Microsoft adCenter API 6

Microsoft is gearing up to replace adCenter API Version 5 with its successor in the coming months. The Redmond company revealed on May 20, 2009 that version 6 of the adCenter application programming interface had been released into production. In this regard, the software giant informed all users of the adCenter API that the latest version was available into the API Production environment. Microsoft indicated that users would have a transition period at their disposal in order to make the jump to the latest release of the adCenter API. Until the end of 2009, versions 5 and 6 of the adCenter API would be supported in parallel.

“The newest features from the adCenter Spring 2009 Upgrade and several key API improvements are now available to you. API Version 6 will replace API Version 5.1 in the coming months. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the new features and plan to upgrade your WSDLs to Version 6 to avoid service interruptions later this year. We will continue to support Version 5.1 for up to six months, and we will provide more information about its sunset in the coming weeks,” stated Chris Norred, Microsoft adCentert Online Community program manager.

Microsoft failed to indicate the exact date when it planned to replace adCenter version 5 with version 6. Still, with support for v5 continuing well into 2009, users will have plenty of time to embrace the latest iteration of the API. With v6 of the adCenter API Microsoft is allowing customers to benefit from city- and state-level targeting options. Before the release of adCenter API 6 such targeting options could only be accessed through the adCenter web interface.

In addition, adCenter API 6 also features: “target at the campaign level: Set targeting by geographical location, age group and gender, day of week, and time of day; set incremental bids at the campaign level; and refine your targeting settings at the ad group level. Bid at the ad group level: Now you can set default keyword bids at the ad group level. Run reports more efficiently: Use a single API call to run reports for multiple customers and accounts. Also, you can use entity IDs as columns in reports; for example, the campaign ID is available as a column in the ad group performance report,” Norred added.