Ad Group Targeting

[c.kl...@hpsgroup.co.uk]

Hi,

I'm new to the Adwords API and need some guidance on how to retrieve the Ad Group Target 'Impressions' value.

Have created the following...

1. A campaign with the default devices and a single UK Postal district location
2. A group having a demographic range covering 25-65+ with an audience containing the market vertical 'Motor Vehicles (New)'

In code (c#) I have the campaignId & adGroupId but just can't figure out which service/criterion/request... to use? Any advice, much appreciated

Cheers
Craig

[Peter Oliquino (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Craig,

You may correct my understanding if I am wrong. Could you confirm if what you wish is to retrieve criteria statistics that you target at both the campaign and ad group levels? If my understanding is correct, then you may refer to my answers below :

For item #1, the AdWords API currently does not have a dedicated report type for device criteria statistics. What I can recommend for you is to generate the Criteria Performance Report, however, you may note that this is a single attribution type of report. This means that, all statistics will be attritbuted to the criterion which AdWords deems most relevant. So if you have other criteria being targeted apart from the devices, those may be chosen by AdWords instead to return in the report. As for the campaign level location criteria, you could use the Campaign Location Target Report.

Going to the #2 item, you can then generate separately the Age Range Performance Report and the Audience Performance Report to retrieve your age demographic and userlist criteria statistics.

I hope this helps and feel free to write back if you have any additional clarifications.

Thanks and regards,

Peter

AdWords API Team

[c.kl...@hpsgroup.co.uk]

Thanks for replying Peter though I probably need to elaborate more because our use case is targeting and not performance.

Basically I want to do in code what can be done through the adwords.google.com website.

The setup...

Using adwords.google.com - I've created a single campaign and 1 location based on a UK postal district. Have added 2 ad groups which have different demographics and a single vertical audience (Motor Vehicles (New)) for each. There are no other items setup other than those automatically setup by adwords. We are not interested in anything keywords related at this stage either.

Wedsite Usage...

Now I'm particularly interested in the reported Impressions for a selected ad group, so I click on 'Audiences', 'Edit ad group targeting' which takes me to the 'Targeting' page. This page shows the overview of my current setup and a panel to the right showing ' Your Targets Reach', 'Impressions' and how the reach is defined. It is the 'Impressions' & 'reach' figures per location, audience & demographic' I'm after in code :)

I'm currently using a developer token too.

Hope this makes my case clearer

Many thanks

Craig

[Peter Oliquino (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Craig,

Thank you for filling me in with more details on what you wish to achieve. As for the Impressions of your existing AdWords objects, the reports I mentioned should be able to provide you with it. Fields such as the Impressions and ImpressionReach are only returned through reports and based on what you said, you have already some targeting criteria setup via the AdWords UI, and generating those reports is the only way to retrieve that information via the AdWords API.

Also, you may refer to this guide for the AdWords UI and AdWords API equivalent reports. If you are not able to identify which report type to use based on the guide, you may send to me the screenshot of the AdWords UI page you are viewing so I can further check. You may reply to me using the Reply privately to author option.

[Graham Bentin]

Hey Peter,

3+ plus months away from the project and I'm now back for my sins! Tried all your advice and still not getting any impression figures what so ever. To summarise...

Used these queries with relevant campaign id's and got following results...

Query:

"SELECT CampaignId, AdGroupId, Id, Criteria, CriteriaType, Impressions, Clicks, Cost FROM CRITERIA_PERFORMANCE_REPORT WHERE AdGroupId=" + _reachGroupId;

Result:

CRITERIA_PERFORMANCE_REPORT (All Time)

Campaign ID,Ad group ID,Keyword ID,Keyword / Placement,Criteria Type,Impressions,Clicks,Cost

1420007954,56627541275,503005,55-64,Age,0,0,0

1420007954,56627541275,47984193266,uservertical::80097,User Interest,0,0,0

1420007954,56627541275,503006,65 or more,Age,0,0,0

1420007954,56627541275,503999,Undetermined,Age,0,0,0

1420007954,56627541275,503002,25-34,Age,0,0,0

1420007954,56627541275,503004,45-54,Age,0,0,0

1420007954,56627541275,503003,35-44,Age,0,0,0

1420007954,56627541275,503001,18-24,Age,0,0,0

Total, --, --, --, --,0,0,0

Query:

"SELECT CampaignId, AdGroupId, Id, Criteria, Impressions, Clicks, Cost FROM AUDIENCE_PERFORMANCE_REPORT WHERE AdGroupId=" + _reachGroupId;

Result:

AUDIENCE_PERFORMANCE_REPORT (All Time)

Campaign ID,Ad group ID,Criterion ID,Audience,Impressions,Clicks,Cost

Total, --, --, --,0,0,0

Query:

"SELECT CampaignId, Id, Impressions, Clicks, Cost FROM CAMPAIGN_LOCATION_TARGET_REPORT WHERE CampaignId=" + _campaignId;

Result:

CAMPAIGN_LOCATION_TARGET_REPORT (All Time)

Campaign ID,Location,Impressions,Clicks,Cost

1420007954,9044967,0,0,0

Total, --,0,0,0

Understand any report relying on historical activity will show zero rows/values but from a targeting perspective, should see something. Feels like I'm not  passing in enough query parameters or missing something critical

I've attached a screen grab of the UI I'm seeing in AdWords and the impression figure we are trying to obtain through the API.

Regards

Craig

[Peter Oliquino (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Craig,

I responded to you privately, could you confirm if you were able to receive it? You may check your email and feel free to respond if you have any further clarifications. :)

Also, since the account in your screenshot is a test account, you would not be able to retrieve any impressions as test accounts don't really generate any performance metrics.

Best regards,

Peter

AdWords API Team