As previously announced, starting on September 23, 2013, call, app and sitelink extensions will automatically upgrade to their new formats. If you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to upgrade your extensions ahead of the September 23 deadline so you can take early advantage of the new features, accrue statistics on the upgraded extensions sooner, and ensure that your extensions continue to show.

Starting on the upgrade date, the following changes will take place:

• You won’t be able to use CampaignAdExtensionService.mutate to update your legacy extensions. 
• The 25 characters limit will take effect. Make sure you adjust your sitelink text to 25 characters or less so your extensions continue to show.

The use of CampaignAdExtensionService.get for legacy call, app and sitelink extensions, will be available through October 23. You can use it to consult and compare your legacy extensions data with their upgraded counterparts.

If you allow your legacy extensions be auto-upgraded, the system will do its best to detect and avoid creating duplicate extensions. We recommend that you check all your extensions after the upgrade is finished to ensure they’re configured as you’d like.

Resources
To learn more about managing upgraded extensions with the AdWords API, make sure to consult the Feed Services guide. For a code example on how to upgrade extensions on your own, look in the migration folder in all client libraries.

If you have questions or need help with the upgrade, please visit us on the developer forum or the G+ page.

 - David Torres, AdWords API Team

We recently announced upgraded ad extensions that provide many new capabilities, including mobile-optimized settings, new scheduling features, and detailed reporting at the individual sitelink level. We’ll be helping all advertisers transition to these improved extensions over the coming months. Starting on September 23, 2013, the AdWords API will support only these upgraded extensions, including the 25-character sitelink limit, and we’ll begin automatically upgrading legacy extensions to the new format.

We recommend upgrading your extensions ahead of September 23, 2013 so you can take advantage of all the new features and customize specific settings. Most advertisers are upgrading their extensions as part of their overall upgrade to AdWords enhanced campaigns. To help make the process easy for you, we’ve put together a number of resources:

• The feed services can help you create and retrieve upgraded ad extensions
• Our upgrade guide as well as a complete code example in Java provide best practices 
• Our client libraries provide full support for various feed services and code examples that show how to use them
• The AdWords API Required Minimum Functionality document is updated with information about how feed services can be used to create and manage upgraded ad extensions

As you are upgrading, you can create upgraded ad extensions while still keeping legacy ad extensions in the same campaign; however, only the upgraded extensions will be served. Beginning on September 23, if a campaign only has legacy extensions, we will auto-upgrade them to the new format. If a campaign has both legacy and upgraded extensions, we will only serve the new format, and legacy extensions will be marked as deleted.

If you have questions or need help with the upgrade, please visit us on the developer forum, or at one of the upcoming GDL Office Hours.

 - Anash P. Oommen, AdWords API Team

To provide more control and precision over bids in enhanced campaigns, we’ve now made ad group level mobile bid adjustments available in the AdWords API, as previously announced.

While the majority of advertisers will still see the most value in using the existing campaign level bid adjustments, this new feature will be useful for those who wish to set different mobile bid adjustments within an enhanced campaign. The functionality is accessible via the new AdGroupBidModifierService for all currently available AdWords API versions. It is not required to migrate to a different version of the API to use this new service. Please refer to this guide covering technical aspects of the release.

The new feature is only available for enhanced campaigns, so if you haven’t upgraded yet, now would be a good time. As a reminder, we will begin automatically upgrading all AdWords campaigns to enhanced campaigns starting on July 22, 2013.

If you have any questions regarding this new feature or enhanced campaigns, feel free to ask us on the forum, during office hours or via the Plus page.

 - Danial Klimkin, Ads Developer Relations Team.

We recently exposed the Device column in the Click Performance Report. The Device column can have TABLET, HIGH_END_MOBILE or DESKTOP as its valid values. This is a segmentation column, so requesting it will prevent zero impression rows from being returned. If you have migrated to Enhanced Campaigns, then this column can be useful in finding out how your ads performed on various platforms, and adjusting your mobile bid modifier accordingly.

If you face any issues with the above changes or have any questions about this feature, you can ask us on our developer forum, or at the upcoming GDL Office Hours with the Developer Relations team.

 - Anash P. Oommen, AdWords API Team

AdWords API has released a new template ad specifically meant for mobile app developers who want to run ads promoting mobile and tablet apps. This ad format, known as “click-to-download” ad or app promotion ads, makes it easier for people to download your mobile app, from Google Play Store or iTunes. Version v201302 of the AdWords API adds support for this new ad format. To use this format, you first need to upgrade your campaign to enhanced campaigns.

App promotion ads will only show on the device from which the app can be installed. This means that ads for Android apps will only show on Android devices, and not on iOS devices. Ads for apps available only for tablets won’t show on mobile devices. This ensures that your application is promoted only to the right device platforms.

App promotion ads can be created as a template ad, using template ID 353. You need to create template element fields for headline, description1, description2, appId and appStore; other element fields are optional. Check out the full list of template fields and a complete Java code example.

You can find your Android package name by looking up the app in Google Play. The package name can be determined from the URL, which is of the form https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=<package_name>. For iOS, you’ll find the App ID within the app’s URL, which appears in the following format: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/example-app-name/id#########. Appstore field can be 1 (iTunes), or 2 (Google Play Store).

If you face any issues with the above changes or have any questions about this feature, you can ask us on our developer forum, or at the upcoming GDL Office Hours with the Developer Relations team.
 - Anash P. Oommen, AdWords API Team