Changes to Required Minimum Functionality for AdWords API Clients

Today we released the v060611 update to the Required Minimum Functionality (RMF) for AdWords API Clients. As a reminder, the goal of the RMF is to ensure that advertisers have access to many of the unique and valuable features that AdWords has to offer. We update the Required Minimum Functionality list approximately every six months, and the last update was over 9 months ago in August 2010.

Note: End-Advertiser-Only AdWords API Clients and Internal-Only AdWords API Clients (each as defined in the Terms & Conditions) are not required to fully implement the required AdWords API features outlined below, and described in detail here.

All other AdWords API Clients (as defined in the Terms & Conditions) must fully implement the required AdWords API features outlined below, and described in detail here, by October 15, 2011.

The key changes we have made in this update to the RMF are:

• Added more features and report types

          We have added several features that we believe to be of high value for advertisers. These include sitelinks, conversion tracking, conversion optimizer, and enhanced CPC. We have also added new reports such as search performance and geographic reports.

• Requirements for use of the BulkOpportunityService, TrafficEstimatorService and TargetingIdeaService

          BulkOpportunityService, TargetingIdeaService and TrafficEstimatorService are useful services to get new ideas for expanding and refining an AdWords account. We have added a requirement that if you use any of these services you must also implement creation functionality and management functionality for either Search or Display.

• Advance Notice of Planned Changes

          We feel strongly that our advertisers should have the best possible user experience with AdWords and therefore have added the requirement that you send us mocks for any material changes to your tool at least 2 weeks in advance of making these changes. These mocks can be sent to: 3P-Compliance@google.com. Note that you don’t need to wait for approval to launch these changes.

More details on all these changes are available here. To maintain RMF compliance, all new required features must be added by October 15, 2011. If you have any questions about RMF please submit them to the forum.

Also, per our terms and conditions, Google retains the right to modify the terms and conditions at any time. In an ongoing effort to improve clarity, we have updated the AdWords API Terms & Conditions. For example, we are now more explicit in allowing third-party tools to enable bulk editing of common fields (like keyword bids, or campaign budgets) across networks. Please review the complete Terms & Conditions here. Note that continued use of the API means that you accept these terms. You can refuse to accept the terms by ceasing to use the API.

-The Google AdWords API Team