Today we’re announcing the general availability of the Structured Data Files (SDF) v7.1 and the open beta of our new QA format. Both are available to all Display & Video 360 users.

While in open beta, the QA format might be updated without notice. These updates will be reflected in the documentation. We will announce the QA format release to general availability at a later date.

What’s new in v7.1?

All users can now use SDF v7.1 to upload and download SDFs in the Display & Video 360 UI, and to download SDFs through the Display & Video 360 API.

The update from v7 to v7.1 includes the following changes:

• Added new TrueView Video Ad settings to the Line Item resource.
• Renamed three insertion order columns to use “Kpi” instead of “Performance Goal.”
• Introduced a new objective column to the insertion order resource. This column is currently in beta and only available to participating clients.

Full details on the changes made in v7.1 can be found in our Structured Data Files release notes. If you are currently using SDF v5.5 or v6, follow the instructions on our v7 migration guide first before migrating to v7.1.

What’s the SDF QA format?

The new SDF QA format provides SDFs with human-readable data to make it easier to review Display & Video 360 resource settings in bulk.

All supported SDF versions offer this format through two new file types: Line Item - QA and YouTube Ad Group - QA. These file types provide the same information as standard format files of the same version, and convey a subset of that information using display name values instead of numeric IDs.

SDF QA files are read-only and cannot be uploaded to modify or create Display & Video 360 resources. Currently, QA format files are only available through the Display & Video 360 interface.

We are accepting feedback on the QA format while it is in open beta. To submit feedback, please use the Send Feedback button on the relevant reference documentation page. We will consider suggested updates before releasing the QA format to general availability.

If you run into issues or need help with this new format or version, please follow the instructions on our support guide or contact us using our contact form.

- Trevor Mulchay, Display & Video 360 API Team

Do you want to discover if Performance Max can provide additional benefits beyond your existing campaigns?
Are you interested in upgrading existing campaigns to Performance Max?
Do you need to scale your upgrades using the Google Ads API?

What’s new
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then the new Upgrade to Performance Max guide can help. In this guide you will discover:

• A summary of the benefits available in Performance Max
• Steps to assist you managing the upgrade process
• Eligibility information to help you understand which existing campaigns you are able to upgrade using the Google Ads API
• Recommendations to compare reporting between existing campaigns and Performance Max campaigns
• Enhancements you can make to improve your upgraded campaign

Feedback and support
If you have further questions or concerns about upgrading to Performance Max, we want to hear from you. Please provide any feedback on the upgrade process or Performance Max using our feedback page. If you require further support with your upgrade, please reach out to our team via one of our support channels.
Ian Ballantyne, Google Ads API Team

We're pleased to announce that v202405 of the Google Ad Manager API is available today. This release brings support for contextual targeting.

It also includes a number of deprecations, such as the removal of the ActivityService, ActivityGroupService, and ACTIVITY reporting dimensions to support the Spotlight deprecation.

For the full list of changes, check the release notes. Feel free to contact us on the Ad Manager API forum with any API-related questions.

- Chris Seeley, Ad Manager API Team

We recently published a new suite of guides on how to create Performance Max campaigns in Google Ads scripts. You can check them out on our developers site.

These guides focus on using the new mutate function, which lets you access most of the features from the full Google Ads API.

By following the pattern established in these guides, you can customize the operations to perform all sorts of tasks automatically with scripts. Check out the mutate strategy section specifically for some general advice applicable to many use cases.

If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach out to us on our forum.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team

Starting June 10, 2024, we are rolling out a permanent change that automatically pauses Google Ads keywords that haven’t had any impressions during the last 13 months. The rollout is expected to be complete for all production Google Ads accounts in August 2024. We’re implementing this change to improve Google Ads experience for advertisers, in a similar way to what we changed earlier this year for ad groups with low activity.

You can unpause keywords if you still need them, or to remove them if you don’t. However, we recommend that all advertisers review their keywords, and only unpause the ones they expect to get impressions in the coming weeks.

What do I need to change?

No code changes are necessary, but Google Ads API developers can make changes to improve the transparency to their advertisers as to why the ad_group_criterion.status is set to PAUSED. If you keep local copies of Google Ads information in your database, you can keep them in sync by querying change history.

You can query the change event resource to see if the keyword status has changed with the following query for all API versions. If the change_event.changed_fields contains status, then this is a keyword that Google paused. Make sure to replace INSERT_YYYY-MM-DD with your own date range.

SELECT
change_event.new_resource,
change_event.old_resource,
change_event.changed_fields,
change_event.resource_name,
change_event.change_resource_name,
change_event.user_email
FROM change_event
WHERE
change_event.change_resource_type = 'AD_GROUP_CRITERION'
AND change_event.user_email = 'Low activity system bulk change'
AND change_event.resource_change_operation = 'UPDATE'
AND change_event.change_date_time BETWEEN ' INSERT_YYYY-MM-DD' AND ' INSERT_YYYY-MM-DD'
ORDER BY change_event.change_date_time DESC
LIMIT 50

An example of a change event where the keyword has been paused by Google would look similar to:

{
      "changeEvent": {
        "resourceName": "customers/1234567890/changeEvents/1708648783892610~5~0",
        "changeDateTime": "2024-02-22 16:39:43.89261",
        "changeResourceName": "customers/1234567890/adGroupCriteria/1234567890~0987654321",
        "changeResourceType": "AD_GROUP_CRITERION",
        "userEmail": "Low activity system bulk change",
        "oldResource": {
          "adGroupCriterion": {
            "status": "ENABLED"
          }
        },
        "newResource": {
          "adGroupCriterion": {
            "status": "PAUSED"
          }
        },
        "changedFields": "status",
        "resourceChangeOperation": "UPDATE",
      }
    }

You can use the resource names returned by this query to retrieve the current status of the keywords and mutate if, if needed.

Starting with v17, you can also retrieve the ad_group_criterion.primary_status field to see if your keywords have been paused; keywords that have this field set to PAUSED and for which the ad_group_criterion.primary_status_reasons contains AD_GROUP_CRITERION_PAUSED_DUE_TO_LOW_ACTIVITY are the ones that were automatically paused due to low activity. You can adjust the change history query to include these fields.

You will still be able to update your keywords and make changes while they are in a paused state.

Where can I get support?

If you have questions, please reach out to us on the support form or at googleadsapi-support@google.com.

 - Mattia Tommasone, Google Ads API Team

Since 2020, we've asked the Google Publisher Tag (GPT) developer community to provide their valuable feedback through an annual survey. This feedback influences what we work on each year, and has directly inspired work on resources and tools like the official GPT type definitions, GPT sample builder, and more.

As we look forward to another year, it's time once again to check in with our developer community to see what's working well and what can be improved. Starting today, we're kicking off the 2024 GPT developer survey.

Take the survey

The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete, and it will be open through the end of June 2024. Most questions are optional and your answers are anonymous.

Remember that the feedback you provide influences what we work on over the course of the next year, so please let us know what matters most to you. Thanks in advance for taking the time to help improve the GPT developer experience!

 - Jonathon Imperiosi, Google Publisher Tags Team

Google Ads is rolling out a new feature that allows the account administrator to request its users to switch from a regular personal email address (for example john.doe@gmail.com) to a business email address (for example john.doe@example.com). We are making this change to improve account security and reduce potential surface for abuse. This is an informational post to highlight how this feature could affect the Google Ads API and Google Ads scripts developers.

How does this feature work?

To use this feature, the account administrator sends a request to an account user from the Google Ads UI to switch their personal email to a business email. If the user accepts, then the following steps are bundled behind the scenes:

• A business email address is added to the Google Ads account.
• A grace period of one month starts, where both the personal email address and business email address are active users in the Google Ads account.
• The personal email address is removed from the Google Ads account at the end of the grace period.

Refer to our help center guide to learn more about this feature.

How does this affect API developers?

As a developer, you may need to do the following additional steps:

1. If the user has authorized your application to make API calls to the Google Ads account using their personal email address, then the OAuth 2.0 refresh token will stop working once the personal email address is removed from the Google Ads account. You need to authorize the user with the new business email address.
2. This change only works with Google Ads accounts. If the user manages other accounts, such as Google Analytics or Google Merchant Center, then the email address needs to be switched manually in those accounts. See the help center page for a more comprehensive list of locations where you might have to make a change.
3. If you have authorized and scheduled Google Ads Scripts with the personal email address, you need to authorize the scripts with the business email address after this change.

How to get help

If you have any questions or need help, check out the Google Ads API support page or Google Ads scripts support page for options.

 - Anash P. Oommen, Google Ads API Team