Removing ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting

[Tim Tsai]

Hi there,

I am looking at the "Targeting Optimization" feature in AdWords. I know from documentation that this feature is represented by the ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting in the AdWords API.

It seems that if you have previously applied the Targeting Optimization feature on an adgroup, that adgroup will always return a ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting, even if you no longer have it applied. 

I have two questions:

1. What triggers the ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting to be applied to an AdGroup?
   
2. Does ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting get updated if you no longer apply Targeting Optimization to an AdGroup?

I have attached a screenshot of the Targeting Optimization menu I am referring to.

Thanks,

Tim

[Vincent Racaza (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Tim,

Please see answers below to your questions.

1.) The ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting will only trigger if you manually apply them via the AdWords API or the AdWords UI. If you have not set this setting via the UI or API, this won't be returned via the AdGroupService.get().

2.) If you no longer apply (you manually removed the setting via the UI or API) the targeting optimization setting of your ad group, the AdWords API will no longer return the ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting via the AdGroupService.get(). I tested this on my end. First, I retrieved an ad group with this setting and the ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting was included in the response. I then removed the targeting optimization setting, and then get the ad ad group again with the settings field, and the ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting is no longer returned.

Let me know if you have further clarifications.

Thanks,

Vincent

AdWords API Team

[Tim Tsai]

Hi Vincent,

Thanks for your response. Right now, I am looking at the Targeting menu of a particular AdGroup (screenshot is attached). You will see that nothing regarding "Targeting Optimization" is checked.

However, when we get the the ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting of this ad group from the AdGroupService, this is our response.

{

           ‘Setting.Type’: ‘ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting’,

           ‘optIn’: False

       }

Is this the expected response from the API?

Thanks,

Tim

[Vincent Racaza (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Tim,

My apologies as it seems that I was using the wrong ad group ID on my yesterday's testing when I retrieved again the ad group via the API after removing the targeting optimization setting in the UI. And yes, you are correct. Once you have already set the ExplorerAutoOptimizerSetting initially via the API or UI, and you removed it, it will still be retained in your ad group with optIn = false as default.

This is the current behavior for this particular ad group setting in the API. Let me know if you have further clarifications.

[Tim Tsai]

OK thanks for clearing this up for me!

-Tim