ClickAssistedConversionValue and ImpressionAssistedConversionValue now contain "--"?!

[Zweitze]

Hello,

This morning about 10% of the reporting jobs failed. The failure was always on CAMPAIGN_PERFORMANCE_REPORT. This is the report definition:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<reportDefinition>
   <selector xmlns="https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201802">
       <fields>CampaignId</fields>
       <fields>Date</fields>
       <fields>AdNetworkType2</fields>
       <fields>ClickAssistedConversions</fields>
       <fields>ClickAssistedConversionValue</fields>
       <fields>ImpressionAssistedConversions</fields>
       <fields>ImpressionAssistedConversionValue</fields>
       <predicates>
           <field>CampaignStatus</field>
           <operator>IN</operator>
           <values>ENABLED</values>
           <values>PAUSED</values>
           <values>REMOVED</values>
       </predicates>
       <dateRange>
           <min>20180827</min>
           <max>20181211</max>
       </dateRange>
   </selector>
   <reportName xmlns="https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201802"> CampaignAssistedConversion 27-08-2018...11-12-2018</reportName>
   <reportType xmlns="https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201802">CAMPAIGN_PERFORMANCE_REPORT</reportType>
   <dateRangeType xmlns="https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201802">CUSTOM_DATE</dateRangeType>
   <downloadFormat xmlns="https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/cm/v201802">GZIPPED_XML</downloadFormat>
</reportDefinition>

The three rows in the returned XML:

<row campaignID='57400487' day='2018-08-27' networkWithSearchPartners='Google search' clickAssistedConv='0' clickAssistedConvValue='--' imprAssistedConv='0' imprAssistedConvValue='--'/>

<row campaignID='57401087' day='2018-08-27' networkWithSearchPartners='Google search' clickAssistedConv='0' clickAssistedConvValue='--' imprAssistedConv='0' imprAssistedConvValue='--'/>

<row campaignID='699508223' day='2018-08-27' networkWithSearchPartners='Google search' clickAssistedConv='0' clickAssistedConvValue='--' imprAssistedConv='0' imprAssistedConvValue='--'/>

Note the values on clickAssistedConvValue and imprAssistedConvValue.

I would like to stress that this has never happened in the previous months when we used v201802, nor it happened in previous versions of AdWords API. This appears to be new behavior, breaking some of our operations.

Was this an error in the API?

[Teja Makani]

Hello,

Could you confirm whether your concern is regarding the '--' values of those fields? If your concern is different please elaborate.

Regards,
Sai Teja, AdWords API Team

[Zweitze]

Indeed, my concern is that those fields now contain '--'.

That change breaks our software.

[Zweitze]

I also want to add that this morning, over 50% of our jobs failed - all on this error.

[Alexander]

Same problem. We quick fixed it yesterday on our end to interpret "--" as zero.

Is it sufficient to click the "Me too!" button in a forum thread? Or is it better to post a message?

[Anash P. Oommen (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Alexander, Zwitze,

This is a planned change from our end, see our blog post about this change: https://ads-developers.googleblog.com/2018/08/deprecation-of-assisted-conversions.html

Let me know if you have more questions regarding this change.

Cheers

Anash P. Oommen,
AdWords API Advisor.

[Zweitze]

Thanks Anash!

.

I have no idea how I could have missed this announcement. Well, no time to sort that out.

Thanks again!