Google Ads Developer Blog: July 2013

OAuth2 in the Ads APIs

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Update: we have recently migrated code projects to GitHub and the links in the table below now point to new locations.

If you’re not using OAuth2, this blog post is aimed at you. OAuth2 is the preferred authorization mechanism at Google. That’s mainly because it’s simpler and easier to use than OAuth1 but also because it’s a lot safer than Client Login. In addition, if you’re still using Client Login you should be aware it’s deprecated.

The following video shows what you need to get started with OAuth2 for Ads. It explains what OAuth2 is, how it works, how to use it with our APIs, the different flows of OAuth2 and some best practices. If you just need the client library resources to get started, skip ahead to the Client Libraries section to get all the resources you’ll need to make the switch.

After watching the video you will understand:

OAuth2:

The Authorization mechanism

Better than Client Login:

OAuth2 is more secure
More specific access control
No CAPTCHA challenges

Using OAuth2:

Registering your application
Making the authentication requests
Where OAuth2 tokens fit into regular service calls

Implementing OAuth2:

Full support in our client libraries
What refresh and access tokens are

Authorization Flows:

Best Practices:

Storing refresh_tokens

With that knowledge, updating your applications to use OAuth2 should be trivial. All the client libraries have comprehensive support for OAuth2 and helpful examples to demonstrate its use. For further information on configuring OAuth2 in any of the libraries, see the table below.

Client Library OAuth2 Resources

Library	AdWords / DoubleClick Ad Exchange	DoubleClick For Advertisers	DoubleClick For Publishers
Java	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example
Python	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example
Ruby	Wiki Page Code Example		Wiki Page Code Example
Perl	Wiki Page Code Example
.Net	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example
PHP	Wiki Page Code Example		Wiki Page Code Example

- Paul Matthews, AdWords API Team

Updates to geographical targets in Vietnam and Italy

Thursday, July 25, 2013

As part of our effort to provide advertisers with increasingly rich ways to tailor ads to specific geographies, we're adding new geographical targeting options and introducing a few changes to target types in Vietnam and Italy. These changes will take place July 31 - Aug 2, 2013.

Vietnam

All 32 existing “regions” in Vietnam will be reclassified as “provinces” to correctly reflect their administrative division
30 additional provinces will be made available

Italy

All 103 existing "regions" in Italy will be reclassified as "provinces" to correctly reflect their administrative division
7 additional provinces will be made available
The 20 official regions of Italy will be added and classified as “regions”

In reporting, the 103 “regions” in Italy that are being reclassified will continue to appear as “regions” for dates prior to this transition. For dates after the transition, reports will attribute performance according to the new classifications. Reports that span date ranges both before and after this change will show both regions and provinces in the “Region” column.

Tools that specifically rely on geographical target type will need to be updated to use the new classifications listed above. We recommend making these adjustments by July 31.

You can download the full list of changes mentioned above and find more information about geographical targeting on the Google Developers site.

- AdWords API Team

AdMob SDK v6.5.0 for iOS Now Available

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Today we’re releasing version 6.5.0 of the Google AdMob SDK for iOS developers. This version of the SDK includes a variety of changes including:

Allows you to specify if you would like your app to be treated as child-directed by calling the tagForChildDirectedTreatment: method in GADRequest or by setting the value of tag_for_child_directed_treatment to 1 in extras for older versions of the SDK. More details on this API are available here.

Passes Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA) to Google Ad Exchange buyers. This enables buyers to more effectively measure their marketing campaigns on Ad Exchange iOS inventory.

We’ve updated the warning messages that are displayed when using mediation with incorrect linker flags. The SDK now requires only the -ObjC linker flag.

A number of other bug fixes and maintenance updates.

Check out the release notes for a full list of updates. You can download the latest SDK from our downloads page. If you’ve got any questions or concerns about the new SDK, please post to our forum or check out our G+ page.

- Raj Parameswaran, AdMob Team

AdWords API v201306: CustomerSyncService changes

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

If you often need to retrieve a list of recently changed objects, the CustomerSyncService can help you save many API requests. We’ve made several improvements to this service in AdWords API v201306. These include integration with feed services and exposing ad group bid modifier change information.

Feed Services, first available in v201302, allow you to manage reusable ad extensions in a modular way. The latest changes to the CustomerSyncService enable you to retrieve changes to Feeds using a CustomerSyncSelector. Specifically, you can now retrieve feed update details based on a list of FeedIds you specify.

The other main improvement to the CustomerSyncService is the inclusion of CampaignCriteria which contains ad group-level bid modifiers.

For more information on the AdWords API, subscribe to the Google Ads Developers page and if you have any questions, post them on the AdWords API forum.

- AdWords API Team

Managing Content Bid Dimensions in AdWords API

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Since February 2013 advertisers have been able to explicitly set the Content Bid Dimension in the API. In the meantime, we’ve also been automatically setting the Content Bid Dimension for advertisers using older versions of the API, and for those using v201302 that did not explicitly specify a bid dimension. The automatic setting followed the logic described in this blog post.

Once v201209 is deprecated and all legacy campaigns are auto-migrated to Enhanced Campaigns and Powerful Bidding (July 22, 2013), we’ll stop setting the Content Bid Dimension implicitly for ad groups (new and existing). As announced back in March, advertisers wanting to override the ad group default bid with criteria-level bids from a given content dimension will need to explicitly set the contentBidCriterionTypeGroup to the desired CriterionTypeGroup.

Existing ad groups will keep their Content Bid Dimension setting, regardless of whether it has been set implicitly or explicitly. No changes are needed if you want to preserve the same Content Bid Dimension. After July 22, if you create a new ad group or want to change the bid dimension of an existing one, you’ll have to explicitly set the Content Bid Dimension.

You can verify the content bid dimension using AdGroupService.AdGroup#contentBidCriterionTypeGroup

If you have any questions or need help with migration, please contact us on the forum. You can also reach out to us on Google+ page.

- The AdWords API Team

v201209 sunsets on July 22 - a reminder

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

There is only one week left to migrate to the v201306 release, as v201209 will sunset on Monday 22nd July. With the sunset deadline only a few weeks away, if you haven’t already migrated to v201302 or v201306, it is recommended that you do so as soon as possible. We recommend you read our earlier post with detailed instructions for this migration.

- Paul Matthews, AdWords API Team

DFA Reporting API Version 1.3 Released

Monday, July 15, 2013

We’re pleased to announce the newest DFA Reporting API release, version 1.3. This version adds an often requested feature: the ability to retrieve the dimensions and metrics that are available for selection. Compatible FieldsDoubleClick for Advertisers allows you to restrict the visibility of certain metrics and dimensions for individual users based on the permissions granted to the user role and filters applied to the user profile. Additionally, certain dimensions and/or metrics cannot be used in combination with one another. For these reasons it can be difficult to determine which metrics and dimensions are available. The new reports.compatibleFields resource allows you to programmatically tackle this problem, returning a listing of fields available to the current user based on the report being created.Additional details are available in our developer documentation release notes. We’re always available to answer your questions on our forum, or you can reach out to us on our Google+ Page.

- Joseph DiLallo, the DFA API Team

Metrics and dimensions in the AdSense and Ad Exchange Seller REST APIs

Thursday, July 11, 2013

We have recently published several new resources to help developers build reporting calls to the API:

1. Metrics and dimensions reference pages, with each defined by the relevant values, formats and limits.

2. New metadata calls in the AdSense Management API V1.3 that allow developers to fetch the list of available dimensions and metrics, check compatibility between each other and find out what products are supported. A sample response might be:

{
  "kind": "adsense#reportingMetadataEntry",
  "id": "EXAMPLE_DIMENSION",
  "compatibleDimensions": [
    "1",
    "2",
    "4",
    ...
  ],
  "compatibleMetrics": [
    "AD_REQUESTS",
    "AD_REQUESTS_COVERAGE",
    "AD_REQUESTS_CTR",
    ...
  ],
  "supportedProducts": [
    "AFMC",
    "AFC",
    "AFV"
  ]
},

The compatibleDimensions field shows a list where each item is an integer representing a group of compatible dimensions. As there is no one-to-one relation between compatible dimensions, they are represented as groups (as shown below).

Examples

Library	AdWords / DoubleClick Ad Exchange	DoubleClick For Advertisers	DoubleClick For Publishers
Java	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example
Python	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example
Ruby	Wiki Page Code Example		Wiki Page Code Example
Perl	Wiki Page Code Example
.Net	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example	Wiki Page Code Example
PHP	Wiki Page Code Example		Wiki Page Code Example

From the previous table, note that:

DATE, MONTH and WEEK are compatible with every group.
DOMAIN_NAME (Group #1) is not compatible with CUSTOM_CHANNEL_* (Group #4).
If you want to report on ad units (Group #3) you won’t be able to use custom channels since a custom channel can be applied to one or more ad units.
Country names (Group #3) can be used in combination with ad units (Group #3) or custom channels (Group #4) but ad units cannot be combined with custom channels.

Remember to visit the AdSense API forums or our Google+ page if you need any help generating reports!

- Jose Alcérreca, AdSense API Team

v201209 Sunset - 2 weeks remaining

Thursday, July 11, 2013

As part of the upgrade to enhanced campaigns, we have shared updates about the AdWords API v201209 sunset. Today's note is to provide a 2 weeks reminder that v201209 sunsets on July 22nd and API requests will start failing after that date. With the sunset deadline only a few weeks away, if you haven’t already migrated to v201302 or v201306, it is recommended that you do so as soon as possible. See below for further information on migrating.

v201306 Migration

If you’re looking to migrate to v201306 from v201209, follow these steps for a successful migration:

Review the v201302 and v201306 release notes
Make sure you’re ready for the essential changes listed in the v201302 and v201306 migration guides
Make sure you’re ready for the switch to Enhanced Campaigns (see below)
Review the resources in the AdWords API client libraries
Attend the office hours sessions, to get face-to-face Q & A sessions
Make sure your contact information is up to date in your My Client Center account
Post questions on the forum (if you have any)
Subscribe to our Google Plus page for news and announcements

Enhanced Campaigns Migration
If you’re migrating to Enhanced Campaigns, use the following resources to assist your migration:

Understand Enhanced Campaigns
Understand upgrades to Enhanced Campaigns
Review the Enhanced Campaigns in the AdWords API
Follow the EC migration guide

Account for the reporting differences

- Paul Matthews, AdWords API Team

Announcing v201306 of AdWords API

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

We are pleased to announce the release of AdWords API v201306. This latest release introduces new reports, adds platform targeting options for the Feed services, and includes improvements across other services. A complete list of changes is available in the release notes.

v201306 Highlights:

If you are still using v201209, please note that it is being sunset on July 22, 2013. We encourage you to skip v201302 and migrate straight to v201306. Follow the Ads Developers Plus Page for tips and tricks about migration. If you’re using v201302, be aware it is now marked deprecated and will be sunset on November 8th, 2013.

As with every new version of the AdWords API, we encourage you to carefully review all changes in the release notes and the v201306 migration guide. We have also published updated client libraries with code examples. If you have any questions or need help with migration, please post on the forum or Ads Developers Plus Page.

- The AdWords API Team

AdMob Plugin for Unity3D

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Unity is a game development framework that makes it very easy to develop games for mobile platforms. Today we're releasing a plugin to help developers show AdMob banner ads in Unity games developed for iOS and Android. This plugin is packaged as a Unity Package so integration with a Unity project should be very easy. The included README has a step-by-step walkthrough on getting started.

We remind developers to follow AdMob best practices when integrating ads into their games. In particular, we advise that you put ads on screens only where they won’t cause a dip in your app’s frame rate.

You can check out the AdMob Unity plugin on our samples page (Android | iOS). Please direct any questions or general feedback to our forum. You can also follow our Google+ page to stay up to date on all of Google's ads products.

- Raj Parameswaran, AdMob Team

Ads Developer Blog

OAuth2 in the Ads APIs

Updates to geographical targets in Vietnam and Italy

AdMob SDK v6.5.0 for iOS Now Available

AdWords API v201306: CustomerSyncService changes

Managing Content Bid Dimensions in AdWords API

v201209 sunsets on July 22 - a reminder

DFA Reporting API Version 1.3 Released

Metrics and dimensions in the AdSense and Ad Exchange Seller REST APIs

v201209 Sunset - 2 weeks remaining

Announcing v201306 of AdWords API

AdMob Plugin for Unity3D

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