Starting August 22, 2022, the include_in_conversions_metric field of the ConversionAction resource will become read-only. Requests that attempt to set this value will result in a FieldError.IMMUTABLE_FIELD error.

Why is this change happening?
As part of the addition of conversion goals in Google Ads, the new primary_for_goal field replaced the include_in_conversions_metric field. To ease the transition to the new field while we enabled goals on all accounts, the Google Ads API allowed you to continue to set the deprecated include_in_conversions_metric field, and the API would automatically update primary_for_goal accordingly. However, now that conversion goals are enabled in all Google Ads accounts, we're preventing setting include_in_conversions_metric to avoid conflicts with primary_for_goal.

What should you do?
Modify any code that sets include_in_conversions_metrics to instead set primary_for_goal. In addition, review and modify any of your application logic that uses the conversion_action.include_in_conversions_metric field in reports. Check out the conversion goals guide for more information on how the primary_for_goal setting impacts bidding and reporting.

If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the forum.
- Josh Radcliff, Google Ads API Team

The Google Ads API Developer Relations team will be hosting a live webinar, Website Conversions & Audience Remarketing with the Google Ads API, on December 11 at 10 AM EST (3 PM GMT).

Mark your calendar

Prerequisites
In order to get the most out of this webinar, we suggest you develop a basic understanding of the Google Ads API. In order to learn more, please visit our API Overview documentation or check out this Google Ads API Overview workshop from 2019. In addition, you may find this post useful to learn how conversion tracking works in Google Ads.

Agenda
The webinar will cover the topics below and include code walkthroughs to demonstrate how to perform different actions with the Google Ads API client libraries. We will also be hosting a live Q&A at the end.

• What conversion actions are
• How to create and utilize conversion actions
• How remarketing works in the Google Ads API
• How to define different audience types
• How to measure audience performance

Reminders
Feel free to add the event to your calendar. In addition, you can set a reminder for the event on YouTube by clicking the “Set reminder” button on the YouTube event page.

We look forward to sharing our knowledge of the Google Ads API with you and answering your questions. If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us via the forum or at googleadsapi-support@google.com.
- Devin Chasanoff, on behalf of the Google Ads API Team

The v201601 release of the AdWords API included a new optimizeOnEstimatedConversions attribute of Customer.conversionTrackingSettings that allowed you to opt-in to including cross-device conversions in the Conversions column. With this option set to true, AdWords includes cross-device conversions when optimizing for conversions in an automated bid strategy.

What's changing

• Starting on August 16, 2016, new AdWords accounts will automatically have optimizeOnEstimatedConversions set to true.
• During September, 2016, the optimizeOnEstimatedConversions setting will be changed to true on all existing AdWords accounts to give you the most complete view of performance possible.
• Starting on September 6, 2016, the optimizeOnEstimatedConversions field in the AdWords API will become read-only. If your CustomerService mutate request attempts to modify this field by sending a value other than the current value, the request will fail with RequestError.INVALID_INPUT.

For more information, check out the recent Inside AdWords blog post on cross-device conversions.

What you should do
Prior to September 6, 2016, ensure that your CustomerService mutate requests do not attempt to modify the value of optimizeOnEstimatedConversions. You can also migrate your accounts before the migration by setting optimizeOnEstimatedConversions to true.

If you have any questions, please post on the forum or the Ads Developers Plus Page.

- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

What’s new?

The validation for AppConversions will become stricter starting on November 9, 2015. If you’re using AppConversions in v201509 or v201506 with AppPlatform: ITUNES, you’ll need to make sure that you’re using the correct AppConversionType.

What was the old behavior?

When v201509 was first released, the API would not throw an error if the incorrect value was sent in a request for an iTunes AppConversion. The API automatically converted to the correct AppConversionType. For example, if the value DOWNLOAD was passed into v201509 for an iTunes AppConversion, then that value would automatically be converted to FIRST_OPEN.

What is the new behavior?

In v201509, AppConversionType DOWNLOAD changed to FIRST_OPEN for iTunes apps. Here’s what you will need to do:

• For v201506 or earlier, you must pass in AppConversionType DOWNLOAD rather than FIRST_OPEN.
• For v201509 or later, you must pass in FIRST_OPEN instead of DOWNLOAD.

Passing in the incorrect value will result in the error DOMAIN_EXCEPTION from the API starting on November 9.

Note: This only impacts iTunes conversions. There will be no changes to the validation for AppConversions with an AppPlatform of ANDROID.

Where can I learn more?

For more information on mobile apps and conversions, check out these guides:

• Conversion Tracking
• Mobile App Install Campaigns
• Increasing Mobile App Engagement

Questions? Visit us on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

Nadine Sundquist, AdWords API Team

As announced in February, flexible conversion counting in AdWords now lets you decide how you want to count conversions for each of your accounts. As a follow up to this new feature, when new AdWords accounts are created through the UI or the API after October 1st, 2014, the default conversionOptimizerMode will be MANY_PER_CLICK instead of ONE_PER_CLICK. In addition, we'll change the conversionOptimizerMode to MANY_PER_CLICK on any existing account that is not using bidding strategies impacted by conversions.

Action required
Since the new default of MANY_PER_CLICK lets your conversion-based bidding strategies take full advantage of flexible conversion counting, we recommend keeping the default setting on new accounts. However, if you still want to use ONE_PER_CLICK for new accounts created via ManagedCustomerService, then add a second step in your account creation process that issues a CustomerService.mutate call that sets the conversionOptimizerMode on the Customer.

In addition, if you decide to utilize one of the conversion-based bidding strategies, you'll want to make sure that the conversionOptimizerMode is set to the value you'd prefer. The conversion-based bidding strategies affected by conversionOptimizerMode are:

• CONVERSION_OPTIMIZER
• ENHANCED_CPC
• PERCENT_CPA
• TARGET_CPA
• MANUAL_CPC (when ManualCpcBiddingScheme.enhancedCpcEnabled is true)
• BUDGET_OPTIMIZER (when BudgetOptimizerBiddingScheme.enhancedCpcEnabled is true)

Additional information
If you'd like to learn more about conversion tracking in AdWords, check out the Help Center article on counting conversions. In addition, the remarketing examples folder in each client library contains an AddConversionTracker example that shows how to create an AdWordsConversionTracker via the API.

Still have questions? Feel free to visit us on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

The CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD placeholder was deprecated on April 28th, 2014. Starting July 21st, 2014, using this placeholder with the FeedMappingService will result in a FeedMappingError.INVALID_PLACEHOLDER_FIELD error for all AdWords API versions.

See this post for details on how to set your conversion duration going forward with the CONVERSION TYPE ID placeholder instead.

If you have any questions about this upcoming change or anything else related to the AdWords API, please contact us on the AdWords API forum or via the Google Ads Developers Google+ page.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

This is a reminder that the CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD placeholder is sunsetting starting on April 28th, 2014.

Starting on the sunset date, AdWords accounts will be migrated to use the new CONVERSION TYPE ID placeholder for a four-week time period. During this period, some AdWords accounts that you access via the AdWords API may be migrated, and some may not. Read on to find out how to determine if a feed has been migrated or not. Migration of all AdWords accounts is scheduled to complete by end of May, 2014.

How will an existing conversion duration threshold be migrated?

If you used CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD in a Feed Mapping prior to the sunset date, then we will automatically migrate those values after the sunset date - and they will be accessible via the AdWords API v201402 as follows:

• New AdCallMetricsConversion will be automatically created for you with the existing conversion duration threshold.
  
  Note: If you have 3 feed items with call duration threshold, where two of them are set to 120 seconds, and one of them are set to 30 seconds, then only two AdCallMetricsConversion will be created - one with AdCallMetricsConversion.phoneCallDuration set to 120 seconds, and another one set to 30 seconds.
  
  
• Feed attributes using CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD will remain, setting and reading those values will not produce errors. However, any associated feed attribute values will not be honored.
  
  
• A new feed attribute will be automatically created in your existing feed, and it will be automatically be mapped to the new CONVERSION TYPE ID placeholder type.
  
  
• The new conversion type ID feed attribute will be associated to the newly created AdCallMetricsConversion.
  
  

Note that in order to get the name and field attribute ID of the newly created conversion type ID field attribute, you should use the FeedMappingService to determine the feed attribute ID that is associated with the CONVERSION TYPE ID placeholder type.

How do I know if a Feed has been migrated?

If a feed has been migrated, you will be able to see that the Feed has an attribute associated to the CONVERSION TYPE ID placeholder type. You can use the FeedMappingService to determine this.

How do I set conversion duration threshold on a migrated Feed?

If you’d like to continue using conversion duration threshold, then you must upgrade to the AdWords API v201402.

In a migrated feed, the CONVERSION TYPE ID feed item attribute value refers to an AdCallMetricsConversion object by ID. To set the conversion duration threshold, you must update the associated AdCallMetricsConversion object’s phoneCallDuration field. Please note that doing this will impact other feed items that are associated to the same AdCallMetricsConversion object.

Alternatively, you can also associate the CONVERSION TYPE ID feed item attribute value to a different AdCallMetricsConversion:

• Re-use an existing AdCallMetricsConversion that has the right phone call duration
• Use the ConversionTrackerService to create new AdCallMetricsConversion with the phoneCallDuration field set

In a migrated feed, if you continue to set the attribute value associated with the CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD placeholder, then those values will be ignored.

Can I start using the new placeholder before the Feed gets migrated?

Yes. Starting from the sunset date, you will be able to use the new CONVERSION TYPE ID placeholder in your feed. If you are using the placeholder in your feed and set the attribute value to a valid AdCallMetricsConversion ID, then the CONVERSION TYPE ID value will be used, and the CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD value will be ignored.

If you choose to do this prior to the automatic migration - don’t worry. The automatic migration process will not overwrite your existing CONVERSION TYPE ID values with CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD values.

We are here to help

If you have any questions about this upcoming change or anything else related to the AdWords API, please contact us on the AdWords API forum or via the Google Ads Developers Google+ page.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

Update: The sunset date was changed from April 7th, 2014 to April 28th, 2014. --Stan Grinberg

If you use AdWords call extensions, you know that you can count phone calls as conversions based on the duration of the call (e.g., 60 seconds). When using AdWords API feeds, this duration threshold is specified as the CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD placeholder. This placeholder is sunsetting on April 7th, 2014. You will not receive errors if you continue to read and set values associated with this placeholder. However, these values will not be honored past the sunset date.

How do I set conversion duration threshold in the future?
After the sunset date, if you’d like to continue using conversion duration threshold, then you must upgrade to the AdWords API v201402:

• Use the ConversionTrackerService to create an AdCallMetricsConversion
• Set the call duration threshold in the AdCallMetricsConversion.phoneCallDuration field
• Use the new CONVERSION TYPE feed placeholder and setting the feed attribute value to the value of the newly created AdCallMetricsConversion.Id

Note: CONVERSION TYPE placeholder is not available for use at the time of this post. We will make a separate announcement when it’s ready.

What will happen to my existing conversion duration threshold values?
If you used CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD in a Feed Mapping prior to the sunset date, then we will automatically migrate those values after the sunset date - and they will be accessible via the AdWords API v201402 as follows:

• New AdCallMetricsConversion will be automatically created for you with the existing conversion duration threshold.
  
  Note: If you have 3 feed items with call duration threshold, where two of them are set to 120 seconds, and one of them are set to 30 seconds, then only two AdCallMetricsConversion will be created - one with AdCallMetricsConversion.phoneCallDuration set to 120 seconds, and another one set to 30 seconds.
• Feed attributes using CONVERSION DURATION THRESHOLD will remain, setting and reading those values will not throw errors. However, any associated feed attribute values will not be honored.
• A new feed attribute will be automatically created in your existing feed, and it will be automatically be mapped to the new CONVERSION TYPE placeholder type
• The new conversion type feed attribute will be associated to the newly created AdCallMetricsConversion

Note that in order to get the name and field attribute ID of the newly created conversion type field attribute, you should use the FeedMappingService to determine the feed attribute ID that is associated with the CONVERSION TYPE placeholder type.

If you have any questions about this upcoming change or anything else related to the AdWords API, please contact us on the AdWords API forum or via the Google Ads Developers Google+ page.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

We recently announced a new flexible conversion counting option feature in AdWords that may affect AdWords API v201309 users. There are a couple of additional changes in the AdWords API v201402 that we want to bring to your attention so you can take full advantage of this offering:

• Record conversion values in conversion report columns based on the flexible conversion counting option
• Retrieve and set flexible conversion counting options in the ConversionTracker
• Adopt new conversion-related column names in the reports

Flexible conversion counting option

Since February 25th, 2014, AdWords users have been able to change the conversion counting option between All Conversions and Unique Conversions. The conversion counting option is defaulted to All Conversions - when left as the default option, your conversion related values in the reports will not change.

If the conversion counting option is changed from All Conversions to Unique Conversions, then the following conversion-related report columns will reflect the counting option selected across all reports:

• ConversionsManyPerClick
• ConversionRateManyPerClick
• CostPerConversionManyPerClick
• ValuePerConvManyPerClick
• ValuePerConversionManyPerClick
• ConversionManyPerClickSignificance
• ConversionRateManyPerClickSignificance
• CostPerConversionManyPerClickSignificance

Please see the help center article for specific examples of how counting Unique Conversions differs from counting All Conversions.

Retrieve and set flexible conversion counting options

In the AdWords API v201402, you will be able to retrieve and set the flexible conversion counting option. Please review the ConversionTracker API documentation to see the new flexible conversion counting options field named countingType.

New conversion-related column names

Conversion-related columns will have new names in reports. In AdWords API v201402:

• The selector field names will remain the same
• The display names and XML attribute names will be renamed

If you are downloading XML reports, you will need to update your client application to read the new column names.

Please see the migration guide for a mapping between old and new display names and XML attribute names.

If you have any questions about this upcoming change or anything else related to the AdWords API, please contact us on the AdWords API forum or via the Google Ads Developers Google+ page.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

AdWords API users take note - an upcoming AdWords feature may affect your conversion-related AdWords API reports.

Starting February 25th, 2014, AdWords users will be able to change the conversion counting option between All Conversions and Unique Conversions. The conversion counting option is defaulted to All Conversions - when left as the default option, your conversion related values in the reports will not change.

How will this affect your reports?

If an AdWords user manually changes the conversion counting option in the AdWords UI from All Conversions to Unique Conversions, then the following conversion-related report columns will reflect the counting option selected by the user across all reports:

• ConversionManyPerClick
• ConversionRateManyPerClick
• CostPerConversionManyPerClick
• ValuePerConvManyPerClick
• ValuePerConversionManyPerClick
• ConversionManyPerClickSignificance
• ConversionRateManyPerClickSignificance
• CostPerConversionManyPerClickSignificance

When the conversion counting option is changed, the values in these columns will no longer be many-per-click, but it will reflect the counting option selected by the user. Please see the help center article for specific examples of how counting Unique Conversions differs from counting All Conversions.

AdWords API currently doesn't allow you to retrieve counting option associated with the conversion tracker. It will be available in the next release of the API.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team