The Dojo is the official blog of the online marketing software company TraceWorks.

Sandbox Maintenance

AdWords API Team Oct 30th

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We're planning to refresh the Sandbox tomorrow, Wednesday October 31, at 3 p.m. PDT. As a result, it will be unavailable for several hours and all the data will be cleared. You can regenerate your client accounts afterwards by sending any valid request to the Sandbox without a clientEmail.

- Aaron Karp
AdWords API Team

We just finished setting up a wiki for Headlight, find it at wiki.headlighthq.com.

Headlight WIKI

We decided that the wiki platform is perfect for publishing all sorts of things that can aid both you and us in using and developing Headlight. In the spirit of keeping things open, we’ve kept editing and adding things to the wiki open to everyone. So if you have anything to share with your fellow Headlight users, please give it a go. Claus have already started to create an API section where he explains how to use the Headlight API. Pelle and Mads created a neat tutorial video on how to use XML data exports with Excel.

That’s just a few of the things going on in the wiki at the moment. Of course the wiki is fully integrated with Headlight, so when you click a “tell me more” link at any point, it will take you to the appropriate section in the wiki.

Bug: V11 reports missing some ID columns

AdWords API Team Oct 22nd

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Some of you have pointed out a bug in v11 reports causing the omission of certain ID columns.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Our engineers are working to resolve this problem within the next few days. We will let you know as soon as the bug is fixed.

UPDATE

We would like to let you know that this bug has now been fixed.

-- Borana Toska, Product Marketing

New Reports Functionality

AdWords API Team Oct 18th

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Aaron Karp, AdWords API Team

Version 11 of the AdWords API includes a significant overhaul to the way you schedule reports and the data you are able to retrieve. In the reconfigured Report Service, you now have access to most of the report types and columns that are available through the AdWords Report Center, which means more advanced stats and breakdowns than ever before. Going forward, the API should be much more synchronized with the AdWords front end, while offering increased flexibility at the same time.


In v10 and its predecessors, you scheduled a report by creating a job of a certain type (perhaps by specifying the xsi:type attribute) and then adding some basic fields like campaigns and aggregationType. You had little control over the output, and this made scheduling reports through the API less powerful than doing so through the front end.

In v11, there is only one type of report job (the DefinedReportJob) but it is much more flexible. For example, a DefinedReportJob supports multiple aggregation types, allowing you to tally your metrics more effectively. You can also filter based on campaign, adgroup, and keyword statuses, or by keyword text, keeping your reports slim and precise.

When you schedule a report in v11, you always start with DefinedReportJob as the job type, and then specify one of seven report types (Account, Ad, Ad Group, Campaign, Keyword, Reach and Frequency, or Url) in the selectedReportType child element. Next, mix in v11's biggest strength: custom columns for any report type using the selectedColumns element. For a complete list of columns matching the different report types, see Report Rules.

Why is this better than custom reports in v10? Primarily, it gives you access to report columns that weren't available before. Also, we've hooked you directly into the AdWords reports system, which means that as new columns and report types are rolled out, they'll be available in the API much more quickly.

Here's an example of scheduling a keyword report in v11. Much of it is similar to v10, so I've highlighted the differences.


<header>
  <email>test+mcc@google.com</email>
  <password>myPassword</password>

  <developerToken>abcdefg1234567890</developerToken>

  <applicationToken>1234567890abcdefg</applicationToken>

  <useragent>Testing new report service</useragent>
</header>
<body>
  <scheduleReportJob xmlns='https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/v11'>
    <job xsi:type='DefinedReportJob'>
      <name>Test Report1</name>
      <startDay>2007-09-01</startDay>
      <endDay>2007-09-30</endDay>

      <campaignStatuses>Active</campaignStatuses>

      <campaignStatuses>Paused</campaignStatuses>
      <aggregationTypes>Summary</aggregationTypes>
      <includeZeroImpression>true</includeZeroImpression>
      <selectedReportType>Keyword</selectedReportType>
      <selectedColumns>Campaign</selectedColumns>
      <selectedColumns>AdGroup</selectedColumns>
      <selectedColumns>Keyword</selectedColumns>
      <selectedColumns>KeywordStatus</selectedColumns>
      <selectedColumns>Impressions</selectedColumns>
      <selectedColumns>Clicks</selectedColumns>
      <selectedColumns>AveragePosition</selectedColumns>
    </job>
  </scheduleReportJob>
</body>


Objects omitted above, like language and geotargeting, haven't changed.

It's also important to know that not all column types (
selectedColumns) are compatible with all report types (selectedReportType) and with one another. Prior to scheduling a job, make sure to test it with the validateReportJob method: scheduling an invalid report will cost 1000 API units, but validating only costs 1.

We know that reports are a vital part of your business, and hope you find the modifications we've made useful. We're eager to hear your feedback, so if you have any questions or requests, please post them on the AdWords API Forum where we'll be happy to address them.

AdWords Downtime, October 20th

AdWords API Team Oct 17th

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We've rescheduled this month's system maintenance for Saturday from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT. You won't be able to access AdWords or the API specifically during this period, but your ads will continue to run as normal.

— Brian Kennish, Developer Programs Engineer
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