Where can I find a programmer to help implement the Google Ads API?

Question was asked on Quora

Background: I’ve used the AdWords API since 2009 do research, build campaigns and generate reports.

Bad news: there are relatively few programmers available who have used the AdWords API extensively.

Good news is that you don’t a programmer who is an expert at the AdWords API because the programming constructs that the API uses are well known. For instance, the API uses OAuth for authentication which is very common. There are code libraries and examples in many programming languages. You can point any decent developer to https://github.com/googleads and they should be able to figure things out.

There are some things that you should be aware of if you’re going to invest in custom programming for your business.

• You should get the process for getting an API token started as soon as possible. We got ours many years ago when they just handed them out if you asked. Now day's it's more difficult. People have reported being denied them or taking months to get them approved.
• Google updates the API code every 3 months. You have to update your own code to match their update or it stops working after a while. When we first started it took a week of developer time to understand the changes, update and test the code. It doesn’t take as long anymore but you’ve still got to do it.
• Google has some limits on what you can do with the data you get from the API and some requirements. These don’t always make sense from an agency perspective but Google makes the rules. Take a look here.

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