Tag Archives: reporting

Introducing the Google Ads Query Builder tool

Today we are excited to announce that the Google Ads Query Builder tool is now available on the Google Ads API Developer Site.

The Google Ads API has a robust reporting system that utilizes our new Google Ads Query Language. The language’s syntax allows you to select from all the resources that are available for reporting, and also filter or sort the result set on the server before they are returned to your application.

This tool provides a friendly web interface for you to explore our API’s reporting capabilities, and generate queries that you can copy and paste right into your applications. You can visit the site and try out the tool today!

Example usage of the Google Ads Query Builder: A screenshot showing a sample usage of the Google Ads Query Builder UI, including both filtering and ordering. Happy reporting!
- Cory Liseno, Google Ads API Team

Change to the Google Ads API and the AdWords API Showcase Ads Clicks Reporting

Update (Feb 21, 2019): clarified wording of the Clicks impact.
On February 27, 2019, the data returned in the Clicks metric for Showcase ads will change in order to more accurately show you the interactions with products via Showcase ads in reporting.

In the AdWords API and the Google Ads API, the Clicks metric (clicks for Google Ads API) will change for the Shopping Performance Report and the Product Partition Report (product_group_view for Google Ads API) as follows:
  • Current reporting: Clicks only include charged clicks.
  • New reporting: Clicks will report all clicks, including free clicks. As a result, you may see a change in the number of reported clicks.
If you have questions, please reach out to us on the forum.
Nadine Sundquist, Google Ads API Team

Top metrics, absolute top metrics, and average position in the AdWords API and Google Ads scripts

What's new
Starting November 12, 2018, the fields below will be available in AdWords API and Google Ads scripts reports.

Absolute top metrics:
  • AbsoluteTopImpressionPercentage
  • SearchAbsoluteTopImpressionShare
  • SearchBudgetLostAbsoluteTopImpressionShare
  • SearchRankLostAbsoluteTopImpressionShare
Top metrics:
  • TopImpressionPercentage
  • SearchTopImpressionShare
  • SearchBudgetLostTopImpressionShare
  • SearchRankLostTopImpressionShare
AbsoluteTopImpressionPercentage and TopImpressionPercentage are specific indicators of page location. You can use these metrics to determine when and where your impressions are showing above the organic search results.

SearchAbsoluteTopImpressionShare and SearchTopImpressionShare are your share of the eligible top impressions. They are the best indicators of the headroom available to show your ads in more prominent positions. If your goal is to bid on page location, you should use these metrics. Bidding by average position is not recommended since:
  • Average position doesn't actually describe position on the page but position in the auction.
  • Sometimes, average position may decrease as bids increase. This happens as higher bids sometimes allow you to enter more competitive auctions lower on the page.
See our post on the New features & announcements page for more details.

What you should do
Whenever you are using AveragePosition as a proxy to bid to a page location, switch to using the new SearchAbsoluteTopImpressionShare or SearchTopImpressionShare metrics in your bidding logic.

If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the forum.
- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

Changes to the URL Performance Report for YouTube video placements

What's changing?
The URL_PERFORMANCE_REPORT in the AdWords API will exclude information for YouTube video placements starting October 30, 2018, in keeping with our data retention policies. As a result, placements where the Url field has a domain of www.youtube.com will no longer appear in the report. New and improved placement reports will be available in one of the upcoming releases of the new Google Ads API.

What you should do
Review your application and workflows and make the necessary changes to ensure that the exclusion of video placements in this report will not cause problems. Watch this blog for updates regarding new placement reports in the Google Ads API.

If you have any questions or need help, please contact us via the forum.

- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

Click measurement changes in AdWords

AdWords now allows you to enable parallel tracking for all advertisers from frontend and API. People who click your ads will go directly to your landing page while their browser handles click measurement requests in the background. This helps reduce lost visits which can happen if a customer clicks on your ad but never sees your landing page because they navigate away before the redirect from your tracking URL completes.

All ads using third-party click measurement will begin using parallel tracking at a later date. However, you should start developing for compatibility as soon as possible to give yourself enough time for the migration. If you implement your own click measurement server or provide this service to your customers, refer to our newly published guide for help with implementation. If you are an advertiser who uses a third-party measurement solution, reach out to your service provider to prepare for the switch.

If you need additional support, please email us at [email protected].
 - , AdWords API Team

Upcoming changes to ad network type columns in AdWords API and Scripts reports

On March 19, 2018, we are updating how AdNetworkType1 and AdNetworkType2 columns report zero impression rows related to video networks.

Currently, if you request AdNetworkType1 or AdNetworkType2 columns and request zero impression rows by setting the includeZeroImpressions flag to true, you get back zero impression rows for YOUTUBE_SEARCH and YOUTUBE_WATCH values only if you target these networks in your Advertiser account. After this change, we will always return zero rows corresponding to these network types irrespective of whether you advertise on these networks. Other network types are not affected by this change.

This change makes the behavior of YOUTUBE_SEARCH and YOUTUBE_WATCH network types consistent with the behavior of other network types. Once this change goes live, you may start seeing a higher number of zero impression rows than what you see today when requesting AdNetworkType1 or AdNetworkType2 columns along with zero impression rows.

If you have any questions about these changes, post them in our developer forum.
 - , AdWords API Team

Update to Engagement Reporting for Bumper Ads

Historically, AdWords API reporting has not included engagements for bumper ads. Bumper ads are video ads that are 6 seconds or shorter, appear at the beginning of a YouTube video, and can't be skipped.

Bumper ads support “drawer open” engagements, where a user can mouse over the ad to expand a widget with more information. These engagements were previously not included in the Engagements and EngagementRate fields in reports. Starting in mid-February 2018, we are going to be changing this behavior for all historical and future bumper ad reporting to include these engagements. This brings bumper ads in line with other types of video ads, which already reported these engagements.

This means that your historical reporting data, starting up to two years ago in January 2016, will be updated to include this statistic to bring it inline with future data.

If you have any questions about this migration, please contact us via the forum.
- Mike Cloonan, AdWords API Team

AdWords scripts now supports v201708 and v201710 in reports

We have added support for AdWords API v201708 and v201710 reports in AdWords scripts.

The major changes in v201708 are:
  • New fields in various report types.
  • The TABLE_EXTENSION enum value for ClickType was renamed to PRICE_EXTENSION.
  • See the full AdWords API release notes for more details.
The major changes in v201710 are:
  • The Automated field was added to the AD_PERFORMANCE_REPORT.
  • The EnhancedCpvEnabled field was removed from all reports.
  • See the full AdWords API release notes for more details.
In addition to these changes, v201705 is now the default version for reports. You can use one of the newly supported versions instead by specifying the apiVersion in your report request:
var report = AdWordsApp.report(query, {
    apiVersion: 'v201710'
});

If you have any questions about these changes or AdWords scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.
- Mike Cloonan, AdWords API Team.

Changes to AdWords Express campaigns in AdWords API reports

If you use AdWords API reports to retrieve performance statistics for AdWords Express campaigns, please read on as these changes will affect you.

What's changing?
In preparation for upcoming improvements, an ongoing migration process is modifying campaigns managed by AdWords Express.

Currently, when you enable an AdWords Express promotion, it creates up to two AdWords campaigns:
  • A Search Network campaign with:
    • AdvertisingChannelType = SEARCH (appears as Search)
    • AdvertisingChannelSubType = SEARCH_EXPRESS (appears as Search Express)
  • A Display Network campaign with:
    • AdvertisingChannelType = DISPLAY (appears as Display)
    • AdvertisingChannelSubType = DISPLAY_EXPRESS (appears as Display Express)
As part of the migration, the two campaigns above will be paused and replaced by a single AdWords campaign with:
  • AdvertisingChannelType = EXPRESS (appears as Express)
  • AdvertisingChannelSubType = UNKNOWN (appears as an empty string)
After the campaigns for a promotion are migrated, performance statistics for the AdWords Express promotion will be available in reports as follows:
  • Performance statistics for dates prior to the migration will be attributed to the original campaigns with SEARCH / SEARCH_EXPRESS and DISPLAY / DISPLAY_EXPRESS.
  • Performance statistics for dates after the migration will be attributed to the new campaign with EXPRESS / UNKNOWN. The new campaign will only appear in the CAMPAIGN_PERFORMANCE_REPORT.
For example, assume an AdWords Express promotion manages the following two AdWords campaigns today:

Campaign ID Campaign Status Advertising Channel Type Advertising Channel Sub Type
1000 ENABLED SEARCH SEARCH_EXPRESS
2000 ENABLED DISPLAY DISPLAY_EXPRESS

After the migration, the account will contain the following campaigns for the AdWords Express promotion:

Campaign ID Campaign Status Advertising Channel Type Advertising Channel Sub Type Performance statistics
1000 PAUSED SEARCH SEARCH_EXPRESS Before the migration
2000 PAUSED DISPLAY DISPLAY_EXPRESS Before the migration
3000 ENABLED EXPRESS UNKNOWN After the migration

What should you do?
Ensure that your application properly handles all three combinations of AdvertisingChannelType and AdvertisingChannelSubType. For example:
  • If your application inspects AdvertisingChannelType or AdvertisingChannelSubType to handle AdWords Express campaigns, please adjust the logic to handle the new combination of EXPRESS / UNKNOWN.
  • If you use predicates on AdvertisingChannelType or AdvertisingChannelSubType to include or exclude AdWords Express campaigns, make sure that your predicate takes the new combination into account.
Reminder: The AdWords API only supports AdWords Express campaigns in reports. You cannot modify AdWords Express entities in your account using the AdWords API.

If you have any questions about this change, please contact us via the forum.
- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

Search impression share data will be updated more frequently

Starting mid-November, we’ll be updating AdWords API impression share reporting data more frequently. As a result, you'll be able to get the previous day's data by 12 PM (your local time). Previously, you might have had to wait up to 48 hours for the previous day’s data. This change affects the following reporting fields:
  • SearchBudgetLostImpressionShare
  • SearchExactMatchImpressionShare
  • SearchImpressionShare
  • SearchRankLostImpressionShare
With this change, you may see data fluctuate for report definitions that contain any of the above fields along with one of the following date ranges:
  • YESTERDAY, TODAY, LAST_7_DAYS, THIS_MONTH, ALL_TIME, LAST_14_DAYS, LAST_30_DAYS, THIS_WEEK_SUN_TODAY, THIS_WEEK_MON_TODAY
  • CUSTOM_DATE that includes the current date or the day before the day when you make a report request
This change allows for more real-time monitoring of search impression share. If you prefer to see more stable values, make sure the date range in your request doesn’t include the current date or yesterday if it’s not yet 12 PM in your time zone.

As always, if you have any questions, please post on the forum.
 - , AdWords API Team