AdGroupAdService recently changed results based on headlinePart3 and description2

[Chad Norwood]

Around Jan 7 we noticed a change - Google API v201809 AdGroupAdService returns zero matches when headlinePart3 and description2 (aka ExpandedTextAdHeadlinePart3 and ExpandedTextAdDescription2) are included in the filters, whereas before it used to always return 1 (matched on many other fields).   We just noticed this problem today and identified those 2 fields as the source of the problem, since if those 2 are not included it returns at least 1 match.  The values for those 2 fields is empty string and should not matter, but its hard to know what google thinks the value is since the value is not returned (we assume that means the value is empty). Note we only see this with ExpandedTextAd, we don't see this problem with CallOnlyAd .

https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/reference/v201809/AdGroupAdService.ExpandedTextAd#headlinepart2

Our code is setup to create/update ads daily against the Google API.  Our ads data is stored locally, and part of each daily run is to first check if an ad exists similar to what we want, if it does, we use that, if not, we create a new ad.  Since Oct 8 2018 the same code has been finding and reusing the ad as it normally should - this is known by viewing a single adgroup and seeing an ad will have history spanning multiple days.  Since Jan 7 or 8, 2019, a single adgroup started having tons of ads, new ads are created each day that only last one day. This is how we know what we know.

My question to AdWords API team - Did something change behind the scene with how AdGroupAdService fitlers with ExpandedTextAdHeadlinePart3 and ExpandedTextAdDescription2?

Anybody else have this problem?

Here's an example API call request and response, with some strings in request replaced with SNIP

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<SOAP-ENV:Envelope

  xmlns:SOAP-ENV="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"

  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

  xmlns:tns="https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809"

  xmlns:ns0="https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809"

  xmlns:ns1="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">

  <SOAP-ENV:Header>

    <tns:RequestHeader>

      <tns:clientCustomerId>1272584368</tns:clientCustomerId>

      <tns:developerToken>REDACTED</tns:developerToken>

      <tns:userAgent>Balihoo_Fulfillment (AwApi-Python, googleads/14.1.0, Python/3.6.1, suds)</tns:userAgent>

      <tns:validateOnly>false</tns:validateOnly>

      <tns:partialFailure>false</tns:partialFailure>

    </tns:RequestHeader>

  </SOAP-ENV:Header>

  <ns1:Body>

    <ns0:get>

      <ns0:serviceSelector>

        <ns0:fields>Id</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>Status</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>HeadlinePart1</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>HeadlinePart2</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>ExpandedTextAdHeadlinePart3</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>Description</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>ExpandedTextAdDescription2</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>Path1</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>Path2</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>CreativeFinalUrls</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>CreativeFinalMobileUrls</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:fields>CreativeTrackingUrlTemplate</ns0:fields>

        <ns0:predicates>

          <ns0:field>AdGroupId</ns0:field>

          <ns0:operator>EQUALS</ns0:operator>

          <ns0:values>53379932101</ns0:values>

        </ns0:predicates>

        <ns0:predicates>

          <ns0:field>HeadlinePart1</ns0:field>

          <ns0:operator>EQUALS</ns0:operator>

          <ns0:values> SNIP </ns0:values>

        </ns0:predicates>

        <ns0:predicates>

          <ns0:field>HeadlinePart2</ns0:field>

          <ns0:operator>EQUALS</ns0:operator>

          <ns0:values> SNIP </ns0:values>

        </ns0:predicates>

        <ns0:predicates>

          <ns0:field>ExpandedTextAdHeadlinePart3</ns0:field>

          <ns0:operator>EQUALS</ns0:operator>

          <ns0:values/>

        </ns0:predicates>

        <ns0:predicates>

          <ns0:field>Description</ns0:field>

          <ns0:operator>EQUALS</ns0:operator>

          <ns0:values>Modern Design Ideas.. SNIP</ns0:values>

        </ns0:predicates>

        <ns0:predicates>

          <ns0:field>ExpandedTextAdDescription2</ns0:field>

          <ns0:operator>EQUALS</ns0:operator>

          <ns0:values/>

        </ns0:predicates>

        <ns0:predicates>

          <ns0:field>CreativeFinalUrls</ns0:field>

          <ns0:operator>EQUALS</ns0:operator>

          <ns0:values>https://www.....SNIP</ns0:values>

        </ns0:predicates>

        <ns0:predicates>

          <ns0:field>Status</ns0:field>

          <ns0:operator>NOT_EQUALS</ns0:operator>

          <ns0:values>DISABLED</ns0:values>

        </ns0:predicates>

        <ns0:paging>

          <ns0:startIndex>0</ns0:startIndex>

          <ns0:numberResults>100</ns0:numberResults>

        </ns0:paging>

      </ns0:serviceSelector>

    </ns0:get>

  </ns1:Body>

</SOAP-ENV:Envelope>

<soap:Envelope

  xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">

  <soap:Header>

    <ResponseHeader

      xmlns="https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809">

      <requestId>00057f97f0d246980ae9dd47890f79f9</requestId>

      <serviceName>AdGroupAdService</serviceName>

      <methodName>get</methodName>

      <operations>1</operations>

      <responseTime>457</responseTime>

    </ResponseHeader>

  </soap:Header>

  <soap:Body>

    <getResponse

      xmlns="https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201809">

      <rval>

        <totalNumEntries>0</totalNumEntries>

        <Page.Type>AdGroupAdPage</Page.Type>

      </rval>

    </getResponse>

  </soap:Body>

</soap:Envelope>