Tag Archives: google_ads_scripts

Announcing deprecation and sunset of Similar Audiences

On November 1, 2022, we announced our plans to sunset Similar Audiences in 2023 as we work on simplifying our existing product portfolio and strengthening our future-proof solutions in a changing privacy landscape. We expect to roll out this change in two phases for both Google Ads API and Google Ads scripts:
  1. Starting May 2023: New similar audiences segments will stop being generated, and existing similar audiences segments will no longer be added to campaigns and ad groups. Ad groups and campaigns that already have similar audience segments attached will continue to function as expected.
  2. Starting August 2023: Similar audience segments will be removed from all ad groups and campaigns. You will continue to have access to historical reporting data for similar audience segments from past campaigns.
What is the impact on Google Ads API?
Any requests that mutate entities related to Similar Audiences will start failing with errors. This includes: The data retrieved using GoogleAdsService.Search or GoogleAdsService.SearchStream requests will gradually be depleted of any references to Similar Audiences. This includes queries relying on the reports user_list, audience, combined_audience, and any others that are based on targeting, or conversion values segments or metrics. When we get closer to the sunset date, check out the deprecation and sunset guide for the exact errors that will be thrown.

What is the impact on Google Ads scripts?
Any requests that relate to Similar Audiences are impacted. Mutating requests will start failing with errors and reporting requests will start returning data depleted of any references to Similar Audiences. This includes: What should I do?
We recommend that API users manually migrate and stop using Similar Audiences before May 2023 in their calls to avoid any disruptions. You can refer to the announcement and Help Center article to learn more about migration options.

If you have any questions or need additional help, contact us through the forum or at [email protected].
Pierrick Voulet, Google Ads API Team

Performance Max support in Google Ads scripts

Today we're launching support for Performance Max campaigns in Google Ads scripts. This is treated as a brand new campaign type in scripts, similar to how video or shopping campaigns already work.

To get started, check out the performance max campaigns selector on the AdsApp. Once you've selected a PerformanceMaxCampaign, you can perform common operations like pausing or enabling the campaign, as well as selecting and modifying most asset types in asset groups. You cannot modify text assets this way, and you cannot create new campaigns or asset groups through scripts.

Performance Max retail campaigns are supported in only a limited fashion as listing groups cannot be managed via Scripts.

For more information about Performance Max campaigns in general, check out the complete help center article.

If you have any questions or feedback, please leave a post on our forum or send a message to our support alias [email protected] so that we can help.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team

Google Ads Scripts migration office hours

The new experience for Google Ads scripts has been available for a while, so hopefully you've had a chance to try it out and enjoy all the benefits it has to offer. There are a few differences from the old scripts API, which we've documented in our migration guide.

If you've given those a go, reached out on our forum or to our support alias for assistance, and are still having any difficulties understanding the changes or having problems migrating a particular script, we are launching a limited series of office hours sessions on a first come, first serve basis.

If you're interested, check out more information on our office hours information page.

As a reminder, we will begin migrating scripts automatically to the new experience starting in September of this year, and will be migrating all scripts to use the new scripts experience in October.

If you have any questions or feedback regarding the new experience, please leave a post on our forum or send a message to our support alias [email protected] so that we can help.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team

Get started scripting with Google Ads scripts templates

Today we’re launching scripts templates, a quick and easy way to get started with scripting in Google Ads. Instead of starting your script from scratch, you can choose from a list of templates, edit to fit your account, and deploy them.

To get started, visit the scripts page and click on the plus (+) button, then Start from a template:

Next, pick a template and click Customize to begin editing.

If you have any questions or feedback regarding the new experience, please leave a post on our forum so that we can help.
Posted by David Stevens, Product Manager, Google Ads

Google Ads Scripts, AdWords API and Google Ads API reporting issues on April 25 and 26, 2022

Between April 25th 2:32 PM PT and April 26th 12:24 PM PT, there was an issue which may have impacted some read report requests across Google Ads scripts, the AdWords API, and the Google Ads API. If you were using these products to request reporting data for your accounts, then a small percentage of report downloads may have been missing rows or may have had incorrect data in a given row. This issue has been resolved. As a precaution, we recommend running again any reports that you have executed during this period as the missing data has been restored.

If you have any questions, please contact us via the Google Ads API forum or the Google Ads scripts forum.

- David Stevens, Google Ads API Product Manager

New Google Ads scripts experience

Today we’re launching the full version of the new Google Ads scripts experience. The beta has been running since June of last year, and now the final batch of features to match the functionality of legacy scripts has been released.

Starting soon, all new scripts will default to the new scripts experience, although you can still disable it on a script by script basis if necessary. Existing scripts won't be affected until September of 2022. After that, we will migrate all scripts to the new experience. You should manually move your scripts over to the new experience before then to ensure continued functionality. We've tried to implement backwards compatibility, but we can't guarantee every script will work without changes, so definitely take some time to confirm yourself.

Here are some highlight features in the new experience:
  • Support for ES6, including let, classes, for..of loops, and more.
  • Improved throughput, meaning you can process more entities in the same amount of time. We've also removed the entity limits on processing, although time limits remain in place.
  • Support for new asset-based extensions.
  • Enhanced bidding strategy support.
The following features are added in this release:
  • Manager account scripts
  • Bulk upload
  • Video campaigns
See the updated Google Ads scripts site for full information on the new experience, including migration information, performance improvements, and updated best practices. This replaces the documentation for the legacy scripts experience, but if you must reference that we will preserve it at a new location until the legacy scripts sunset: https://developers.google.com/google-ads/scripts-legacy

If you have any questions or feedback regarding the new experience, please leave a post on our forum so that we can help.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team

Important changes to placement reporting for App Campaigns

On January 5, 2022, we removed all App campaign placement data from the following reports:

Google Ads API AdWords API / Google Ads scripts We made this change because the data provided didn’t fully represent the complete view of the placements that help developers monitor brand safety for their advertisers. If you use these reports, see the App Campaigns Brand Safety Placement report in the Google Ads UI.

If you have AdWords API or Google Ads API related questions about this change, please reach out to us on the API forum or at [email protected]. Note: AdWords API developers must migrate to Google Ads API by April 27, 2022

If you have any Google Ads scripts related questions, please reach out to us on the scripts forum.
Ian Ballantyne, Google Ads API Team

Google Ads scripts now supports asset-based video ads

Starting today, Google Ads scripts supports the new asset-based video ads. This replaces the previous media-based video ads. If you have a script that creates new video ads, you must migrate your code by February 28, 2022, or else your script will begin to fail with errors after that date. Media-based video ads will no longer be supported.

This follows the same change in Google Ads API v9. Working with assets gives you greater flexibility and ease of use as they are building blocks for various ad types across networks.

If you don’t create new video ads, you aren’t affected.

For instructions on how to create an asset, view our documentation on the YouTubeVideoAssetBuilder. Once you've created an asset, you can use it when creating video ads of various types.

If you have any questions, please leave a post on our forum.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team

Google Ads API and Google Ads scripts issues on Dec 17

Between 8:30 am EST and 12:50 pm EST on December 17, there was an outage that may have prevented some users from accessing the Google Ads API & Google Ads scripts. If you were using the Google Ads API or running Google Ads scripts using the beta AdsApp.search feature or the Google Ads scripts beta, then you may have experienced slowness, errors, or timeouts. This issue has been resolved, but please check for any failed requests from these tools during the outage and consider re-running the impacted operations.

If you have any questions, please contact us via the Google Ads API forum or the Google Ads scripts forum.

Josh Radcliff, Google Ads API Team

Google Ads scripts failures starting on October 13

There is an ongoing issue with Google Ads scripts that started around 7:30 AM EDT on October 13, 2021. If your existing script is affected, it will fail with a "Finished with errors" execution status or show "Failed" or "No changes" in the Results column. No context is being logged for the failed scripts. If your existing script is affected, it will fail to run while this issue is ongoing. We will keep this blog post updated with the latest information.

We have identified the issue and it will not affect any further scripts than those already affected at this time. We are working on restoring functionality for all scripts. Once we do, your scripts will return to running as scheduled.

This issue only affects existing scripts, so as a workaround while we work to resolve this issue, you can create a duplicate of your existing script. You can do this by copying and pasting the script contents into a new script.

If you have any questions, please leave a post on our forum.
- Mike Cloonan, Google Ads Scripts Team