Google Ads Developer Blog: optimization

Recommendations in Google Ads API Roundup

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

supports 25 different recommendation typesKey suggested uses

Avoid getting limited by budget this holiday season. With CAMPAIGN_BUDGET and FORECASTING_CAMPAIGN_BUDGET recommendation types you’ll be sure to keep your ads running, so potential customers can see them by preventing your campaign from under-performing due to a limited budget.

Expand the reach of your ads with USE_BROAD_MATCH_KEYWORD, which will update your keyword match types to show your ads to relevant potential customers.

Upgrade to Performance Max with UPGRADE_SMART_SHOPPING_CAMPAIGN_TO_PERFORMANCE_MAX and UPGRADE_LOCAL_CAMPAIGN_TO_PERFORMANCE_MAX, which will take care of migrating your existing Smart Shopping and Local Campaigns for you.

Implementation guideour implementation guideYouTube deep dive tutorialCode examplescode examples

- David Stevens, Google Ads API Product Manager

Upcoming changes to Simulations in the Google Ads API and Bid Landscapes in the AdWords API

Monday, December 20, 2021

We are changing the way ad group simulations with SimulationModificationMethod = DEFAULT are calculated in the Google Ads API and the AdWords API. What’s changing? For an ad group with keyword bid overrides, we provide estimated traffic for different values of the ad group’s default bid. Currently, all keywords with bid overrides are excluded from this estimate. This results in a lower-than-expected traffic estimate. Starting the week of January 17, 2022, we will modify our estimation to include both keywords using the default bid and keywords with bid overrides when calculating ad group simulations. We will further assume that only the ad group default bid would change in the simulation, and all keyword bid overrides will remain the same. This may affect the simulations returned by the GetAdGroupSimulation method of the AdGroupSimulationService service in the Google Ads API and the getAdGroupBidLandscape and queryAdGroupBidLandscape methods of the DataService service in the AdWords API. What should you do? If you use this feature, we recommend that you ensure that your code continues to work with the modified results returned by these methods. If you have any questions, please contact us via the Google Ads API forum. Reminder: Share your feedback about the Google Ads (AdWords) API. Take the 2021 AdWords API and Google Ads API Annual Survey. - Anash P. Oommen, Google Ads API Team

Sunsetting the KEYWORD_MATCH_TYPE recommendation type

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

July 21, 2021KEYWORD_MATCH_TYPEWhat's changing?KEYWORD_MATCH_TYPEsearchGoogle Ads APIGoogle Ads scriptsKEYWORD_MATCH_TYPERequestError.RESOURCE_NOT_FOUNDGoogle Ads APIWhat do you need to do?July 21, 2021Recommendation.keyword_match_type_recommendationKeywordMatchTypeRecommendationforumgoogleadsapi-support@google.com

Pierrick Voulet, Google Ads API Team

Migration to "Conversions" for conversion optimizer in AdWords API

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

In AdWords you could choose to optimize your automated bidding on "Converted clicks" or "Conversions." AdWords recently announced that we're saying goodbye to "Converted clicks" in favor of “Conversions,” which offers much more flexibility and measurement options. As a result, we’re updating the API.

The conversionOptimizerMode attribute of the Customer.conversionTrackingSetting allowed you to set ONE_PER_CLICK ("Converted clicks") or MANY_PER_CLICK ("Conversions") at the account level.

Starting on September 21, 2016, all AdWords accounts will be automatically migrated to set conversionOptimizerMode to MANY_PER_CLICK, and new mutate operations to change this setting will fail with RequestError.INVALID_INPUT.

Prior to September 21, 2016, ensure your CustomerService mutate requests do not attempt to modify the value of conversionOptimizerMode. You can also migrate your accounts before the migration by setting conversionOptimizerMode to MANY_PER_CLICK.

If you have any questions, please let us know on the forum.

-Mike Cloonan, AdWords API Team

Introducing the Keyword Optimizer sample app for the AdWords API

Friday, March 4, 2016

In AdWords, finding the right keywords to trigger your ads is one of the main drivers of success — yet a major challenge at the same time. You can use our Keyword Planner to browse for new keyword ideas, or utilize the AdWords API services for keyword suggestion and traffic estimation to find and evaluate keywords at scale.

But wait, now there’s more! We’ve just released KeywordOptimizer, a sample app showcasing how to combine these services to find the perfect set of keywords. Starting from an initial set of seed keywords (obtained using a sample URL, business category etc.), the iterative process repeatedly discards low-quality keywords and “reproduces” high-quality ones. With each step, the average quality across all keywords increases, just like evolution!

KeywordOptimizer is designed to provide guidance on how to use the TargetingIdeaService and TrafficEstimatorService. Simply run it from the command-line to get a CSV file with keywords and estimation with minimal effort. Advanced users can easily extend the tool with custom implementations. For example, you can change the calculation for the keyword quality score to combine clicks with impressions, or your own metrics in a way that works best for you.

Get started with Keyword Optimizer’s GitHub repository. Feel free to ask questions or give feedback via the project’s issue tracker, the AdWords API Forum, or our Google+ page.

Timo Bozsolik, AdWords API Team

New AdWords API guides

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Did you know we have an extensive set of themed guides on the AdWords API Developers site? We do our best to have every topic covered and to keep all of them up-to-date. If you find that particular functionality needs better coverage, or we have a gap on a certain topic, let us know!

Meanwhile, my colleagues have published five new guides for the AdWords API:

Optimization: Ray took a deep dive into the optimization part of the API and prepared two guides: Generating Targeting Ideas and Estimating Traffic.
Ad Reviews: Josh investigated and put on paper all the technical details about policy violations and making Exemption Requests.
Google Analytics: Mike went over all the features available when using the AdWords API with Google Analytics.
Dynamic Search Ads: Marc fulfilled the promise he made during our Workshop series and wrote a guide on Using DSA.

We are looking forward to hearing your feedback via our G+ page or on the forum.

- Danial Klimkin, AdWords API Team.

Estimated Total Conversions are now available in the AdWords API

Monday, November 18, 2013

Consumers are increasingly using smartphones and switching between devices along their path to purchase. So it's become harder for marketers to see the full conversion path and measure ROI using traditional online conversion tracking.

That's why we recently introduced Estimated Total Conversions. Estimated Total Conversions provides a more complete and accurate view of all of the conversions driven by AdWords -- including conversions that start on one device and end on another.

Many new metrics related to Estimated Total Conversions are now available in the AdWords API. When you use the Account Performance Report, Campaign Performance Report, or Ad Group Performance Report, you can now access the following fields:

CostPerEstimatedTotalConversion
EstimatedCrossDeviceConversions
EstimatedTotalConversionRate
EstimatedTotalConversions
EstimatedTotalConversionValue
EstimatedTotalConversionValuePerClick
EstimatedTotalConversionValuePerCost
ValuePerEstimatedTotalConversion

To see the new Estimated Total Conversions statistics, you need AdWords conversion tracking set up through either the AdWords UI or ConversionTrackerService in the AdWords API. You'll also need a sufficient volume of conversions within an account, campaign, or ad group so that reliable estimates can be made.

Keep in mind, estimated conversion values are available only for search ads on Google traffic at this time.

As always, please feel free to ask any questions regarding the AdWords API on the G+ page or the forum.

-Takeshi Hagikura, AdWords API Team

AdWords API: using auto-tagging and Google Click IDs

Monday, September 9, 2013

Auto-tagging is an AdWords feature that can help you track your ad performance using custom software or website tracking programs like Google Analytics. When enabled, it automatically creates custom destination URLs with a parameter called gclid added to your landing page URL.

This value is now available to you in the Click Performance Report as the “GclId” field. This means you can now use auto-tagging and easily combine this data with information from other sources, like web analytics or webserver logs, when analyzing conversion performance and optimizing your campaigns.

Auto-tagging is available to all AdWords users, and can be enabled via the User Interface only. It’s a per-account setting available on the My Account -> Preferences page.

Feel free to reach out to us via the G+ page or the forum if you have any questions regarding this feature.

- Danial Klimkin, Ads Developer Relations Team.

Understanding AdWords API TargetingIdeaService and user interface numbers

Friday, November 2, 2012

Some API users have noticed a difference between the search volume numbers returned by the TargetingIdeaService in versions v201206 and later compared to earlier versions and the user interface.

When running a query of 'STATS' request type with the latest API version, you will typically get a higher number for search volume compared to the user interface. The reason for the difference is that the volume returned by the latest API includes Search Partners data in its calculation, while the UI and the older API versions don’t have this metric available.

We understand this change may have caused confusion for some customers and we plan to include an option to choose which networks to account for in future API versions.