Section 13.4. Signing up for a Developer Token

13.4. Signing up for a Developer Token

As Google puts it, all you need to develop AdWords API applications is a developer tokenand some good programming chops.

The starting place for signing up for the developer token, and for getting good technical information about the AdWords services, is the AdWords API beta center, which can be opened at http://www.google.com/apis/adwords/, shown in Figure 13-2.

To get a developer token, click the Register as a developer link shown in the upper left of Figure 13-2.

13.4.1. Accessing Your Own My Client Center

In order to get a developer token, and to sign on as an AdWords developer, you'll need a My Client Center.

Figure 13-2. The AdWords API beta center is packed with information and is the starting place to register as an AdWords developer

See Chapter 11 for more information about the AdWords My Client Center.

The primary purpose of a My Client Center is to manage multiple AdWords accounts from one window. When you get an AdWords developer token, a special tab is added to your My Client Center.

If you have already signed up for a My Client Center, use that for the AdWords API Developer Signup (shown in Figure 13-3). Otherwise, use your AdWords logon.

Figure 13-3. Log on to you're My Client Center (if you don't have a My Client Center yet, use your AdWords logon)

Click Continue, check the box to accept terms and conditions, and then click Continue again.

If you don't already have a My Client Center, you'll now be prompted to create one, using an email address that must be different from the address you used for your AdWords account (Figure 13-4).

Figure 13-4. Google won't let you create a My Client Center account using the same email address as you used for your AdWords account

Once you've signed up, Google AdWords will email your developer token to the address you used to create you're My Client Center.

It's not as off-the-wall as it might seem to associate a My Client Center with the AdWords API developer program, because Google expects many API developers to be businesses involved in professionally managing AdWords accounts. If you are, in fact, a lone-wolf solo practitioner, the only real implication is that you'll need a second working email address to complete the registration process.

13.4.2. Getting Your AdWords API Developer Token

The first time you log onto your My Client Center after registering with the AdWords API Developers Program, the welcome screen will display your developer token (Figure 13-5).

You can find your developer token on your My Account tab. It's still a good idea to copy and paste it into a text file so it's handy when you need to use it in your code.

13.4.3. AdWords API Quotas and Usage

Open the My Account tab followed by the AdWords API Center link to see the AdWords API Center (Figure 13-6), which displays your API usage, your developer token, and a link to the program terms and conditions.

Don't click the reset link (shown next to Your Developer Token in Figure 13-6) lightly. Opening this link deletes your developer token. There's no getting it back, and you'll have to reapply to the programand modify all your code that uses the deleted token!

Figure 13-5. Your AdWords API developer token is displayed the first time you log onto My Client Center; subsequently you can find it on the My Account tab

Figure 13-6. Your API quote depends on your AdWords budget; it is displayed along with your developer token

Each AdWords API developer is assigned a monthly operations quota, based on the total spent in the developer's My Client Center.

Google's rationale for the quota system is to protect the integrity of AdWords operations from getting too much traffic. It probably also wants to make sure that the large-scale businesses that the AdWords API program is targeting get the benefit from the program, rather than "Jane Six-Pack" individual developers.

Updating individual bids on 1000 keywords equates to 1000 operations, so the developer with the 25,000 operations shown in Figure 13-5 could theoretically perform 25,000 keyword updates and stay within quota. Once you've used your quota for the month, your API calls will return a quota exceeded error code (fault code 43) until the next month.

You can increase your quota by linking more accounts to your My Client Center or by increasing your total monthly spend (Google suggests that you don't raise an account spend without the permission of the client who pays the bills for the account).