Add and update audience lists

[l...@everquote.com]

Hi Google Ads API team,

I'm trying to write a script to update our custom audience list with Google Ads API. Now I'm able to create a new user list and add members into it, but I have 2 questions I cannot figure out, and haven't found a good explanation online.

Using v201802

1) When I add new members to an existing list, will there be the dedup process? Which means if I add the same user twice, there will be only one item in the list? And if so, what is the "unique key" (is that hashed_email? or the combination of all provided user info) to check the uniqueness?

2) Is there any way to "overwrite" an existing list? I want to refresh some of our list with a full list of the users' info. I see there is a `SET` operation here: https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/reference/v201806/AdwordsUserListService.MutateMembersOperation, but not it can be used for update the entire list. I've tried this but got error message as "OperatorError.OPERATOR_NOT_SUPPORTED". And if it should work, can you provide an working example? If the `SET` operation is not suppose for overwriting the whole list, what is your suggestion on doing this? I've also considered to remove all members from the list first and then add the users to the empty list, but I'm not sure if there will be some downtime in between the removal of all old users and the creation of new users?

Thanks,

Lei

[Bharani Cherukuri (AdWords API Team)]

Hello Lei, 

Please find my response below:

1) When I add new members to an existing list, will there be the dedup process? Which means if I add the same user twice, there will be only one item in the list? And if so, what is the "unique key"(is that hashed_email? or the combination of all provided user info) to check the uniqueness?

The upload of the duplicate members via the API will not fail. The list will be automatically de-duplicating already existing users.

2) Is there any way to "overwrite" an existing list? I want to refresh some of our list with a full list of the users' info. I see there is a `SET` operation here: https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/reference/v201806/AdwordsUserListService.MutateMembersOperation, but not it can be used for update the entire list. I've tried this but got error message as "OperatorError.OPERATOR_NOT_SUPPORTED". And if it should work, can you provide an working example? If the `SET` operation is not suppose for overwriting the whole list, what is your suggestion on doing this? I've also considered to remove all members from the list first and then add the users to the empty list, but I'm not sure if there will be some downtime in between the removal of all old users and the creation of new users?

The AdWordsUserListService can be used to manage and create user lists. However, it is currently not possible to Remove the complete user list using the AdWordsUserListService.mutate() as the REMOVE operator is not supported. However, you will be able to use the mutateMembers operation to and set the removeAll field to true while using the REMOVE operator and then Add the list with the new members. It take 6 to 12 hours for a list to be populated with members, so you'll most likely see an "In Progress" status. Please check this guide for more information. 

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

Regards,

Bharani, AdWords API Team