The REST interface overview

AI-generated Key Takeaways

• Google Ads API can be accessed using either gRPC or REST, with gRPC being the recommended method for interacting with the API.

• Official Google client libraries, built on gRPC (except for Perl which uses REST), are strongly encouraged for ease of use and handling low-level communication details.

• This guide focuses on using the REST interface directly, primarily for users building custom solutions or using third-party HTTP client libraries.

• Client libraries provide benefits like idiomatic code, type safety, pagination handling, authentication, and access to code examples and utilities for common tasks.

Key Point: We strongly recommend using our official client libraries wherever you can. All Google provided client libraries are implemented using gRPC, except for the Perl library, which uses the REST interface. Unless you are specifically looking for details about REST, consult the reference documentation for details that cover both our official client libraries and the REST transport layer.

The Google Ads API can be called either using gRPC or REST. Both interfaces expose a resource-oriented design shared with other Google Cloud APIs.

We recommend using Google's official client libraries wherever possible. They provide idiomatic, type-safe code in each supported language and handle many low-level details of communication with the API (like timeout settings, result set pagination, and authentication). Our client libraries also include an extensive set of code examples and utilities that assist with common tasks, such as constructing resource names and handling field masks.

This guide presents details specific to REST and explains what you need to know to call the REST interface directly, without the use of a Google-supported client library. This guide may be useful if you are writing your own custom code to use REST directly or using a third-party HTTP client library.