https://plus.google.com/115280506435026199799/posts/a73o1yCktrX
Well, I thought I would have a nice post about how making the effort to switch from AdWords Scripting to directly programming the AdWords API is worth it. Now I'm not so sure. Backgroup: AdWords scripts were doing exactly what I wanted. Easy to get data, easy to put it in a spreadsheet. The problem is that I wanted the same script in 12 campaigns, and the script needed changing - and it's SLOW to change scripts in a lot of MCC accounts. I knew it was time to bite the bullet and get into the AdWords API. To start with, getting a PHP program to run against the API was a few steps more than I imagined. I needed to read a lot of documentation before I found that you really only need to fill out 4 variables in the file \adwords-examples-and-lib-5.1.0\lib\Google\Api\Ads\AdWords\auth.ini file to get started. *developerToken* From the AdWords MCC - “You can sign up for the AdWords API when logged in to your MCC account. Navigate to [Settings (gear icon in top right corner) > Account Settings (drop-down menu) > AdWords API Center (left menu)] and follow the instructions to apply for AdWords API access.” *client_id* from oauth (AdWords API - PHP Client Library - Migrate to OAuth2<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KetKPhxY4Js> helps) *client_secret* from oauth ( https://github.com/googleads/googleads-php-lib/wiki/Using-OAuth-2.0 also helpful) *refresh_token* After all the above is filled, run the php script adwords-examples-and-lib-5.1.0\examples\AdWords\Auth\GetRefreshToken.php and follow the instructions *First gotchas* - I put the api folder one level below my apache root dir, which means the scripts did not run out of the box. - Then I found that you shouldn't even be running the php scripts from the browser, but rather from the command line (from the api folder). So run cmd.exe, cd into the api folder, and run *php {path to script}*commands. This actually makes sense from a security point of view, but I imagine it was done just because the AdWords API guys are all Macintosh users who live in the command line... but that's not ideal for Windows users! ;-> Then I hit a brick wall. I needed to do the equivalent to the below snippet (in AdWords Script) in the API var report = AdWordsApp.report( "SELECT CostPerConversion from ACCOUNT_PERFORMANCE_REPORT during YESTERDAY"); var rows = report.rows(); while (rows.hasNext()) { var row = rows.next(); Logger.log(row["CostPerConversion"]); } I was first misdirected by reading lot of documentation about old API versions. The v201309 version of the API requires you to generate a report, download it, and then parse it (your choice of XML, CSV, etc.), before you can get the data. Say what?!?!?! My temporary solution was to move back to the v201306 interface (depreciated, but supported through March 31st 2014), loop through the campaigns, and use their old "stats" object (where you get to learn fun things like what microAmounts are (they are currency times 1,000,000 - very useful! grrrr!). I now have about 10 times more code than all my dozen AdWords scripts COMBINED. So far, not impressive. Why can't I just use AWQL and grab the data I need?!?!?! Next I needed to limit by labels (in AdWords Script, it's*var campaignIterator = AdWordsApp.campaigns().withCondition("LabelNames CONTAINS_ANY ['Brand']").forDateRange(periods[i]).get();*). Here is where I started to question if this was all worth it... turn out labels are not supported in the API. [rimshot] You know what I would really wish for by now? The ability to set AdWords scripts and grab the results from the API ;-> -- -- =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~ Also find us on our blog and Google+: https://googleadsdeveloper.blogspot.com/ https://plus.google.com/+GoogleAdsDevelopers/posts =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AdWords API Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-api?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AdWords API Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
