Can't set Bidding Strategy to MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS when it was set to something else.

This is a follow-up to #176 because @kritzware asked:

Does this still happen in the latest release of this library? Please let us know and re-open this issue if so.

but I can’t re-open the issue.

It seems that I’m able to successfully create a new campaign with the MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS bidding strategy:

customer.campaigns.create([
          {
            name: myName,
            campaign_budget: myBudget,
            advertising_channel_type: enums.AdvertisingChannelType.SEARCH,
            status: enums.CampaignStatus.ENABLED,
            bidding_strategy_type:
              enums.BiddingStrategyType.MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS,
            maximize_conversions: {},
            network_settings: {
              target_google_search: true,
              target_search_network: true,
              target_content_network: false,
              target_partner_search_network: false,
            },
          },
        ])

And I’m also able to change the bidding strategy from MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS toTARGET_CPA:

this.customer.campaigns.update([{
        resource_name: myCampaignResourceName,
        bidding_strategy_type: enums.BiddingStrategyType.TARGET_CPA,
        target_cpa: {
          target_cpa_micros: toMicros(1.23),
        },
      }]);

But it seems impossible to change it back to TARGET_CPA. I’ve tried a few things:

this.customer.campaigns.update([{
        resource_name: myCampaignResourceName,
        bidding_strategy_type: enums.BiddingStrategyType.MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS,
      }]);

and

this.customer.campaigns.update([{
        resource_name: myCampaignResourceName,
        bidding_strategy_type: enums.BiddingStrategyType.MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS,
        maximize_conversions: {},
      }]);

and

this.customer.campaigns.update([{
        resource_name: myCampaignResourceName,
        bidding_strategy_type: enums.BiddingStrategyType.MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS,
        maximize_conversions: {target_cpa: null},
      }]);

But none of these seem to work.

From other users’ reports, it seems it’s not possible to switch from any bidding strategy back to MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS, although I have only tried TARGET_CPA personally.

There’s no error, but the campaign isn’t updated.

I’m happy to try more things. Would a sample project help?

[jstoeffler]

@maria-calina-ia Yes it’s Search type.

Another thing I had to do is to bump this library to its latest version–I was using 5.2.0–no idea when the change was introduced.

I created a sample project that reproduces the issue, perhaps you can play around and see if you can pinpoint what the problem is: https://github.com/jstoeffler/opteo-google-ads-api-issue-328

I’ve tried to change the code to use Display type, but I got this error:

{"errors":[{"error_code":{"operation_access_denied_error":"OPERATION_NOT_PERMITTED_FOR_CAMPAIGN_TYPE"},"message":"This operation is not permitted on this campaign type","trigger":{"string_value":"DISPLAY"},"location":{"field_path_elements":[{"field_name":"operations","index":0},{"field_name":"update"},{"field_name":"maximize_conversions"},{"field_name":"target_cpa"}]}}],"request_id":"[REDACTED]"}

Perhaps there’s some adjustment to do, but I’m not familiar with campaign type, so I’ll let you figure out.

But I just saw you’re using PHP, and we’re in the JS/TS library repository here. So I’m not sure we can provide relevant help for your issue.

Perhaps you could try on your library’s repository? Or on the Google Ads API Forum: https://groups.google.com/g/adwords-api

[maria-calina-ia]

found the fix in a java post! 😊 https://github.com/googleads/google-ads-java/issues/272