Set Bids Manually

  • Bids can be set at the campaign, ad group, or ad group criterion level, with lower levels overriding higher levels.

  • Multiple bid types can be set simultaneously, but only the one relevant to the chosen bidding strategy is used.

  • When updating bids, you only need to include the bids you want to change.

  • Bids on the Display Network can be set for different dimensions, with display_custom_bid_dimension specifying the dimension for absolute bids, while Search Network ads always use keyword bids.

  • Bid adjustments can be set for criteria not in an absolute bidding dimension using the bid_modifier field.

Bids can be set at different levels of the campaign hierarchy: campaign, ad group, or ad group criterion. A bid set at a lower level overrides those set at higher levels. For example, a bid set on an individual ad group within a campaign would override the campaign-level bid strategy's bid.

Update bids

Multiple bids of different types can be set simultaneously; for example, cpc_bid_micros and cpm_bid_micros can both be set, but only the bid that's relevant for the selected bidding strategy type is used.

When updating bids, you can just include the bids you want to update. Google Ads will then update those bids, but won't change, add, or remove the other bids.

The following code example updates the CPC bid of an existing ad group.

Java

public static void main(String[] args) {
  UpdateAdGroupParams params = new UpdateAdGroupParams();
  if (!params.parseArguments(args)) {

    // Either pass the required parameters for this example on the command line, or insert them
    // into the code here. See the parameter class definition above for descriptions.
    params.customerId = Long.parseLong("INSERT_CUSTOMER_ID_HERE");
    params.adGroupId = Long.parseLong("INSERT_AD_GROUP_ID_HERE");
    params.cpcBidMicroAmount = Long.parseLong("INSERT_CPC_BID_MICRO_AMOUNT_HERE");
  }

  GoogleAdsClient googleAdsClient = null;
  try {
    googleAdsClient = GoogleAdsClient.newBuilder().fromPropertiesFile().build();
  } catch (FileNotFoundException fnfe) {
    System.err.printf(
        "Failed to load GoogleAdsClient configuration from file. Exception: %s%n", fnfe);
    System.exit(1);
  } catch (IOException ioe) {
    System.err.printf("Failed to create GoogleAdsClient. Exception: %s%n", ioe);
    System.exit(1);
  }

  try {
    new UpdateAdGroup()
        .runExample(
            googleAdsClient, params.customerId, params.adGroupId, params.cpcBidMicroAmount);
  } catch (GoogleAdsException gae) {
    // GoogleAdsException is the base class for most exceptions thrown by an API request.
    // Instances of this exception have a message and a GoogleAdsFailure that contains a
    // collection of GoogleAdsErrors that indicate the underlying causes of the
    // GoogleAdsException.
    System.err.printf(
        "Request ID %s failed due to GoogleAdsException. Underlying errors:%n",
        gae.getRequestId());
    int i = 0;
    for (GoogleAdsError googleAdsError : gae.getGoogleAdsFailure().getErrorsList()) {
      System.err.printf("  Error %d: %s%n", i++, googleAdsError);
    }
    System.exit(1);
  }
}
UpdateAdGroup.java

C#

public void Run(GoogleAdsClient client, long customerId, long adGroupId,
    long? cpcBidMicroAmount)
{
    AdGroupServiceClient adGroupService = client.GetService(Services.V22.AdGroupService);

    // Create an ad group with the specified ID.
    AdGroup adGroup = new AdGroup();
    adGroup.ResourceName = ResourceNames.AdGroup(customerId, adGroupId);

    // Pause the ad group.
    adGroup.Status = AdGroupStatusEnum.Types.AdGroupStatus.Paused;

    // Update the CPC bid if specified.
    if (cpcBidMicroAmount != null)
    {
        adGroup.CpcBidMicros = cpcBidMicroAmount.Value;
    }

    // Create the operation.
    AdGroupOperation operation = new AdGroupOperation()
    {
        Update = adGroup,
        UpdateMask = FieldMasks.AllSetFieldsOf(adGroup)
    };

    try
    {
        // Update the ad group.
        MutateAdGroupsResponse retVal = adGroupService.MutateAdGroups(
            customerId.ToString(), new AdGroupOperation[] { operation });

        // Display the results.
        MutateAdGroupResult adGroupResult = retVal.Results[0];

        Console.WriteLine($"Ad group with resource name '{adGroupResult.ResourceName}' " +
            "was updated.");
    }
    catch (GoogleAdsException e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Failure:");
        Console.WriteLine($"Message: {e.Message}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Failure: {e.Failure}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Request ID: {e.RequestId}");
        throw;
    }
}
UpdateAdGroup.cs

PHP

public static function runExample(
    GoogleAdsClient $googleAdsClient,
    int $customerId,
    int $adGroupId,
    $bidMicroAmount
) {
    // Creates an ad group object with the specified resource name and other changes.
    $adGroup = new AdGroup([
        'resource_name' => ResourceNames::forAdGroup($customerId, $adGroupId),
        'cpc_bid_micros' => $bidMicroAmount,
        'status' => AdGroupStatus::PAUSED
    ]);

    // Constructs an operation that will update the ad group with the specified resource name,
    // using the FieldMasks utility to derive the update mask. This mask tells the Google Ads
    // API which attributes of the ad group you want to change.
    $adGroupOperation = new AdGroupOperation();
    $adGroupOperation->setUpdate($adGroup);
    $adGroupOperation->setUpdateMask(FieldMasks::allSetFieldsOf($adGroup));

    // Issues a mutate request to update the ad group.
    $adGroupServiceClient = $googleAdsClient->getAdGroupServiceClient();
    $response = $adGroupServiceClient->mutateAdGroups(MutateAdGroupsRequest::build(
        $customerId,
        [$adGroupOperation]
    ));

    // Prints the resource name of the updated ad group.
    /** @var AdGroup $updatedAdGroup */
    $updatedAdGroup = $response->getResults()[0];
    printf(
        "Updated ad group with resource name: '%s'%s",
        $updatedAdGroup->getResourceName(),
        PHP_EOL
    );
}
UpdateAdGroup.php