Experiments are an interface to manage experimental campaigns related to a base campaign. Experiment campaigns are full-fledged campaigns that can serve ads and accrue clicks, cost, and other metrics.
The first step in running an experiment using the Google Ads API is to create an
Experiment
. This resource defines some key
information about the experiment you want to run, such as a name and experiment
type. You do not specify any of the campaigns involved in the experiment at
this step.
Here's an overview of some key fields for an Experiment
:
name
: Each experiment must have a unique name.description
: An optional field that you can use to reference later. Does not affect how the experiment runs.suffix
: The suffix will be appended to the end of the names of the treatment campaigns so you can distinguish them from the control campaign. These concepts will be explained further in the experiment arms page.type
: What type of experiment to run. There are many types here, but most of them are system experiments. For your custom experiments, you'll want to specify eitherSEARCH_CUSTOM
orDISPLAY_CUSTOM
.status
: When creating an experiment, set this field toSETUP
. Later on, once you begin the experiment, this field will let you check what it's currently doingstart_date
andend_date
: Specify when the experiment should start and end.sync_enabled
: Disabled by default. If set totrue
, changes made to the original campaign while your experiment is running are automatically copied to the experiment campaign. Learn more.
Here's an example of creating an experiment:
Java
private String createExperimentResource(GoogleAdsClient googleAdsClient, long customerId) { ExperimentOperation operation = ExperimentOperation.newBuilder() .setCreate( Experiment.newBuilder() // Name must be unique. .setName("Example Experiment #" + getPrintableDateTime()) .setType(ExperimentType.SEARCH_CUSTOM) .setSuffix("[experiment]") .setStatus(ExperimentStatus.SETUP) .build()) .build(); try (ExperimentServiceClient experimentServiceClient = googleAdsClient.getLatestVersion().createExperimentServiceClient()) { MutateExperimentsResponse response = experimentServiceClient.mutateExperiments( Long.toString(customerId), ImmutableList.of(operation)); String experiment = response.getResults(0).getResourceName(); System.out.printf("Created experiment with resource name '%s'%n", experiment); return experiment; } }
C#
/// <summary> /// Creates the experiment. /// </summary> /// <param name="client">The Google Ads client.</param> /// <param name="customerId">The customer ID for which the call is made.</param> /// <returns>The resource name of the newly created experiment.</returns> private static string CreateAnExperiment(GoogleAdsClient client, long customerId) { // Get the ExperimentService. ExperimentServiceClient experimentService = client.GetService( Services.V18.ExperimentService); // Creates the experiment. Experiment experiment = new Experiment() { // Name must be unique. Name = $"Example Experiment #{ExampleUtilities.GetRandomString()}", Type = ExperimentType.SearchCustom, Suffix = "[experiment]", Status = ExperimentStatus.Setup }; // Creates the operation. ExperimentOperation operation = new ExperimentOperation() { Create = experiment }; // Makes the API call. MutateExperimentsResponse response = experimentService.MutateExperiments( customerId.ToString(), new[] { operation }); // Displays the result. string experimentResourceName = response.Results.First().ResourceName; Console.WriteLine($"Created experiment with resource name " + $"'{experimentResourceName}'."); return experimentResourceName; }
PHP
private static function createExperimentResource( ExperimentServiceClient $experimentServiceClient, int $customerId ): string { // Creates an experiment and its operation. $experiment = new Experiment([ // Name must be unique. 'name' => 'Example Experiment #' . Helper::getPrintableDatetime(), 'type' => ExperimentType::SEARCH_CUSTOM, 'suffix' => '[experiment]', 'status' => ExperimentStatus::SETUP ]); $experimentOperation = new ExperimentOperation(['create' => $experiment]); // Issues a request to create the experiment. $response = $experimentServiceClient->mutateExperiments( MutateExperimentsRequest::build($customerId, [$experimentOperation]) ); $experimentResourceName = $response->getResults()[0]->getResourceName(); print "Created experiment with resource name '$experimentResourceName'" . PHP_EOL; return $experimentResourceName; }
Python
def create_experiment_resource(client, customer_id): """Creates a new experiment resource. Args: client: an initialized GoogleAdsClient instance. customer_id: a client customer ID. Returns: the resource name for the new experiment. """ experiment_operation = client.get_type("ExperimentOperation") experiment = experiment_operation.create experiment.name = f"Example Experiment #{uuid.uuid4()}" experiment.type_ = client.enums.ExperimentTypeEnum.SEARCH_CUSTOM experiment.suffix = "[experiment]" experiment.status = client.enums.ExperimentStatusEnum.SETUP experiment_service = client.get_service("ExperimentService") response = experiment_service.mutate_experiments( customer_id=customer_id, operations=[experiment_operation] ) experiment_resource_name = response.results[0].resource_name print(f"Created experiment with resource name {experiment_resource_name}") return experiment_resource_name
Ruby
def create_experiment_resource(client, customer_id) operation = client.operation.create_resource.experiment do |e| # Name must be unique. e.name = "Example Experiment #{(Time.new.to_f * 1000).to_i}" e.type = :SEARCH_CUSTOM e.suffix = '[experiment]' e.status = :SETUP end response = client.service.experiment.mutate_experiments( customer_id: customer_id, operations: [operation], ) experiment = response.results.first.resource_name puts "Created experiment with resource name #{experiment}." experiment end
Perl
sub create_experiment_resource { my ($api_client, $customer_id) = @_; my $experiment = Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V18::Resources::Experiment->new({ # Name must be unique. name => "Example Experiment #" . uniqid(), type => SEARCH_CUSTOM, suffix => "[experiment]", status => SETUP }); my $operation = Google::Ads::GoogleAds::V18::Services::ExperimentService::ExperimentOperation ->new({ create => $experiment }); my $response = $api_client->ExperimentService()->mutate({ customerId => $customer_id, operations => [$operation]}); my $resource_name = $response->{results}[0]{resourceName}; printf "Created experiment with resource name '%s'.\n", $resource_name; return $resource_name; }