Google Ads API Version 16 Now Available

Google released version 16 of the Google Ads API yesterday. The update includes additional recommendation types, support for time-related segments, support for advertiser verification, plus much more.

This is a major update since the last update, version 15 back in October 2023. Then before that was version 14.1 which was released in August. Version 13.1 preceded this new version, which was released in April 2023. Version 12.0 was released in October 2022, Version 11.0 of the Google Ads API was released in June, and version 11.1 was in August. Also Version 10.1 was released on April 27, 2022 and version 10.0 was released on February 9, 2022. And Google has sunset the AdWords API on April 27th which will completely stop working at the end of July.

Here is a release video for version 15:

Here are the release notes for version 16:

Account Management:

• Migrated advertising_partner from AccountLink to ProductLink and ProductLinkInvitation.
• Removed data_partner and google_ads from AccountLink.
• Added IdentityVerificationService to manage advertiser verification. StartIdentityVerification() is used to start a verification session using the provided verification_program. It creates a new verification session and returns an empty response for a successfully created verification. Added IdentityVerificationProgram.ADVERTISER_IDENTITY_VERIFICATION. GetIdentityVerification() can be used for retrieving verification information, which returns several objects of IdentityVerification. Each IdentityVerification includes: verification_program which is the identity verification program type, identity_verification_requirement that contains details related to the deadline by which the advertiser should finish verification verification_progress that contains details related to the verification session including: program_status represents the current status of this verification session action_url directs the customer to a URL to complete the verification. invitation_link_expiration_time represents the expiration date for the action_url; Enums: IdentityVerificationProgram, IdentityVerificationProgramStatus; Errors: IdentityVerificationError,
• Added AuthorizationError.ACTION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_SUSPENDED_ACCOUNT.

Assets:

• Changes to asset_group: Added support for time-related segments, such as segments.year and segments.month.
• Changes to asset_group: Made campaign an attributed resource instead of segmenting resource.

Campaigns:

• Changes to Demand Gen campaigns: Added support for setting Campaign.shopping_setting to an existing Demand Gen campaign. Added ShoppingSetting.disable_product_feed to disable the optional product feed of Demand Gen campaigns. Added Ad.demand_gen_product_ad and the corresponding DemandGenProductAdInfo, available to Demand Gen campaigns with a non-null Campaign.shopping_setting.
• Added to following fields to AdGroup to show whether the ad group is serving or the reasons why it's not serving: primary_status and primary_status_reasons
• Added to following fields to AdGroupAd to show whether the ad group ad is serving or the reasons why it's not serving: primary_status, primary_status_reasons
• Added the following values to AdGroupError: CANNOT_ADD_AD_GROUP_FOR_CAMPAIGN_TYPE and INVALID_STATUS

Experiment:

• Added Experiment.sync_enabled to specify if sync should be enabled in the experiment. With sync enabled, changes made to the original campaign while your experiment is running, are automatically copied to the experiment campaign.
• Added ExperimentError.CANNOT_ENABLE_SYNC_FOR_UNSUPPORTED_EXPERIMENT_TYPE.
• Added CampaignError.CANNOT_MODIFY_TEXT_ASSET_AUTOMATION_WITH_ENABLED_TRIAL.

Hotel & Travel:

• Added the following fields to ListingDimensionInfo for a Things to do ad to enable creating listing groups based on the state and city where the travel activity is available: activity_state and activity_city
• Added support for the following segments to travel_activity_performance_view: segments.activity_city, segments.activity_country and segments.activity_state

Local Services:

• Added LocalServicesVerificationArtifact.business_registration_check_verification_artifact and BusinessRegistrationCheckArtifact to allow advertisers to monitor the progress of the business registration verification process.
• Added a new resource local_services_employee to allow advertisers to retrieve the employee information they've added.

Planning:

• Removed score from AudienceInsightsAttributeMetadata.

Recommendations:

• Added RecommendationService.GenerateRecommendations() which returns recommendations based on the specified settings, such as recommendation types and advertising channel types. This is particularly helpful during campaign construction.
• Added RecommendationMetrics.conversions_value.
• Recommended keywords with unset keyword match type now have recommended_match_type set to UNSPECIFIED instead of UNKNOWN.
• Added the following types of recommendations: MAXIMIZE_CONVERSION_VALUE_OPT_IN which recommends opting in to the Maximize conversion value bidding strategy and IMPROVE_GOOGLE_TAG_COVERAGE which recommends deploying Google Tag on more pages PERFORMANCE_MAX_FINAL_URL_OPT_IN which recommends turning on final URL expansion for your Performance Max campaigns and REFRESH_CUSTOMER_MATCH_LIST which recommends updating a customer list that hasn't been updated in the last 90 days and CUSTOM_AUDIENCE_OPT_IN which recommends creating a custom audience and LEAD_FORM_ASSET which recommends adding lead form assets at the campaign or customer level and IMPROVE_DEMAND_GEN_AD_STRENGTH which recommends improving ad strength on Demand Gen campaigns

Shopping:

• Added CampaignError.CANNOT_LINK_TO_COMPARISON_SHOPPING_SERVICE_ACCOUNT and CampaignError.CANNOT_TARGET_NETWORK_FOR_COMPARISON_SHOPPING_SERVICE_LINKED_ACCOUNTS in order to provide more detailed errors for Shopping campaigns linked to a Comparison Shopping Service Center account.
• Added the following values to AssetGroupListingGroupFilterError: DIMENSION_TYPE_NOT_ALLOWED, DUPLICATE_WEBPAGE_FILTER_UNDER_ASSET_GROUP, FILTER_EXCLUSION_NOT_ALLOWED, LISTING_SOURCE_NOT_ALLOWED, MULTIPLE_LISTING_SOURCES, MULTIPLE_WEBPAGE_CONDITION_TYPES_NOT_ALLOWED, MULTIPLE_WEBPAGE_TYPES_PER_ASSET_GROUP, PAGE_FEED_FILTER_HAS_PARENT

Lifecycle Goals:

• Added update to CustomerLifecycleGoalOperation and CampaignLifecycleGoalOperation to make these operation types consistent with other operation types in the API.

Forum discussion at X.