Mutate

Most resources are modified (created, updated, or removed) using a Mutate method. The Mutate method is invoked as an HTTP POST to a resource-specific URL that matches the resource-name pattern, without the trailing resource ID. The IDs of the resources to be mutated are instead sent in the JSON request body. This lets you send a single API call that contains multiple operations on different resources.

For example, a campaign's resource name uses the following format:

customers/CUSTOMER_ID/campaigns/CAMPAIGN_ID

To derive the URL used for mutating campaigns, omit the trailing resource ID and append :mutate:

https://googleads.googleapis.com/v16/customers/CUSTOMER_ID/campaigns:mutate

A Mutate message contains a top-level JSON object with an operations array that can contain many operation objects. Each operation, in turn, can be one of: create, update, or remove. These are the only possible mutate operations.

POST /v16/customers/CUSTOMER_ID/campaigns:mutate HTTP/1.1
Host: googleads.googleapis.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN
developer-token: DEVELOPER_TOKEN

{
  "operations": [
    ...
  ]
}

Most services support thousands of operations in a single API call. The System Limits guide documents the limitations on request sizes.

Operations within a single API request are executed as one set of actions by default, meaning they either all succeed together or the whole batch fails if any single operation fails. Some services support a partialFailure attribute to change this behavior. See Mutating Resources for more detailed information on mutate operation semantics.

Create

Create operations produce new entities and must include a full JSON representation of the resource you intend to create.

POST /v16/customers/CUSTOMER_ID/campaigns:mutate HTTP/1.1
Host: googleads.googleapis.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN
developer-token: DEVELOPER_TOKEN

{
  "operations": [
    {
    "create": {
        "name": "An example campaign",
        "status": "PAUSED",
        "campaignBudget": "customers/CUSTOMER_ID/campaignBudgets/CAMPAIGN_BUDGET_ID",
        "advertisingChannelType": "SEARCH",
        "networkSettings": {
          "targetGoogleSearch": true,
          "targetSearchNetwork": true,
          "targetContentNetwork": true,
          "targetPartnerSearchNetwork": false
        },
        "target_spend": {}
      }
    }
  ]
}

Update

Update operations perform sparse updates to an existing resource. You only need to specify the fields you want to modify.

To specify the fields that you want to update, set the updateMask attribute to a comma-separated list of field names. This is particularly useful if you already have a fully formed JSON representation of an object (for instance, as returned by a previous API call), but only want to change certain fields. Instead of pruning the JSON object, you can just list the field names to be modified in the updateMask and send the entire JSON object.

The example below changes the name and status of an existing campaign having the given resourceName.

POST /v16/customers/CUSTOMER_ID/campaigns:mutate HTTP/1.1
Host: googleads.googleapis.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN
developer-token: DEVELOPER_TOKEN

{
  "operations": [
    {
      "updateMask": "name,status",
      "update": {
        "resourceName": "customers/CUSTOMER_ID/campaigns/CAMPAIGN_ID",
        "name": "My renamed campaign",
        "status": "PAUSED",
      }
    }
  ]
}

Remove

Remove operations effectively delete an object, setting its Google Ads status to REMOVED. Only the resourceName to be removed is required.

POST /v16/customers/CUSTOMER_ID/campaigns:mutate HTTP/1.1
Host: googleads.googleapis.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN
developer-token: DEVELOPER_TOKEN

{
  "operations": [
    {
      "remove": "customers/CUSTOMER_ID/campaigns/CAMPAIGN_ID"
    }
  ]
}