diff
/dɪf/noun
A diff is an overview of the differences between two versions of a file or two states. It shows what has been added, removed or changed.
The diff shows that only the campaign budget has changed.
Diff is short for difference. In software development, you inspect a diff to see exactly what changes. This can be source code, the text of a web page or the settings of an advertising campaign.
Review the changes
A text diff usually marks removed lines with a minus sign and added lines with a plus sign. A changed sentence then appears as a removed old line and an added new line. Git diff, for example, can compare your current files with a saved version.
A diff does not have to compare lines of text. Our Ads tooling compares desired campaign settings with the current settings in Google. The result might show that a budget needs to decrease or an ad needs to be paused.
This lets you review proposed changes before executing them. An empty diff means the compared data matches. By itself, it says nothing about the quality of the text, code or campaign.