How to Set Ad Group-Level Channel Controls (e.g., YouTube In-Stream Only) via Google Ads API

[Ashish Chaturvedi (Ashu)]

Hello Google Ads API Support,

I'm working with Demand Gen campaigns and need to configure channel controls at the ad group level—specifically, to limit serving to YouTube In-Stream ads only. This option is available in the Google Ads UI (see attached screenshot), where I can manually select "Let me choose" and enable just the "YouTube In-Stream" channel.

However, I cannot find any corresponding field or setting in the Google Ads API documentation (v18 or v19) that allows me to replicate this functionality programmatically through the API.

Could you please clarify:

1. Is there a way to set channel restrictions (e.g., YouTube In-Stream only) at the ad group level via the Google Ads API?

2. If so, what are the relevant fields or resource structures?

3. If not yet available, is this feature in beta, and is there any estimated timeline for API support?

Thank you in advance for your help!

[Ashish Chaturvedi (Ashu)]

Hello :)

i found this setting 

Control each channel individually

This strategy offers the most granular level of control, by allowing you to select which individual channel is enabled.

Enable this strategy by populating the individual flags in the selected_channels property: setting an option to true means that a channel is enabled.

For example, this configuration enables an ad group to only serve on YouTube Shorts:

"demand_gen_ad_group_settings": { "channel_controls": { "selected_channels": { "youtube_in_stream": false, "youtube_in_feed": false, "youtube_shorts": true, "discover": false, "gmail": false, "display": false, "maps": false, } } }

but i am not getting the same call in the Google Ads API PHP SDK version 19

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to the Google Ads API support team.

With regards to your concern to enable video format preference selection of channels (YouTube In-Stream, YouTube In- feed and YouTube Shorts) for Demand Gen Video Ads through the Google Ads API. I will raise a request for this feature to become available in the Google Ads API. I cannot provide a scheduled timeline for the availability of this feature in the API. I would recommend you to kindly follow our Release Notes and Blog post for future updates.​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

Feedback
How was our support today?

               
[2025-04-30 10:25:39Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01qVOsG:ref" (ADR-00302996)