Google this month added a new capability to Display & Video 360 that reduces the column count required to update line items in bulk - a change that addresses one of the more persistent friction points in programmatic campaign management. The feature, called Partial Structured Data File Upload, was announced on May 5, 2026, through the Google Ads Developer Blog by Trevor Mulchay of the Display & Video 360 API Team.

The announcement is narrow in scope but technically meaningful. Standard Line Item Structured Data Files require more than 120 columns to be present in every uploaded file. That ceiling exists because the format was designed to carry the full breadth of Display & Video 360 settings in a single document. According to the Ads Developer Blog, partial SDFs remove that constraint: advertisers can now build files that include only the columns tied to the settings they actually want to change.

What Partial SDF Upload changes

The practical consequence is that a team wanting to update only creative assignments or flight dates no longer has to download a full line item SDF, preserve every untouched column, and re-upload the entire structure. Instead, they can build a smaller CSV that contains just the Line Item ID - which remains mandatory in every partial SDF - and the relevant column group. According to Google's developer documentation, any file missing the Line Item ID column, or containing columns from an incomplete column group, will result in an error and will not be processed.

Three benefits are listed in the announcement. First, the higher overall resource limit per file. Full SDFs impose a ceiling on how many line items can be included in a single upload; by reducing column count, partial SDFs push that ceiling upward, allowing more line items to be processed at once. Second, faster file uploads and faster propagation of updates. Smaller files move through the platform's processing pipeline more quickly, reducing the time between upload and the moment changes take effect. Third, a lower risk of unintended changes. When a file contains 120-plus columns, there is inherent risk that a value in an unrelated column gets inadvertently altered or overwritten. Partial SDFs limit the blast radius of any single upload to only the settings included in the file.

The feature is available immediately through the Display & Video 360 user interface and requires no additional configuration or enrollment. According to the documentation, the upload process is identical to standard SDF uploads - there is no separate option to flag a file as partial. The platform identifies it based on the column structure.

Column groups and technical constraints

The partial SDF system is organized around named column groups, each of which maps to a set of related settings within the Line Item file format. A file can include multiple column groups, but every column within a selected group must be present. Partial inclusion within a group causes an upload error.

According to the official Partial SDF Upload documentation, the currently supported column groups are:

  • Line Item ID - required for all partial SDFs; includes the Line Item ID column
  • Name - includes the Name column
  • Status - includes the Status column
  • Flight fields - includes Start Date and End Date
  • Budget and Pacing fields - includes Budget Type, Budget Amount, Pacing, Pacing Rate, and Pacing Amount
  • Frequency Cap fields - includes Frequency Enabled, Frequency Exposures, Frequency Period, and Frequency Amount; with additional TrueView-specific columns required if TrueView line items are present in the file
  • Partner Revenue Model fields - includes Partner Revenue Model and Partner Revenue Amount
  • Conversion Tracking fields - includes Conversion Counting Type, Conversion Counting Pct, Conversion Floodlight Activity Ids, and Primary Attribution Model Id
  • Reporting Info fields - includes Integration Code and Details
  • Bid Strategy fields - includes Bid Strategy Type, Bid Strategy Value, Bid Strategy Unit, Bid Strategy Do Not Exceed, Apply Floor Price For Deals, and Algorithm Id
  • Creative Assignments - includes the Creative Assignments column
  • Geography Region Targeting fields - includes Geography Targeting - Include and Geography Targeting - Exclude
  • Proximity Targeting - includes the Proximity Targeting column; the documentation notes that there must be no space between the comma preceding this column and the column values
  • Keyword Targeting fields - includes Keyword Targeting - Include and Keyword Targeting - Exclude

The Frequency Cap group carries a specific caution. According to the documentation, some columns in that group are only required if TrueView line items are present. Teams unsure of which line item types their file will include are advised to include all columns in the group rather than risk an error.

There is one notable omission: partial SDFs do not support the Timestamp column. This has a practical implication. In standard SDF workflows, the Timestamp column helps prevent overwriting changes made to a line item between the time a file was downloaded and the time it was uploaded. According to the documentation, any changes made to a line item during that window will be overwritten if the relevant column is included in the partial SDF. Teams running frequent bulk operations should account for this in their workflows.

Building a partial SDF

According to Google's documentation, there are two ways to construct a partial SDF. The first starts from an existing downloaded file. An advertiser downloads a standard line item SDF containing the relevant line items, removes all columns outside the chosen column groups, removes all line item entries that will not be updated, and uploads the result. The second approach starts from scratch: a new CSV file built with only the headers matching the selected column groups, with one row per line item to be updated.

When building from scratch, the documentation specifies that an empty value in a present column will be saved as the new value for that line item setting. Leaving a column blank is not the same as omitting it - the empty value will overwrite whatever was there before. This distinction matters for teams constructing new files rather than modifying downloads.

Google has provided three sample files to help teams get started. Sample 1 covers the Line Item ID, Name, and Status column groups. Sample 2 covers Line Item ID and Budget and Pacing fields. Sample 3 covers Line Item ID, Geography Region Targeting fields, Proximity Targeting, and Keyword Targeting fields. Each sample includes a header row and three placeholder rows that should be populated before upload.

After a partial SDF is processed, results are available on the bulk status page within Display & Video 360. According to the documentation, unlike standard SDF uploads, no email with result files is sent after a partial SDF is processed and completed.

There is also a multi-advertiser constraint. If the file contains line items from different advertisers, it must be uploaded at the shared partner level. A single partial SDF cannot update line items under two different partners simultaneously.

Context within the SDF history

Structured Data Files have been a primary tool for bulk campaign management in Display & Video 360 for years, and the format has gone through several versions with significant changes in scope and capability. PPC Land has tracked the SDF version history extensively, from SDF v7's general availability in November 2023 through the introduction of the QA format in mid-2024.

The SDF QA format, which reached general availability in August 2024, addressed a different problem - human readability of downloaded files, presenting data in display names rather than numeric IDs. Partial SDF Upload addresses the opposite direction: making uploads leaner and less error-prone. The two features together give DV360 operations teams more precise control over both the reading and writing of bulk campaign data.

The SDF v8 release in late October 2024 brought comprehensive support for Demand Gen resources. SDF v9.1, released September 17, 2025, refined Demand Gen line item configuration further, adding resource-level targeting options and removing deprecated columns including the Bid Multipliers column from line items and the Measure DAR and Measure DAR Channel columns from insertion orders.

Version deprecations have also driven ongoing migration pressure across DV360 users. SDF v6 was deprecated on July 30, 2024, with a sunset date of April 30, 2025. Versions 7.1, 8, and 8.1 were subsequently slated for deprecation in March 2026. The recurring version churn has placed substantial operational pressure on teams maintaining custom integrations.

Separately, Google added DV360 API, SDF, and Bid Manager API support to its Discord server on March 24, 2026, consolidating developer community support into a single channel. That announcement was also authored by Trevor Mulchay - the same person behind today's partial SDF release.

Why this matters for programmatic operations teams

The 120-plus column requirement in standard line item SDFs has historically meant that every bulk update, however small, required managing a large and complex file. A team wanting to flip the status of 200 line items from active to paused needed to produce and upload a file carrying over 120 populated columns for each of those 200 rows. The data engineering overhead for that kind of operation - ensuring no column was inadvertently altered, that the timestamp was current, that no unrelated setting drifted - has been a real operational cost.

Partial SDFs reduce that cost materially. A status update now requires only two column groups: Line Item ID and Status. That is two columns. The file is smaller, the upload is faster, and the risk of touching something unintended is structurally eliminated for the columns not present in the file.

The feature is limited to line items. Partial SDF Upload does not apply to other file types within the SDF system - insertion orders, ad groups, or other resources must still use full-format files. But line items represent the most granular and frequently updated layer of DV360 campaign structure, and limiting the scope to that layer is a reasonable starting point.

According to the Ads Developer Blog, questions and discussion about the feature can be directed to the Google Advertising and Measurement Community Discord server.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Trevor Mulchay of the Display & Video 360 API Team at Google announced the feature on behalf of the platform's developer relations function. The feature affects all Display & Video 360 users who manage line items in bulk through Structured Data Files.

What: Partial Structured Data File Upload allows DV360 users to upload line item SDFs that contain only selected subsets of columns, organized into named column groups. Standard line item SDFs require more than 120 columns; partial SDFs require only the Line Item ID column plus whichever column groups cover the settings being updated. The feature supports 14 distinct column groups covering status, flight dates, budget and pacing, frequency caps, bid strategy, creative assignments, geography and proximity targeting, keyword targeting, and several others.

When: The announcement was published on May 5, 2026, through the Google Ads Developer Blog. The feature is available immediately with no enrollment period.

Where: Partial SDFs are uploaded through the Display & Video 360 user interface using the same process as standard SDF uploads. The feature is available within the DV360 UI globally. Multi-advertiser files must be uploaded at the shared partner level.

Why: Standard line item SDFs have required more than 120 columns per file, creating overhead and error risk whenever advertisers needed to make targeted changes to a small subset of line item settings. Partial SDF Upload reduces file size, increases the per-file resource limit, accelerates upload and propagation times, and structurally limits the risk of unintended changes to settings outside the scope of the intended update.

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