security reasons, you cannot create an "API Only" link between two MCCs.

The difference between “User Interface & API” and “API Only” access is explained in a FAQ entry.
Thank you again for your support of the AdWords API, and we hope you find this new feature useful.

--Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

Exposing Content Bidding via the API in January

As some of you have heard, we released a new feature in AdWords last week that enables advertisers to place content-only bids for ads that will run on the Google content network. You can read more about content bids on the Inside AdWords Blog or on the AdWords Help Center.

We had planned to expose this function via the API this week. However, based on developer feedback, we've decided to delay the release until mid January (so as not to introduce large changes in the middle of the busy holiday shopping season).

In early January we will update you on the timing of this release and provide an advance copy of the WSDL at least one week before the launch.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

AdWords API Terms and Conditions: Thank You for the feedback

Thank you all for your feedback on the recent changes to the AdWords API Beta terms and conditions. We have been collecting your comments over the last few days, and we plan to review them alongside our policies over the next few weeks.

The new terms and conditions seem to cause some concern for developers of open source and commercial third party tools, and we want to address these concerns.

We will have more specifics for you in the coming weeks once we have had a chance to thoroughly discuss your feedback.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

AdWords API Announcement: Updated API Terms and Conditions

As part of our ongoing effort to improve the Google AdWords API beta program, we've recently updated our Terms and Conditions. For example, we’ve updated the sections that define token ownership and usage in order to ensure that quota allocations are distributed equitably based on spend.

Unfortunately, for legal reasons, we cannot interpret these changes for you. However, we have hosted a temporary copy of the old document in the event you would like to interpret the changes for yourself (this temporary copy will be removed on December 15, 2005). For your reference, some of the more extensive modifications were made to: section I; section II(1) and II(2); section III(1) and III(2)(b); and section IV(6).

Per both our past and current terms and conditions, Google retains the right to modify the terms and conditions at any time. Therefore, continued use of the API means that you accept these terms. You can refuse to accept the terms by ceasing to use the API.

Thank you for your continued support of Google AdWords and the AdWords API.

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords API Team

Confirming Changes to the TrafficEstimatorService

Just a quick post to close the loop and confirm that the changes we announced on October 31 have gone into effect. The new service is live and the Developer’s Guide has been updated accordingly. For more information on this change, please read our October, 31 post entitled “Announcing Changes to the TrafficEstimatorService”.

Also, we’ve taken this opportunity to release a new getFreeUsageQuotaThisMonth method within InfoService. Designed specifically for AdWords Commercial Developer Program participants, this new method retrieves this month's free usage quota for the developer token being used to make this call. For those not enrolled in the AdWords Commercial Developer Program, this value will be identical to that returned for getUsageQuotaThisMonth.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Announcing Changes to the TrafficEstimatorService

In an effort to provide more consistent and accurate keyword data to our developers and advertisers, we will be changing some of the fields within the KeywordEstimate object on Thursday, November 3rd.

We will add the following field to the KeywordEstimate object:

• clicksPerDay – (float) The estimated number of clicks generated per day for a keyword in a given ad group
  

Similarly, we will remove the following fields from the KeywordEstimate object:

• impressions – The estimated number of impressions for a given keyword
  
• ctr – The estimated click-through-rate for a given keyword.
  
• notShownPerDay – The estimated number of times that the ad would not be shown, despite a keyword match.
  

These changes will take effect on the afternoon of Thursday, November 3rd (Pacific time zone). At that time, we will update the TrafficEstimatorService WSDL which may disrupt the operation of your programs. Therefore, we have posted a temporary copy of the “new” TrafficEstimatorService WSDL at http://www.google.com/apis/adwords/developer/wsdl_preview.xml so you can begin making the necessary adjustments now (This temporary copy will be removed on November 4, 2005, after the normal WSDL location is updated).

We are in the process of updating the AdWords API Developer Guide and plan to have these new fields added on Thursday.

--Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

Updating your Shared AdWords Logins

As you may have heard, we're updating our AdWords login system to Google Accounts. Starting in early November, you and your clients will be invited to update your account(s).

By updating your account, you will be able to establish multiple logins for your AdWords accounts, leverage change history to gain visibility into what changes users are making, and address the security risks and management hassles associated with shared logins.

Since you share access to your AdWords account with your clients, we wanted to pass along some best practices for updating shared accounts.

In early November, you will be asked to begin the update process (you have until January 15, 2006 to do so). In order to ensure a smooth process that provides uninterrupted access for you and your clients, we recommend that you and your clients review the following information.

Best Practices – Updating shared AdWords logins

• Be sure to select “No. I might manage this AdWords account with others” during the first step of the update process


• Create a new username and password that is different from the current AdWords username and password


• Please advise your client to go through this same process (separate from you), and advise them to:
  
  
  
  • Choose a *different* username/password than you have
  
  
  • Avoid using their personal email address as their Google Account, but rather use their business or another professional email account as their login
    
  
  
• Update your API headers as soon as possible to ensure that future API requests use your new Google Accounts login
  
  
  
  • Note: if you are accessing a client’s account via a My Client Center (MCC) account, be sure to also request that your client provide you with their new username so you can update your API headers accordingly.
    
  
  
• Complete this update as soon as possible. While all AdWords users will not be required to update their account(s) for the next few months, we strongly suggest that you complete the process in early November, especially with the busy holiday season ahead of us.

While we are changing the AdWords login system, you will not need to re-code your existing applications. In most cases (as noted above), you will have to update your API headers to route future API requests to your new Google Accounts usernames and passwords.

While you and your clients will still be able to use your old account logins for the next several months (provided neither of you disable the old login), the old logins will be disabled automatically in early 2006. If for some reason you are still using the old login at that time, we will send you an email alert several weeks before we disable the login.

Best Practices Web Seminars

Finally, in order to ensure that you and your client account teams are well educated on the update process, we have scheduled two best practices web seminars. If you would like to learn more about these best practices and the overall update process, please join us for one of these two events:

Thursday, October 27 at 10am PDT [GMT-8]
Login: https://google-training.webex.com/google-training/j.php?ED=86142637&UID=32253927
Password: adwords1
US Dial up #: 888.392.1013
Int'l Dial up #: 706.679.8097
Conference Code: 650.623.6412

Friday, October 28 at 10am PDT [GMT-8]
Login: https://google-training.webex.com/google-training/j.php?ED=86142642&UID=32253942
Password: adwords1
US Dial up #: 888.392.1013
Int'l Dial up #: 706.679.8097
Conference Code: 650.623.6412

We hope you find this best practices guide helpful. Feel free to visit the AdWords API Developer Forum to share your experiences and questions with fellow API developers during the update process. And as always, we’ll also post any relevant information on the Forum and the AdWords API blog.

Thank you for your continued support of Google AdWords and the AdWords API.

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team

System Maintenance – October 21

We will be performing routine AdWords system maintenance from 9pm to 11pm PDT on Friday, October 21, 2005. While all AdWords advertisements will continue to run as normal, you will not be able to perform any API operations during this maintenance period.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

New error code coming this week

Later this week we will be adding a new error code to the API: error code 86, Account_Blocked. This error code indicates that the account you are trying to access has been blocked due to suspicious activity.

We are in the process of adding this new information to the Developer Guide. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about account blocking and error code 86, please refer to the FAQ entry "What is Error Code 86 (Account_Blocked)?".

Please note, there have been no changes made to the WSDL as a result of this addition.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Save Time and Bandwidth with Data Compression (Part II)

As some of you may remember, I posted a piece on August 12 that explained how you can save time and bandwidth by downloading compressed reports. Well now there’s an easier way to download these reports.

As of this afternoon you can request compressed reports directly from ReportService by calling the new getGzipReportDownloadUrl operation.

getGzipReportDownloadUrl works just like getReportDownloadUrl by returning a URL from which the report with the given job ID can be downloaded. The only difference is that the resulting report is now compressed with gzip. This new operation is the preferred way to get compressed reports.

These details will be fully documented in the AdWords API Developer Guide later today.

That’s it. It’s pretty simple and hopefully pretty efficient for those of you who download several megabytes of reports every day.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

A note about KeywordService deprecation

Some developers have expressed concern over our planned deprecation of KeywordService. While we have not yet set a date for final removal, we will notify you at least four weeks prior to shutting KeywordService off.

Until then, we encourage all of our developers to begin using the newer CriterionService as it will ultimately replace the older KeywordService.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Announcing the AdWords Commercial Developer Program

On January 1, 2006, we will launch the new AdWords Commercial Developer Program, an optional program designed to help commercial AdWords developers meet their client and business needs by providing greater API access and support.

This voluntary program will be open to all commercial developers who require more quota units than are provided in their free quota allocations.

Launched at the request of some of our commercial developers, the AdWords Commercial Developer Program is designed to augment the current free quota system by providing greater quota limits to commercial API developers. Therefore, those developers who opt not to join the program can continue to leverage the API as they always have via their free quota allocations.

Starting in early December, a link to a registration page will be posted to the API home page and blog for those who wish to enroll in the program. We will continue to update you as more details become available.

Thank you once again for your feedback and we hope that this new program helps you to develop more innovative solutions that drive greater value for your customers.

--Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

Update to the Quota Rate Sheet

As one developer recently (and most astutely) noted, the current rate sheet states that setKeywordListMaxCpc and setKeywordListSingleMaxCpc operations consume 10 quota units each, while updateKeyword and updateKeywordList consume 1 quota unit each. Or as he puts it, "why would anybody use setKeywordListMaxCpc at a cost 10 per item when one can accomplish the same thing for only 2 per item using getKeywordList and updateKeywordList?"

Put simply, this was an oversight on our part that we will be correcting shortly.

Starting October 1, 2005, the updateKeyword and updateKeywordList operations will each consume 10 quota units per item.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Site Targeting & CPM Bidding Functionality Re-Released

Thank you all for your patience. We have corrected the issue with last week’s release of site targeting and CPM bidding functionality, and have re-released the code.

For more information on these new functions, please review last week’s post or consult the AdWords API Developer’s Guide.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Affected Keyword Destination URL’s Have Been Restored

This afternoon at 4:30pm PDT we completed a process that restored the affected Keyword Destination URL’s to their original values (specifically, the value they held on September 20 at 4:00pm PDT before the bug was released).

To ensure that we didn’t overwrite any changes you may have made since then, we restored your Keyword Destination URL’s to their original values only if:

• The Keyword Destination URL was set to null due to the bug, and
• The Keyword Destination URL was not altered since the field was set to null.

We apologize again for the inconvenience and are working hard to ensure that this type of situation does not happen again.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Update on Yesterday’s Bug and Disappearing URL’s

I wanted to update everybody on yesterday’s bug and code roll-back.

From Tuesday, Sept 20th at 4:00pm (PST) to Wednesday, Sept 21st at 11am (PST) all calls to the KeywordService SOAP API methods setKeywordListMaxCpc and setKeywordListSingleMaxCPC resulted in the destination URL being erased for the specified keywords.

Yesterday morning, we rolled back the changes that introduced that bug, so now the service works as expected.

We are working as fast as possible to determine which Keywords were affected by this bug, and for the Keywords in this set that still have a null URL, to restore the URL to the value it had on September 20th at 4pm (PST).

This process ensures that if you fix the data yourself before we do, we will not override your fixes.

While we cannot commit to a timeline given the technical complexities, we hope to complete this correction process by 9/23. We will advise you as soon as we have a better visibility. Again, if you have the ability to repair the keyword destination URL immediately, you can make this update as our correction process will not override your fixes.

Finally, a few people have asked what happens if a keyword destination URL is set to NULL, so I thought I’d share the answer. If a keyword destination URL is set to NULL, the creative destination URL is used instead.

We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Yesterday’s release has been rolled-back

We have identified a bug in yesterday’s release and are working to correct the issue. In the meantime we have rolled-back the latest release so your future operations will not be affected. Once the bug is fixed we will notify you and re-release the code. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

New Support for Site Targeting and CPM Bidding

We have exposed new functionality through the API that allows you to take advantage of existing AdWords site targeting and related CPM (cost per thousand) bidding. This new functionality lets advertisers choose individual sites in the Google Content Network where they'd like their ads to appear, and then bid for impressions on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis. To learn more about site-targeted campaigns, please visit the site-targeted campaigns help center.

These new features are implemented in the API by refactoring the KeywordService. In object oriented terminology, a new abstract type Criterion has been created that holds what is common between Keywords and Websites. Criterion has two concrete subclasses: Keyword and Website. The CPM and URL of the targeted site are specified in the new Website structure.

The feature generated three (3) changes to the API:

• A new CriterionService has been introduced. It defines the Criterion, Keyword and Website types, and operations to manage these two types. This is the service to use if you want to create site targeted campaigns. You can also use it instead of the legacy KeywordService in order to create keyword targeted campaigns. [Please note, while KeywordService is currently still supported, it will be removed in a future release. Therefore, please use CriterionService instead.]
• KeywordService works as before, but it defines the Criterion type and redefines Keyword as a restriction of Criterion. This will allow backwards compatibility with existing programs using the KeywordService.
• CampaignService works as before, but defines Criterion in order to be able to define Keyword as a restriction of it.
  

For more information, please consult the AdWords API Developer’s Guide.

We hope these new features will allow you to create more efficient AdWords campaigns.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

System Maintenance – September 23rd

We will be performing routine AdWords system maintenance from 9pm to 11pm PDT on Friday, September 23, 2005. While all AdWords advertisements will continue to run as normal, you will not be able to perform any API operations during this maintenance period.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Solving an issue for clients using the .NET Framework

Last week we made some changes to the AdWords API WSDL, changing a few fields to nillable. This causes problems with certain toolkits, like the .NET Framework, for int nillable fields: the toolkit does not know how to map null values to value types such as int.

In order to make life easier for AdWords developers using those toolkits, we just altered the server behavior for maxCpc and dailyBudget: when these optional fields are unset, instead of sending null, we send nothing. This should solve the problem.

We hope that this change will help developers using the .NET Framework.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Small features added to the AdWords API, and WSDL changes

We've added 2 new features to the AdWords API: animated image ads and the ability to get client login email addresses. These features have been implemented and documented, so you can start using them.

CreativeService describes how you can now use animated images, flash images or animated GIF, in your image ads. The Image data structure shows that the ImageType enumeration now has 2 more possible values to reflect this feature: dynamicImage and flash.

AccountService has a new getClientAccounts operation that lets you find the primary email addresses for your own clients, or for your client's clients.

In addition to that, we made slight WSDL changes which may or may not oblige you to regenerate the SOAP bindings of your client programs. In response to developer feedback on the Forum, we changed a few fields to nillable in the KeywordService and CampaignService WSDL:

Keyword.minCpc, maxCpc and negative
Campaign.startDate, endDate and dailyBudget

We hope that these small additions will help you create more efficient ads and manage your accounts more easily through the AdWords API.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

September 8th system maintenance

We'll be performing system maintenance on the AdWords reporting infrastructure on Thurs., Sept. 8, from 12 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (PDT). During this time, any reports pulled from the Report Service will not be up-to-date. Shortly after the system maintenance, all reports will return to normal and will include data from the maintenance period. We apologize for this inconvenience.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

September 1st system maintenance

We'll be performing system maintenance on the AdWords reporting infrastructure on Thurs., Sept. 1, from 12 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (PDT). During this time, any reports pulled from the Report Service will not be up-to-date. Shortly after the system maintenance, all reports will return to normal and will include data from the maintenance period. We apologize for this inconvenience.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

August 19th system maintenance

We are performing routine AdWords system maintenance from 9pm to 11pm PDT on August 19, 2005 (Friday). While all ads will continue to run as normal, you will not be able to perform any API operations during this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Changes to the AdWords keyword evaluation system live

As we explained last month, the Google AdWords keyword evaluation system will be changing to give advertisers more control over the keywords they find important. This change is now live, and you can read about the impact on API users here.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Save bandwidth by getting your reports compressed on the wire

Want to save bandwidth downloading reports? Here's how!

rfc2616 defines a HTTP/1.1 header called Accept-Encoding. This lets HTTP clients ask for a compressed response using a header such as:

Accept-Encoding: gzip

Google servers support gzip encoding, but only for certain HTTP User-Agents. The easiest way to tell Google you really understand gzip encoding is to have the String "gzip" as part of the User-Agent, in addition to using the "Accept-Encoding: gzip" header. If you do that, reports will be transparently compressed and you'll save a lot of download time and bandwidth.

The HTTP User-Agent is different from the useragent SOAP header you use the AdWords API calls: one is used at the transport layer, the other at the application layer. We suggest that you just append the String "gzip" to the default HTTP user agent provided by your toolkit.

This is a PHP 4 sample showing how it's done (it uses libcurl):

  // open connection to the Google server via cURL
$curlConnection = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_URL, $reportURL['getReportDownloadUrlReturn']);     
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0);
curl_setopt($curlConnection, CURLOPT_ENCODING, "gzip");
curl_setopt ($curlConnection, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, curl_version() . " gzip");
// buffer for downloading report xml
ob_start();
   curl_exec($curlConnection);             
    // buffer report
    $reportXml = ob_get_contents();                       
ob_end_clean();
// end buffering
if (curl_errno($curlConnection)) {
  echo "Sorry, there was a problem while downloading your report. The cURL error message is:".curl_error($curlConnection);
  return;

(Thanks to Thomas Steiner for the sample.)

Setting HTTP headers can be done easily with any toolkits you use; keep an eye on the AdWords API Forum where other developers may post samples showing how to set these headers using other languages/libraries.

I hope this tip will help you save bandwidth when getting your API reports.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

Reminder: new quota structure in effect

As we explained a few weeks ago, the new quota structure for the AdWords API went into effect yesterday (August 1st). The Quota & Usage page gives you all the details about the new system. This change has been accompanied by a significant quota increase for most users, so fire up your favorite clients and check out what getUsageQuotaThisMonth returns. We're still working on updating the AdWords online interface, so please use the InfoService calls to retrieve quota allocation and usage information in the meantime. We'll post another note when that update is complete.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

New AdWords API features coming soon

Soon, we'll be changing the Google AdWords keyword evaluation system to help give advertisers more control over keywords they find important.

From an API perspective, there is a new minCpc field in the Keyword object that you can use to determine how much to bid in order to keep a keyword active. Keyword statuses changed a bit in the AdWords online interface, but not in the API.

In addition, with the release of the rate sheet scheduled for Aug. 1, 2005, you should have more keyword stats operations available to adjust to these keyword evaluation changes. For more information on how the new keyword evaluation system impacts the AdWords API, please visit our help page.

--Patrick Chanezon, AdWords API evangelist

New quota structure starting August 1st

Starting August 1, we’re introducing a significant change to the AdWords API quota system. The new quota structure will value operation types differently. While some operations will still consume just one quota unit, other operations will consume more - up to 1,000 quota units per operation. For example, generating a report for your whole account will now consume more quota units than downloading stats for a single keyword. As part of this overhaul, we will increase API users’ quota by 10 times. For the majority of API users, we believe this improved quota structure will result in more free API usage. Specifically, we hope this will satisfy the requests we've heard through the Developer Forum for more stats operations. For details, please see the Quota & Usage page.

-- Patrick Chanezon, Adwords API evangelist

Minor change to WSDL files

We made a small change to the AdWords API WSDL files today, changing the declared type of KeywordId from int (32 bit) to long (64 bit). The server has treated keyword IDs as longs since our launch, and the online docs declared them as such. Only the WSDL was in error.

Existing client code should see no effect of this. If you regenerate proxy code from the WSDL the type will change, and you may get some minor compile time errors about type conversions. We also are updating the new Java client library and this update will be available shortly.

Many thanks to our user Sabina for pointing out the discrepancy.

-- Nelson Minar, Software Engineer

New features: Creative IDs and Java Client library

Hi AdWords API Developers,

We’re happy to announce that we released two new items today: Creative IDs in reports and a Java Client library.

Over the last few months, many of you posted to the Developer Forum stressing the usefulness of Keyword IDs in reports, but wondered why we don’t provide Creative IDs. Based largely on this feedback, you can now schedule a CustomReport with Creative IDs. With Creative IDs, developers can get a full snapshot of their account activity by scheduling a single report. This should improve syncing your local systems with AdWords - enabling more efficient management of your quota.

The Java client library makes it easier to write Java clients. We know that getting started with your AdWords applications can be challenging, so we hope this client library will simplify your Java development process. The client library is provided in a single jar file that contains all the necessary Axis jars and pre-compiled stub classes. More details can be found at the Java Client Library page. As always, please post your thoughts on the Developer Forum . If many of you find client libraries useful, we will work with the community to provide access to more such resources.

Look forward to hearing from you on the Developer Forum.

Regards,

Nelson Minar, Software Engineer
Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

June 24 System Maintenance

Hi AdWords API developers,

We are performing routine AdWords system maintenance from 9pm to 11pm PDT on June 24, 2005 (Friday). While all ads will continue to run as normal, you will not be able to perform any API operations during this time.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Regards,
Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

Scheduled maintenance tonight

Hi AdWords API developers,

The API will be unavailable from 9pm to 9:45pm PDT tonight (5/20/05) for routine AdWords system maintenance. All ads will continue to run as normal, but you will not be able to perform any API operations during this time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Best,
Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

New release: Automated Policy Checking

Hi AdWords API Developers,

Today, we are integrating the automated AdWords editorial policy checking system into the API. This mechanism will identify AdWords editorial policy violations and return error messages immediately. This will allow you to correct basic policy violations before submitting creatives to AdWords for final approval.

What this means is that you may now see more errors (rejections) when submitting your items for approval. However, these are simply policy violations that you would have eventually encountered one to three days after submission. With the integration of the automated editorial policy checking system, the AdWords API will now flag basic violations immediately – saving you valuable time in getting your creatives approved.

In addition, you may now also submit policy exceptions via the API. Your exemption request and ad text will then be submitted to AdWords for approval.

Please note that operations containing rejected submissions do count against your quota.

We have updated the documentation to reflect the new error codes. As usual, if you have questions, please post to the Developer Forum and the community (which includes us) will hopefully be able to help.

Best,
Nelson Minar, Software Engineer
Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

Increased quota limits

Hi AdWords API Developers,

Based on your feedback on the Developer Forum and our increased server capacity, we are raising quota limits across the board starting May 1. The quota structure remains the same as before; we are simply raising the quota allocations for everyone.

Our long term goal is to ensure all developers have access to enough quota to successfully build and run their applications. At the same time, we want to ensure our servers maintain production level uptimes, so we need to impose some limitations. We certainly appreciate your patience as we move closer to our goal. We ask that you continue to use your quota efficiently and focus on operations that drive value.

To view your new API quota, please login to your My Client Center account (starting May 1st) and go to the “AdWords API Center” under the “My Account” tab.

We hope that this quota increase will allow all of you to continue building creative programs and applications. Please continue to direct any feedback to the Developer Forum .

Best,
Nelson Minar, Software Engineer
Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

New API release: MCC reports and image creatives

Hello, developers! We keep cranking out the AdWords API features, and this time around we have two new things to offer you.

The first new feature is MCC reports. Now you can create your reports with statistics for all of the campaigns you manage under MCC. No more scheduling a different report for each account! Using MCC reports will save you quota and make the report generation more efficient.

The second new feature is support for image creatives. We try hard to make the AdWords API support all the features of the AdWords product, but until now we were a bit behind on images. Now you can upload image creatives alongside your usual text ads.

Three caveats around the image ads. First, the first image for an account must be uploaded via the AdWords front-end; this is to ensure that the account owner agrees to let Google use their images in the AdWords program. Second, while we've tried hard to make all API changes backward compatible, there's a chance that your existing software may break if you download all the Creatives for an AdGroup that has an image creative in it. In the past you wouldn't have downloaded the image creative at all. The addition of that data may cause problems for your client software, particularly strongly typed languages like Java or C#. If you find yourself having trouble, refreshing and rebuilding the client from the WSDL file should take care of it. Finally, we will continue to update the documentation. So if you don't find what you need right now, please check again a few days later and/or post to the Developer Forum.

Enjoy the new features!

Nelson Minar, Software Engineer

Reports IDs: Finally here

Hi AdWords Developers,

IDs in reports are now available (and this time we mean it!).

As we announced yesterday, when you schedule a CustomReport you can now request for IDs to be included so you can better sync up the data with the rest of your API calls.

For the full details, please see our prior post .

We hope you enjoy the new feature and sorry again for any inconvenience we may have caused.

Regards,
Nelson Minar, Software Engineer
Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

IDs not in reports yet

Whoops... we made a mistake. The IDs in reports are not quite yet working. We'll post another message when they are available.

Sorry for the confusion.


Nelson Minar, Software Engineer
Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

Updates to Terms and Conditions

Hi everyone,

Last night, we updated the AdWords API Terms and Conditions. We made several minor changes in order to further clarify a few points and to correct a typo.

The changes are as follows:

Section II. 3c) Added "or for transmissions directly to Google, at least as secure as the protocol being accepted by the AdWords API servers.”

Section II. 3d) Added “Except as expressly permitted by Google under a separate Google product or service feature,”

Section III 2a iv) Modified existing language and inserted some language so that it now reads “The AdWords API Data in such databases may only be accessed (1) by AdWords API Clients in conformance with this agreement, (2) by intermediary tools whose sole purpose is to analyze data for or supply data to an AdWords API Client in conformance with this AdWords API Agreement or (3) by reporting tools to produce reports only for the account owner of the account from which the AdWords API Data was received.”

Section III. 2h) Added “or for transmissions directly to Google, at least as secure as the protocol being accepted by the AdWords API servers.”

Section IV. 14) Added "Google", so the sentence now reads "You and Google are not legal partners or agents, but are independent contractors.”


Regards,
Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

New feature: IDs in reports

Hello, AdWords developers! We're happy to announce we've added a new much-requested feature: IDs in reports. When you schedule a CustomReport you can now request for IDs to be included so you can better sync up the data with the rest of your API calls.

With IDs in reports developers can get a full snapshot of their account activity by scheduling a single report. However, please bear in mind that if a Keyword did not have any impressions during the specified period the Keyword will not appear in the report. Also, please remember that while Keyword IDs are unique within an AdGroup they are not globally unique. To properly identify a Keyword both the Keyword ID and AdGroup ID must be used together.

Enjoy the new report features, and please keep the feature suggestions coming!

Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager
Nelson Minar, Software Engineer

Lessons learned launching a web service

Seven weeks ago we launched the AdWords API, and since then had the chance to reflect on what we learned creating a new web service. I just gave a talk at the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies conference about it, and here are the slides. Some of the (admittedly geeky) highlights: the value of document/literal style SOAP, a description of the real-world problems in building interoperable web services, and my opinion on when to use SOAP vs ReST. Despite the geek factor, perhaps it's useful for people building web services and developers using Google's own services.

-- Nelson Minar, Software Engineer

(Reposted from the Google Blog)

New service for managing Account data

Hello, AdWords API developers! We're proud to say that a new AdWords API service has been released. The AccountService allows AdWords advertisers to access and modify account information like the account's currency, ads syndication preferences, etc.

For more information, please see the reference docs.

Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager
Nelson Minar, Software Engineer

Minor API server update

Hello, AdWords API developers! I wanted to notify you that we just made a minor update to the AdWords API servers. Impact on your programs should be minimal. There are three changes that are user visible:

• A new header named operations is now in the SOAP responses that the AdWords API server sends to your programs. This header tells you how many quota operations the API call cost you.
  
  
• Both the new operations header and the old responseTime header are now documented in the WSDL files for services.
  
  
• We made some minor changes to the way we handle enums in the ReportService, so that elements with xsi:nil="true" are no longer sent for enum types. Instead, the element is simply not set at all. This should improve interoperability with .NET.
  

Yours,

Nelson Minar, Software Engineer

Scheduled maintenance

Hi AdWords API developers,

The API will be unavailable from 9pm to 12am PST this Friday (2/25/05) night for routine system maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Best,
Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager

Welcome to the program

Hi AdWords API Developers,

It’s been two weeks since we have launched the Developer’s Program. We are happy to hear that you have been able to successfully access the API and begin the development process. At the same, we’ve received a lot of good feedback on how to make the service better. This feedback is invaluable as we want to make the best program possible for you. So, while we can’t respond individually to every message on the Developer’s Forum, we certainly read them and take careful notes on what you all are saying.

Specifically, there have been a lot of questions around the quota system. Our goal is to provide you with the necessary operations to make you successful. Some of you feel that the quota is not enough. We are looking to improve this as we scale up the program.

We are also very excited by the interest many of you have expressed in building applications and providing services for AdWords advertisers. Some of you have asked about a development environment (sandbox), certification program, and a directory for advertisers to contact you. We recognize these features are important and they are under strong consideration.

Stay tuned for more to come. In the meantime, we look forward to hearing from you.


Sincerely,

Rohit Dhawan, Product Manager
Nelson Minar, Software Engineer

AdWords: Code it your way

Hello, and welcome to the AdWords API developer blog! We'll be using this blog as an easy way to make announcements to the AdWords API developer community. Just to get things started, here's our official public launch announcement.

Despite all the development we've done for our AdWords program, much more remains to be built. Fortunately there's no shortage of good ideas outsidethe Googleplex: our community of users is amazingly expert and innovative and knows exactly what features they want. Many successful companies fall prey to the NIH ("Not Invented Here") syndrome, but as hard as we try, not every talented developer is working at Google. Which is why we've just announced the arrival of the AdWords API beta.

The AdWords API beta program is an open invitation to developers to explore new concepts (and then write great software) for managing Google AdWords advertising campaigns. Large advertisers can use it for their complex ad management needs, like tying product margins to optimized keyword bids.Third parties can use the API to build new interfaces to manage their client accounts. Best of all, an API enables the creation of all sorts of unanticipated ideas. In our experience, it's better to wear "Not Invented Here" as a badge of honor than as a chip on your shoulder. Come sign up for a developer token and show us what we've been missing.

Josh McFarland, Product Manager

Nelson Minar, Software Engineer