With v201402 of the AdWords API, it is now necessary to set the advertisingChannelType when you create a new Campaign. As part of this change, the networkSetting attribute is now used to define in more detail where you want your ads to appear.

All newly created campaigns, or campaigns that are switched into targeting both Search and Display using v201402, will automatically be SNDS campaigns. This behavior is the same as you will see in the AdWords User Interface, bringing that and the API into closer alignment. Existing applications are unaffected. As we continue to invest in Search Network with Display Select (SNDS) and see strong adoption from advertisers, we will over time be upgrading Search & Display Network campaigns to Search Network with Display Select.

With the introduction of both SNDS and Shopping campaigns, the new advertisingChannelType field allows you to state which kind of Campaign you're building. The field is an enumeration, which can be set to:

• SEARCH, for the Search Network, including (for campaigns created with older API releases) Search and Display hybrids, and now SNDS campaigns;
• DISPLAY, for the Google Display Network only;
• SHOPPING, for Shopping campaigns serving Product Listing Ads on Google and Google Shopping.

Note that an UNKNOWN value can be returned if the value set isn't supported by the called version of the API. This covers situations where new options are added in newer releases.

This table specifies the only valid combinations of parameters for newly created campaigns on the networks that you intend to target.

Networks Targeted by the settings on the right	advertisingChannelType	displaySelect	Enabled networkSettings
Search Network	SEARCH	false	Search Networks only
Search Network with Display Select	SEARCH	true or unspecified	Search & Content networks
Display only	DISPLAY	false or unspecified	Content Network only
Shopping only	SHOPPING	false or unspecified	Search Network only

Any parameter combination other than the above when creating a new campaign or making targeting changes to existing campaigns will be rejected with an OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CAMPAIGN_TYPE error.

While you can no longer create Search & Display Network campaigns, existing campaigns of this type will remain unchanged. You can identify them by their displaySelect attribute being false, while both the Search and Content Networks are enabled. These campaigns should be migrated to SNDS by setting displaySelect to true.

The advertiserChannelType and isDisplaySelect fields are also present in reporting, so you can see how your Campaigns are configured.

If you have any questions about this change or the AdWords API in general, you can post them on our developer forum. You can also follow our Google+ page for updates about the AdWords API.
 - Mark R. Bowyer, AdWords API Team

Update: any change to NetworkSetting.targetGoogleSearch will throw a TargetError.TARGET_ERROR after this update takes place.

We'll soon be updating the AdWords API to prevent a subset of CampaignOperation modifications to theNetworkSetting for existing campaigns. Display-only campaigns have been evolving over time, and have developed unique features which make switching these campaigns between Search-only and Search-and-Display unreliable. Today, these modifications can unintentionally change campaign behavior (for instance, disabling certain display-specific targeting), potentially causing confusion and negatively impacting the advertiser experience. So starting in early October, we'll begin returning errors for these NetworkSetting changes.

What this means for you: If you do not make use of the NetworkSetting to change the network for existing campaigns, this change will not affect you.

In a few weeks, any change to NetworkSetting.targetGoogleSearch will throw errors for all versions of the API.

All other NetworkSetting modifications will continue to behave as before.

Posted by
Adwords API team

Last year we exposed advanced location targeting settings in the AdWords API, using the GeoTargetTypeSetting object. Based on customer feedback we are now rolling out a series of changes to improve the power and clarity of this feature. The full details of these changes can be found on the Inside AdWords blog, but some highlights are:

• The advanced location targeting settings now apply to Display Network traffic in addition to Google Search and the Search Network traffic.
• The default value of the exclusion setting will be more restrictive for new campaigns, taking into account both the physical location and the area of interest. In API terms, GeoTargetTypeSetting.negativeGeoTargetType will default to DONT_CARE for new campaigns. The value will not be updated for existing campaigns.
• The AdWords web interface has reworded the language used to describe these settings. If you provide a user interface you may want to update your language as well.

If you have any questions about these changes please reach out to us in the forum or during one of our office hours hangouts.

 - Eric Koleda, AdWords API Team