Creating negative keyword in manager account using SharedSetService - validating migration from 201705 to 201802

[Matthew Wawrin]

Hi,

I'm working through the validation of our code base (PHP) from 201705 to 201802, and I noticed a change in the 201708 migration guide regarding the SharedSetService mutate regarding creating shared set of Negative keywords in a manager account:

From https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/guides/migration/v201708: 

Requests that attempt to create a shared set of NEGATIVE_KEYWORDS type in a manager account will now fail with a SharedSetError of MANAGER_CUSTOMER_CANNOT_CREATE_SHARED_SET_OF_THIS_TYPE. This change does not impact client  (non-manager) accounts.

 We manage a large number of sub-accounts under our manager, and all campaigns in those sub-accounts use the same base negative keyword shared in the manager account.   Currently there are > 19K campaigns linked to the manager level negative keyword list.  

In both our production MCC and test manager account I'm still able to create a Negative Keyword shared set using the 201802 API level which contradicts the change in 201708.  In my test manager I'm able to create a campaign shared set association with the shared set that was created.

I'd like to understand the impact of this change so I can properly update our operations and code to the latest level.   Does the API enforce the change in 201708 in a way that I'm overlooking?  

To be honest I haven't tried using the 201708 API level to see if the behaviour changed after, but the subsequent migration logs don't appear to call out this change.

Unrelated to the API, Are manager level negative keywords being phased out in general (not limited to the API) and we should migrate to the client customer accounts.  I can follow up on the Adwords users forum for this question but I suspect the API would have to reflect this too.

I plan to push the code to move up early next week, giving me a week or so until the switch over to handle any issues.

Thank you,

Matt.

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Matt,

You've uncovered a mystery! :) I just confirmed that the validation did indeed change recently, but I'm not sure why. I'm following up with the engineer who made the change and will get back to you. Thanks for catching this and reporting it to us!

Cheers,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[Matthew Wawrin]

Hi Josh, 

Thank you for following up.  I look forward to hearing more details when available.   I'm going to proceed with our API level update tomorrow and get some code ready as a  contingency if we're no longer able to use the MCC's neg. keyword shared set  for a managed customer account's CampaignSharedSet.  We already maintain negative placements in each managed customer account, so moving neg. keywords to this level won't be a huge issue.  I liked being able to maintain these lists at the highest level and reduce the duplication as much as possible.

Cheers,
Matt.

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Matt,

I'll definitely get back to you once I have more info on the change you mentioned. However, I'd recommend holding off on abandoning manager-level shared sets. In fact, the v201710 release added support for manager-level shared sets, so if you're already using them, I see no reason to change course.

Thanks,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[Matthew Wawrin]

Thanks Josh.  

Likely I created the manager level negative keyword list in the UI, then populated it through the API.  We started using the manager negative keyword list in May 2017.   By the sounds of it we may not have been able to create it through the API itself until 201710?  Once created and populated we managed the contents of the list and create CampaignSharedSet links when creating new campaigns.  Also sounds like support for shared lists are expanding in the API rather than being reduced which is very encouraging.  We will be making use of negative placements at the manager level in the future I'm sure. 

Cheeris,

Matt.

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Matt,

Your theory sounds right to me. Prior to v201710, the AdWords API prevented users from creating a shared set in a manager account because the AdWords API did not perform some additional internal steps required for manager-level sets. At that time, the workaround was to create the manager-level set in the UI, after which you could maintain the contents of the manager-level set (negative keywords) using the AdWords API without issues. Starting with v201710, the AdWords API was updated to perform those additional internal steps, hence the expected difference in behavior between v201708 and v201710.

I'm still waiting on a response on the validation change you mentioned. I'll let you know as soon as I get that.

Cheers,

Josh, AdWords API Team