KeywordToolService search volume refresh dates

[jason]

I'm using the KeywordToolService to retrieve keyword suggestions for
terms I'm passing in. Does anyone know when the search volumes
"refresh," i.e., average and last month matches what I would see using
the tool in the AdWords Keyword Tool?

I successfully used the service on 1/28, in which "last month" matched
December data. However, when I run the same request today, I see the
same search volume. It doesn't even seem to show January data,
whereas the AdWords Keyword Tool is already showing "Approximate
Search Volume: February."

Are there any plans to have this data match what we see in the AdWords
Keyword Tool and can we get some guidance on when we can expect the
data to refresh each month so we know when to pull new "last month"
search volume?

Thanks,
Jason

[AdWords API Advisor]

Hello Jason,

See this previous thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-api/browse_thread/thread/79451b1eed36374c

I never received a response from the original poster. Could you
provide the information I requested? A sample of different requests
(i.e. more than one) illustrating this behavior would be ideal.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team

[jason]

Jeff:

Thanks for the follow-up.

Here are a few generic examples:

Pulled from API (broad match):

date keyword last month avg search volume
--------------------------------------------------------------------
01/29/2009 video 618,000,000 414,000,000
01/28/2009 mobile 151,000,000 124,000,000
01/28/2009 football 101,000,000 68,000,000

03/05/2009 video 618,000,000 414,000,000
03/05/2009 mobile 151,000,000 124,000,000
03/05/2009 football 101,000,000 68,000,000

Pulled from online AdWords Keyword Tool (broad match)

date keyword last month (Feb) avg search volume
--------------------------------------------------------------------
03/05/2009 video 185,000,000 124,000,000
03/05/2009 mobile 30,400,000 24,900,000
03/05/2009 football 55,600,000 30,400,000

I believe the 1/29 API data matched the online AdWords data for
December and Average, but I can't be sure. Hope this helps and that
we can get the data refreshed on/around the first of the month as it
is in the online tool. Please let me know if you see something
different when using the API.

Thanks,
Jason


On Mar 2, 12:20 pm, AdWords API Advisor <adwordsapiadvi...@google.com>
wrote:

> Hello Jason,
>
>  See this previous thread:
>

>  http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-api/browse_thread/thread/79451...

[AdWords API Advisor]

Hello Jason,

Could you clarify as to what language and country settings you're
using? I'm not seeing the same results as you are, but I'm checking
with US/English.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team

[jason]

Jeff:

I'm using "all" for both language and country.

Jason

On Mar 5, 1:29 pm, AdWords API Advisor <adwordsapiadvi...@google.com>

[AdWords API Advisor]

And for the AdWords API request? Are you leaving out the countries and
languages elements completely?

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team

[AdWords API Advisor]

Hello Jason,

Actually, scratch that last request. The folks responsible for the
search volume data returned from the AdWords API spotted a problem
with the process that refreshes the data (and also with the process
that monitors whether the data was refreshed...) and they're working
to get everything updated now. They actually discovered this a few
days ago independently of your report, and that's also what's causing
some queries to return -1 for search volume while the backend data is
being updated, as reported in this thread:

http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-api/browse_thread/thread/e43f3c2f2303bbfa

There's apparently a large amount of data that needs to be updated,
and it's taking some time to get pushed out to all of the places that
it's replicated, but once it is complete fresh data should be
available.

Apologies for the inconvenience in the meantime.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team

On Mar 6, 1:24 pm, AdWords API Advisor <adwordsapiadvi...@google.com>

[jason]

Jeff:

Thanks for the update. Can you reply back when the update is complete
and it's safe to pull the new data?

Best,
Jason

On Mar 6, 2:06 pm, AdWords API Advisor <adwordsapiadvi...@google.com>
wrote:
> Hello Jason,
>

>  Actually, scratch that last request. The folks responsible for the
> search volume data returned from the AdWords API spotted a problem
> with the process that refreshes the data (and also with the process
> that monitors whether the data was refreshed...) and they're working
> to get everything updated now. They actually discovered this a few
> days ago independently of your report, and that's also what's causing
> some queries to return -1 for search volume while the backend data is
> being updated, as reported in this thread:
>

>  http://groups.google.com/group/adwords-api/browse_thread/thread/e43f3...

[AdWords API Advisor]

Hello Jason,

I was told that it should be complete by today. Using your example
keywords with all language and locations as the parameters I'm seeing
results that match via the API and via the web tool. They're not
exactly the same results as what you posted: i.e. for football, I'm
getting last month of 3,350,000 and average of 68,000,000 via both the
API and web tool.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team

[jason]

Jeff:

I did some spot checks to verify the update before doing another batch
pull and am still seeing some discrepancies. When passing the seed
"football" into both the web tool and the API, this is what I'm
seeing:

Pulled from API (broad match):

date keyword last month avg search volume
--------------------------------------------------------------------

03/16/2009 football tickets 49,500 450,000
03/16/2009 football 3,350,000 68,000,000
03/16/2009 college football 74,000 2,240,000
03/16/2009 football scores 165,000 673,000

Pulled from online AdWords Keyword Tool (broad match)

date keyword last month (Feb) avg search volume
--------------------------------------------------------------------

03/16/2009 football tickets 9,900 301,000
03/16/2009 football 823,000 30,400,000
03/16/2009 college football 60,500 1,830,000
03/16/2009 football scores 6,600 368,000


FYI, the API data matches what you reported below, but now does not
match the web tool. Can you please advise on the discrepancies and if/
when they may be resolved?

Thanks,
Jason


On Mar 9, 8:43 am, AdWords API Advisor <adwordsapiadvi...@google.com>

[AdWords API Advisor]

Hello Jason,

First off, just to set expectations, we do not guarantee that the
numbers returned from the web version of the tool and the numbers from
the AdWords API's KeywordToolService will always match up. Both
methods of retrieving data involve approximate search volumes.

That being said, if you're careful to make sure you specify the same
language and geographic targeting, the numbers should be close. In
this case, I think you're making a mistake in the targeting you
specify when using the web tool. Specifically, I think you are using
the default targeting of English/United States. Please make sure that
you edit your targeting before generating keyword ideas using the web
tool. I believe that you said you were using all languages and regions
wit the API, so be sure to select all the languages (using shift-
clicks is the easiest way) and choose the "All Countries and
Territories" option in the geographic targeting list.

When I run things in the web tool with all languages/countries
selected, I get numbers that match those you pulled from the API. When
I run things with the default English/United States, I get numbers
that match what you say you're getting from the web tool.

Cheers,
-Jeff Posnick, AdWords API Team

[jason]

Jeff:

Thanks for pointing out the language/country difference. That does
explain most of the differences.

Best,
Jason

On Mar 17, 8:51 am, AdWords API Advisor <adwordsapiadvi...@google.com>