With the introduction of v201109 we’ve made some changes in the AdWords API with regards to targeting campaigns. This blog post will discuss these changes in detail.
From CampaignTargets to Criterion
Targeting campaigns in v201109 is now accomplished via the CampaignCriterionService. Previously, the CampaignTargetService had a large number of CampaignTargets that could be used to better direct who saw your ads. For v201109, almost all of these targets have been transformed into Criterion objects and moved to the CampaignCriterionService.Some of these criteria can only be targeted (CampaignCriterion) or only excluded (NegativeCampaignCriterion). The individual criteria are documented as to whether they are targetable-only or excludable-only on their individual documentation pages. The table below shows a comparison between the old CampaignTargets and their respective Criterion as well as whether they are Targetable-only, Excludable-only or both.
| Campaign Target | Criterion | Criterion Source | Targetable, Excludable |
| AdScheduleTarget | No change, continue to use CampaignTargetService | No change | |
| AgeTarget | AgeRange | reference list | Excludable only |
| GenderTarget | Gender | reference list | Excludable only |
| CityTarget, CountryTarget, MetroTarget, ProvinceTarget | Location | reference lists or LocationCriterionService | Targetable and Excludable |
| PolygonTarget | Polygon | GeoLocationService | Deprecated, cannot be added |
| ProximityTarget | Proximity | GeoLocationService | Targetable only |
| LanguageTarget | Language | reference list or ConstantDataService | Targetable only |
| MobileCarrierTarget | Carrier | reference list or ConstantDataService | Targetable only |
| MobilePlatformTarget | OperatingSystemVersion | reference list | Targetable only |
| PlatformTarget | Platform | reference list | Targetable only |
A rose by any other name (or ID)
Please note that except for Proximity Criteria, we have changed all these targeting criteria to work with IDs instead of names. This allows us to update the text of display values without requiring developers to change their applications. Below is an example of the old and new ways to represent LanguageTarget/Language.Old
<targets>
<Target.Type>LanguageTarget</Target.Type>
<languageCode>en</languageCode>
</targets>
New
<criterion xsi:type="Language">
<id>1000</id>
<type>LANGUAGE</type>
<Criterion.Type>Language</Criterion.Type>
<code>en</code>
</criterion>
Note that the “New” example shows the Language Criterion as it would be returned by the API. When sending the value to the API, you only need to specify id and xsi:type, all other fields are ignored and read-only and documented as such.
We hope this blog post helps you as you update your application with the new Campaign Criteria. If you have any questions about this service or how to use it, please post on the forum or try to attend our Google+ Hangouts with members of the AdWords API Developer Relations Team.
