Discover v2009: New Ad Types

Wednesday, December 02, 2009


The release of the new v200909 included a number of improvements and new features. Among these additions are new ad types: DeprecatedAd, LocalBusinessAd, MobileImageAd, and TemplateAd, which are all part of the AdGroupAdService.

DeprecatedAd:
The idea behind deprecated ads is to have a consistency in returning ads that are no longer supported. For example, if your ad group has a Click To Call ad (this ad format was deprecated on Dec. 3, 2007) and you try to fetch this particular ad via API, we will return it as a DeprecatedAd type and allow you to delete it. This is a quick and easy way for cleaning up your outdated inventory using API.

Note that deprecated ads can be deleted, but can not be created.

MobileImageAd:
This is a new format of ads that can appear on mobile websites. When users click on your ad, they will be sent to your mobile webpage. Below is a Python snippet of code that shows how to add a mobile image ad for T-Mobile and Verizon carriers in US.

  operations = [{
    'operator': 'ADD',
    'operand': {
      'type': 'AdGroupAd',
      'adGroupId': '123456789',
      'ad': {
        'type': 'MobileImageAd',
        'markupLanguages': ['HTML'],
        'mobileCarriers': ['T-Mobile@US', 'Verizon@US'],
        'image': {
          'dimensions': [{
            'key': 'SHRUNKEN',
            'value': {'width': '192', 'height': '53'}
          }],
          'name': 'image_192x53.jpg',
          'data': MOBILE_IMAGE_DATA
        },
        'url': 'http://www.mywebsite.com/mobile',
        'displayUrl': 'www.mywebsite.com'
      }
    }
  }]
  ad_group_ad_service.Mutate(operations)

LocalBusinessAd:
This ad type represents a legacy local business ad format. When edited via the AdWords interface, the legacy ad will be converted to create a new text ad with ad-level location extension and the original local business ad will be deleted. The location extension itself is created at campaign level with the association for that ad at the ad-level. The usage of the LocalBusinessAd format will allow you to perform the conversion via API of your existing legacy local business ads into the new location extensions. We plan to spend more time talking about the new location extension format in one of our upcoming posts.

Note that local business ads can be deleted or paused/unpaused, but can not be modified.

TemplateAd:
The template ad is an easy way to add new formats to the AdWords interface. In a nutshell, we come up with an idea for an ad format, a set of required input data elements is created, and that's all. There is now a new ad format that is available in AdWords.

Note that template ads run only on content network.

To help you get started, we've included support for these and other ad types in our
client libraries. As always, we are here to answer your questions, collect feedback, and assist with migration to v200909 of the AdWords API.

Keep an eye on the blog for the next part of the "Discover v2009" series.

--Stan Grinberg, AdWords API Team