HasQualityScore = false
QualityScore
The Mobile Ads Garage is a new series that covers how to use the Mobile Ads SDK to display ads from AdMob and Doubleclick For Publishers. Each episode will cover one aspect of the SDK, break down the feature, and show screencasts of real implementations on both Android and iOS – all in a friendly format.
With two episodes on banner ads on the books, the Mobile Ads Garage now turns its focus to interstitial ads.
Andrew and Gary the Graphics Guy are back this week with a detailed explanation of the interstitial ad lifecycle, how to load ads, and how to display at just the right time. Along the way you'll get screencasts of Android Studio and Xcode, plus links to guides, samples, and other resources.
If you like the video, save the Mobile Ads Garage playlist to your YouTube Playlist collection and you'll never miss an episode.
We’d love to hear which AdMob features you’d like to learn more about. The comment sections for the videos are open, and you're welcome to toss out ideas for new episodes and examples you'd like to see. If you have a technical question relating to something discussed in one of the episodes, you can bring it to our support forum.
One of the most frequently asked questions is how to tackle the problem of replicating the 'copy creatives' functionality in the DFP UI. While most of the time it's as simple as this trio-trio-trio of steps:
Some creative types are weak against copying techniques such as making a copy of an image creative with existing assets. The process might be a bit more complicated, but I promise you, we won’t let you walk in the tall grass alone. In the past, the asset information lived in a variety of different places. Custom, image, and template creatives all had assets defined specifically for their type, nested in non-standard locations. You then had to go and look for an assetUrl to download into a byte array so that you could set it on a new asset object. On top of this, not every creative had an assetUrl. So in some cases, the task was all but impossible.
assetUrl
The good news is, we’ve refactored our creative types to use the CreativeAsset object, so that each is in a more canonical location, as well as to allow for the reuse of assetIds. Rather than having an assortment of fields - different for each creative type - you have one neat asset object to encapsulate all of them. What does this mean for you? You can reuse your assets across multiple types of creatives without having to write code to handle each different type of creative. All you have to do is extract the CreativeAsset object, leaving the ID, and set it on a new creative.
CreativeAsset
You can mimic this by following an example (like this one for Java) for copying assets between image creatives.
It's super effective.
As usual, remember that no question is too Farfetch'd and feel free to reach out to us with any questions or concerns you have!
- Nicholas Chen, DFP API Team
Today we’re pleased to announce the release of the v201605 DFP API. This release focuses on new features for reporting and sales manager.
For a full list of API changes in v201605, see the release notes.
Here is a breakdown of how this dimension behaves:
You can read more about DFP First Look and how it affects the query tool in our help center article.
The second reporting feature is more time zone settings in sales reports. For this, we’ve added a ReportQuery flag called useSalesLocalTimeZone. This option only applies to reports containing sales attributes and metrics. When set to true, all applicable attributes or metrics will be displayed or calculated using proposal or proposal line item time zones, instead of the network time zone.
We’ve also added the long awaited workflowProgress indicator to proposals. The WorkflowProgress contains information such as which step or rule a proposal’s workflow is currently on. This information is equivalent to the progress bar you see in the DFP web UI when viewing a proposal.
Finally, proposals now have a field called offlineErrors that contains errors that might have occurred in background processes. For example, if a proposal failed to reserve inventory, this field will be populated with an error. Proposal.hasOfflineErrors has been added to help you find proposals that have offline errors.
Also, please remember that we are tightening our sunset schedule. DFP versions v201508 and v201511 will both be sunset at the same time at the end of November 2016.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line on the DFP API forums or the Ads Developer Google+ page.
- Vincent Tsao, DFP API Team
MutateJobService
BatchJobService
In a perfect world, every creative loads instantly and renders perfectly. Unfortunately, the real world is a little more complicated. Creative performance is a real concern - slow ads can hurt user trust. Thankfully you can utilize existing tools, such as the DFP API, to help test and validate a creative's performance before it serves.
As a starting point, let's call out a feature you may already be aware of: DFP Preview URLs. These allow you to preview a creative either on its own or in your site, before it starts serving.
Both types of preview URLs can be retrieved using the DFP API. Every creative has a previewUrl field, and you can generate in-site previews using the LineItemCreativeAssociationService's getPreviewURL method.
Using these, you can programmatically get a URL for every creative in your network and keep tabs on new or updated creatives by filtering with lastModifiedDateTime. You can test every new creative that comes into your network and make sure it's up to your standards - the files aren't too large, it renders properly, it loads quickly, and so on.
Here's what your application might look like:
As you can see, we're still missing a couple pieces of the puzzle. How do you programmatically load the preview URLs in a browser and get the measurements we want? What measurements do we want?
The first question has a straightforward answer: WebDriver. You can load the preview URL with the browser automation tool. It can take screenshots, click on elements, and extract information from a web page.
When it comes to what metrics you want to collect, it's entirely up to you. Modern browsers log a wealth of information about page performance and network timing. ChromeDriver even has an extension that sends these performance logs back to your WebDriver application in the form of logs. Using these logs you can get whatever metrics are important to you, including page load or network events.
If the performance logs are too granular, you can leverage existing tooling instead. The Google Publisher Console is great for investigating and debugging a creative's performance. Just append a URL parameter and you get access to a debugging console by pressing Ctrl+F10 (⌘+F10 on Mac).
Both of these can be done through WebDriver. Add the same URL parameter when you create an in-site preview URL (the one you create with the LineItemCreativeAssociationService) and send the key presses through WebDriver.
Let's see it in action. To test this, create a blank test page and tag it. Then use the API to get any new creatives and associate them with a test line item. Finally, use the LineItemCreativeAssociation service to get a preview URL for WebDriver.
The implementation details are up to you, but when you mix the DFP API with a browser automation tool like WebDriver, it opens up a world of testing possibilities.
- Chris Seeley, DFP API Team
Ever wondered about the best ways to monetize with banner ads while maintaining a great user experience? If so, the Mobile Ads Garage is here to help. In the third episode, Andrew and Gary the Graphics Guy cover how to integrate banner ads into a mobile app's UX, with a little help from Aunt Betty, hairless cats, and discount moose repellent. You'll see detailed breakdowns of things to avoid, plus reliable best practices that you can take back to your own apps. As always, links to guides, samples, and other resources are included.
The old DFP API OAuth2 scope has been deprecated. Any API requests using this scope after December 31, 2016 will fail authentication. OAuth2 requests must use the current DFP API scope (https://www.googleapis.com/auth/dfp) after that time.
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/dfp
If you use a service account to authenticate instead of a refresh token, verify that the scope you use to create credentials is: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/dfp.
If you're still unsure if this affects you, you can follow the steps below anyway with no negative impact.
If you're using a different OAuth2 authentication flow, consult the documentation for your scenario and identify where the scope is being set. If you need clarification, reach out on our developer forum for additional assistance.
Today we're releasing v2.5 of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API. This release includes some exciting enhancements and functionality promoted from our previous open beta, such as:
Details of these and other improvements are covered in our release notes.
Also be aware that the v2.2 deprecation period has been extended slightly to allow users more time to migrate. The new sunset date for v2.2 is June 7th, 2016. To avoid an interruption in service, all users must migrate off of this version by the new sunset date.
Give it a try and let us know if you have any questions!
- Jonathon Imperiosi, DCM API Team
MULTI_CHANNEL
UNIVERSAL_APP_CAMPAIGN
v201603
var report = AdWordsApp.report(query, { apiVersion: 'v201603'});
v201601
As you may have heard, streamlined creative types are coming to DCM. The centerpiece of this effort is the new display creative, which supports HTML5, images, and Flash. To learn more, visit our DCM user support site.
CUSTOM_INPAGE
CUSTOM_INTERSTITIAL
ENHANCED_BANNER
ENHANCED_IMAGE
REDIRECT
RICH_MEDIA_EXPANDING
RICH_MEDIA_INPAGE
RICH_MEDIA_INPAGE_FLOATING
RICH_MEDIA_INTERSTITIAL_FLOAT
RICH_MEDIA_MULTI_FLOATING
VPAID_LINEAR
VPAID_NON_LINEAR
As display creatives replace the need to use HTML5 banner, Image, and Flash in-page creative types, support for inserting these legacy types will be removed in an upcoming API release. To prepare for this, API users are strongly encouraged to begin transitioning to the new display type now. We've updated our code examples to illustrate how current API versions can use display creatives to begin replacing these legacy types today:
Questions about this or anything else DCM API related? Contact us via our support forum.
PolicyViolationError
externalPolicyName
externalPolicyUrl
externalPolicyDescription
policyName
<errors xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:type="PolicyViolationError"> <fieldPath>operations[0].operand.ad.headline</fieldPath> <trigger/> <errorString>AdPolicyError.POLICY_ERROR</errorString> <ApiError.Type>PolicyViolationError</ApiError.Type> <key> <policyName>nonstandard_punctuation</policyName> <violatingText>!!!</violatingText> </key> <externalPolicyName>Non-standard punctuation</externalPolicyName> <externalPolicyUrl/>...</externalPolicyUrl> <externalPolicyDescription>Google ads aren't allowed to have excessive or unnecessary punctuation or symbols such as the following: ... <a href="https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/176095" target="_blank">See the full policy</a> </externalPolicyDescription> <isExemptable>true</isExemptable> <violatingParts> <index>18</index> <length>3</length> </violatingParts></errors>
externalPolicy
