Google Ads Developer Blog: remarketing

Update to Customer Match Requirements

Friday, November 16, 2018

We announced an update to Customer Match requirements in October 2018 that affects member uploads and the usage of Customer Match for campaigns on Search, YouTube, and Gmail.

Creating a CrmBasedUserList through AdWordsUserListService now requires whitelisting. If the account is not whitelisted, your request returns an ADVERTISER_NOT_WHITELISTED_FOR_USING_UPLOADED_DATA error.
Uploading members to a CrmBasedUserList results in a CAN_NOT_MUTATE_SENSITIVE_USERLIST error if the account is not whitelisted.
Targeting CrmBasedUserLists in accounts that are not whitelisted using CampaignCriterionService or AdGroupCriterionService results in an INVALID_ID error.
Serving campaigns can be affected if they are using Customer Match and the account is not whitelisted. If a campaign is only targeting Customer Match, then the campaign stops serving. If the campaign has other audiences, then the campaign continues to serve with the other audiences.

Please see the requirements for whitelist eligibility. To apply for the whitelist, reach out to your account manager. Once whitelisted, Customer Match no longer results in errors and serves normally without any further changes needed.

If you have questions, please reach out to us on the AdWords API forum.

Nadine Sundquist, AdWords API Team

Campaign-level positive user lists for remarketing, targeting, and bid modifiers coming to AdWords API

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Positive user list criteria for remarketing will be rolling out over the next few months and supported at the campaign level. After this is enabled for your account, you will be able to use Bid Only and Target and Bid targeting settings, along with bid modifiers for these criteria, at the campaign level. While targeting settings for campaigns requires v201609 of the API, adding user list criteria and setting bid modifiers will work with all versions of the AdWords API.

You cannot set user lists at both the ad group and campaign levels at the same time. When switching a campaign from ad group-level user lists to campaign-level lists, you must first remove existing positive user list criteria from all ad groups or there will be a CANNOT_ATTACH_CRITERIA_AT_CAMPAIGN_AND_ADGROUP error upon attaching a user list to the campaign. The process for removing existing user list criteria, adding them at the campaign level, changing targeting settings, and using bid modifiers is similar to that for ad groups and is detailed in the Remarketing guide. Please note that existing code working with campaign criteria may need to be modified to handle the presence of user lists.

If you have any questions about this change, or other questions about the AdWords API, contact us via the forum.

- Chengyuan Zhao, AdWords API Team

Support for additional audiences in AdWords Search and Shopping campaigns

Monday, September 19, 2016

What's changing
Historically, some types of audiences have only been available for targeting and bidding in Display campaigns, as indicated by UserList.isEligibleForSearch = false in the AdWords API.

Starting at the end of September, 2016, both AdWords and the AdWords API will allow you to target additional audiences in Search and Shopping campaigns.

What you should do

Make sure that your application does not make assumptions about which user lists are available for Search and Shopping campaigns. Instead, your application should check the value of the isEligibleForSearch attribute of each UserList.
You can discover the audiences in your AdWords account and their eligibility for Search, Shopping, or Display campaigns by issuing an AdwordsUserListService get or query request that includes the IsEligibleForSearch and IsEligibleForDisplay selector fields. On an ongoing basis, you should periodically check for user lists where eligibility has changed due to improvements in AdWords.
If you'd like to add additional audience targeting to your Search or Shopping ad groups, add a BiddableAdGroupCriterion with a criterion set to an instance of the appropriate type of UserList. Make sure that your application can handle an OperationAccessDenied.OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CAMPAIGN_TYPE error, which will occur if the particular UserList in your request is not currently available for Search and Shopping campaigns.

Further reading
For an overview of remarketing and audience targeting in the AdWords API, check out the Remarketing and audience targeting guide.

If you have any questions, please post on the forum or the Ads Developers Plus Page.

- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

Reach your most valuable customers with Customer Match

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Did you know that you can reach past website visitors and app users? Let's say you’re a travel brand. You can now reach people who have joined your rewards program as they plan their next trip. For example, when these rewards members search for “non-stop flights to new york” on Google.com, you can show relevant ads at the top of their search results on any device right when they’re looking to fly to New York. And when those members are watching their favorite videos on YouTube or catching up on Gmail, you can show ads that inspire them to plan their next trip.UserListPrior to v201509 there were four different types:

BasicUserList: Remarketing to people who took specific actions (such as purchasing shoes) on your website or app.

RuleBasedUserList: Remarketing to people who follow advertiser-defined rules. The rule can be as simple as all visitors to your website (which is the easiest way to start remarketing).

LogicalUserList: Combining two or more user lists. For example, customers who purchased shoes and/or visited specific pages of your website at specific times.

SimilarUserList: Remarketing to people that share similar interests and behaviors with those in other user lists. For example, you can reach new potential customers that share similar interests and behaviors with those who purchased shoes on your website.

A SimilarUserList is automatically created by Google for each UserList based on a variety of factors, such as the number of people on the original list, how recently these people joined the original list, the types of sites that these people browsed and whether the original list is your own. This process may take up to 4 days once the seed list is created.You can target or exclude user lists at the ad group level, but you can only exclude them at the campaign level.As a reminder, please have a look at the policy for advertising based on interests and location and the policy for remarketing lists for search ads.Customer Matchv201509 introduced a new user list type: CrmBasedUserList. It enables you to create a user list using your customers’ email addresses.Suppose you have an existing database of email addresses of your newsletter subscribers for “people who love shoes”. With a CrmBasedUserList you can reach these subscribers and adjust your bidding accordingly, present different ads, and more. You can use a SimilarUserList of your subscribers list to potentially find new customers who share similar behaviors and interests.Each CrmBasedUserList must have an optOutLink to provide a link to the page where people can manage their preferences for receiving email messages from the advertiser, including opting out of the advertiser email messages.Before using this targeting strategy, please take the time to read our policy page.A CrmBasedUserList can be used for targeting on the Search network, YouTube and Gmail, whereas a SimilarUserList of a CrmBasedUserList can only be used for targeting on YouTube and Gmail.Keep the following points in mind when using a CrmBasedUserList:

Advertisers must collect email addresses as 1st party. For example, an agency can submit email addresses on behalf of an advertiser if the advertiser collected the email addresses directly from its customers.

Email addresses can be from Gmail or non Gmail addresses as long as they are associated with a Google account. We recommend adding all available email addresses to maximize the size of the result.

Ads will serve only when the user list has at least 1,000 active members. Active members are those who have used Google Search, YouTube, or Gmail at least once over the last 30 days.

If you want to read more about CrmBasedUserList, have a look at our guide and code examples.As always, feel free to visit us or ask questions on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

Amir Lazarovich, AdWords API Team

Updated AdWords API remarketing guides

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Have you ever wanted to advertise to people who previously visited your site or mobile app? This remarketing strategy can be implemented using the AdWords API. For example, you can target ads to people who left your website without buying anything to encourage them to return and make a purchase.

We recently updated our Remarketing and Rule-based Remarketing guides to more clearly show you how to use the API to get started quickly and implement some of the most common remarketing strategies.

Remarketing resources

As always, feel free to visit us or ask questions on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

- Andrew Kallem and Amir Lazarovich, AdWords API Team

Rule-based User Lists in AdWords API v201409

Monday, November 24, 2014

We're excited to announce that you can now create and manage rule-based user lists using the AdWords API starting with v201409. With just one account-wide remarketing tag you can now create different user lists. This has been a frequently requested feature from the AdWords API developer community.

What is a rule-based user list?
A rule-based user list lets you target users based on rules triggered by your account-wide remarketing tag, such as pages viewed on your site or the dates on which your site was visited. The rules in a list can be combined into logical AND/OR expressions, allowing you to fully express the exact audience you want to target.

Once your rule-based user list is in place and you've added the corresponding tag to your site, you can target users in the list and even modify your bids for those users.

Where do I start?
To start integrating rule based lists into your application, take a look at the new Rule Based User List Guide, which will walk you through creating a list with some code examples.

Still have questions? Feel free to visit us on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

Ad group bid adjustments available for RLSA and Display Network

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

With the v201309 AdWords API release, ad group level bid adjustments are now out of Beta and available to all users. This means all API users can make adjustments to their bids when using Remarketing Lists for Search Ads criteria. You can also set bid adjustments for Display Network targets through the bidModifier field in BiddableAdGroupCriterion.

You can adjust your bids anywhere from 10% to 1000% of your original bid to more efficiently manage your bid, ad position, and ROI for different audience segments in either search or display.

Feel free to reach out to us via the G+ page or the forum if you have any questions regarding this feature.

-Danial Klimkin, AdWords API Team

Ads Developer Blog

Update to Customer Match Requirements

Campaign-level positive user lists for remarketing, targeting, and bid modifiers coming to AdWords API

Support for additional audiences in AdWords Search and Shopping campaigns

Reach your most valuable customers with Customer Match

Updated AdWords API remarketing guides

Rule-based User Lists in AdWords API v201409

Ad group bid adjustments available for RLSA and Display Network

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