Update the status of a CrmBasedUserList from Closed to Open

[Joana Esteves]

Hi Google team,

I'm using your API, using PHP client library, to update Customer Lists daily.

We noticed that some of the lists are closed status, checked by select/query the list for it status:

$selector->setFields(['Id', 'Name', 'Status']);
 (...)

var_dump($user_list->getStatus()); // CLOSED

it returns: closed, the same status I can see on the UI.

Then I use the code to set the OPEN status:

if ($user_list->getStatus() === UserListMembershipStatus::CLOSED) {
      var_dump($user_list->setStatus(UserListMembershipStatus::OPEN));
      var_dump($user_list->getStatus());
    }

immediately after set the status using this code, the list updates it status (checked with the var_dump), but it doesn't show on UI

also, if I query the status again (code snippet 1), the customer list status is closed.

Also, can I clarify with you how updating customers to a customer list can be affected by the status of the list?

"Membership status" shows whether a list is adding more users or not.
Open means that new visitors are still being added.
Closed means that no new visitors are added.

day 1 -  new customer list created, client 1 and client 2 added the customer list, and at this time the status of the list is open;

day 2 - get customer list by id, the status of the list is closed, and added client 1 and client 3 to the customer list.

By documentation, what I understand is:
- client 1 is in the list

- client 2 is not in the list, because it was added after the list be closed (somehow by google adwords end)

If this is the case, is a massive problem to us. Can you please clarify my assumptions by reading your docs?


Thanks a lot,

Joana

[Dannison Yao (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Joana,

Your code appears to be logically correct. If recent changes have been applied to your user list, it usually takes a while before it is reflected. Could you try running your code again and see if the changes have been reflected? If not, could you provide the complete SOAP request and response logs that were generated after setting the status to OPEN so I could investigate this further? You may send the requested information using the Reply privately to author option. If you have not enabled logging yet, you may follow this guide on how to do so.

According to this guide about the CrmBasedUserLIst.status, if the status is OPEN, the list is still populating members and can still be targeted. If it is set to CLOSED, then the list is not being populated already and cannot be used for targeting anymore. From your understanding, client 1 and client 2 should be in the list, while client 3 should not be in the list because it was targeted after the list was CLOSED.

Regards,

Dannison

AdWords API Team

[Joana Esteves]

Hi Dannison,

Thanks for coming back to me.

I tried the code again, also in another audience that created after, and it didn't work for any case.
As we are using testing data, the audience size is < 100. Could be it a reason why the audience sets to close, and also the lifespanmember value drops from 180 to 1?

I appreciate that an OPEN status means that the list is still populating members and can still be targeted, and if CLOSED, then the list is not being populated already and cannot be used for targeting anymore.

So, I have a question: Why do lists automatically Close, without our intervention, a little while after they are created? (Could it be due to low volumes?)

To clarify what we're trying to achieve, we need audiences to stay Open, so we can keep adding recipients to them on a daily basis. How can I grant that?

Any help with this, greatly appreciated

Thanks,

Joana

[GregT]

Just wanted to chime in that this kind of thing is affecting us in our test account as well. We've had audiences that we manually created years ago that have remained open all this time. In our automated tests, we download all audiences, expect to find some, and then use them to create ad group and campaign bid modifiers (our system doesn't create/modify audiences, just audience bid modifiers, so that's what we test). These kinds of tests have all run without issues for years, but have started failing within the last couple weeks because the audiences we download from our test account have been closed. When we've gone into the Google Ads UI and re-marked them as Open, they only stay that way for a few minutes to an hour, which often doesn't give time for our entire test suite to run (it does a lot of things, not all of which involve hitting the AdWords API).

So it seems like sometime in the last couple weeks, something has changed on Google's end, where audiences in test accounts used to be ignored and not automatically closed, but no longer are. Could you guys please look into this, and change it back to where audiences in test accounts are not automatically closed?

Thanks,

Greg

[Dannison Yao (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Joana/Greg,

The user list status should not be affected with the membershipLifeSpan, it has also nothing to do with low volume. Could you provide the complete SOAP request and response logs that were generated when you were trying to add a member in your user list so that I could investigate this further?

Regards,

Dannison

AdWords API Team

[GregT]

Hi, Dannison.

For our situation, there's not much to show in the way of SOAP logs. The issue is that in our test account, all remarketing audiences get closed quickly, making them unusable in tests (if you try to add them to an ad group, you get a CriterionError.CANNOT_ADD_CLOSED_USER_LIST error). This just started happening in the last couple weeks - these audiences in this test account have existed, in an open membership status, for years before then. If we look at the test account in the Google Ads UI, the UI shows them all as closed, and if we (in the UI) change them back to Open, they only stay open for an hour or less. If it'd be helpful to know the id of our test account, I can email that to you.

Thanks,

Greg

[Dannison Yao (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Greg,

Could you provide the complete SOAP request and response logs when you encountered the error CANNOT_ADD_CLOSED_USER_LIST so I could investigate this further? I would need the logs for me to better assist you. You may send these to me via the Reply privately to author option. If you have not enabled logging, you may follow this guide on how to do so.

Regards,

Dannison

AdWords API Team

[Dorian Kind]

We've also seen a similar thing happen (audience lists being closed for no apparent reason) during the last month or so, but in production accounts in our case. I think our business side have escalated this with a Google Ads account manager, but I'm not sure if there's been any sort of conclusion yet.

Best regards,
Dorian

[Dannison Yao (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Dorian,

Could you also provide your SOAP request and response logs that were generated when you encountered this similar situation? It would help in the team's investigation. You may send these to me via the Reply privately to author option.

Regards,

Dannison

AdWords API Team

[GregT]

I've replied privately to you, Dannison.

FYI,

Greg

[henry caparroso]

me too, I lkie you a problem, I havew no deal to fix that

[Thanet Knack Praneenararat (AdWords API Team)]

Hello Greg,

We're investigating this and will get back to you soon when I hear any news.

Best,

Thanet, AdWords API Team