[Google Ads API] Overall account performance using criteria_view (migration from CRITERIA_PERFORMANCE_REPORT in Adwords API)

[Robert Heise]

Hi,

while migrating from the Adwords API to the Ads API we stumbled on an issue. In the Adwords API the CRITERIA_PERFORMANCE_REPORT used to be a single attribution report, see https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/guides/reporting#single_and_multiple_attribution . This means that we could simply get the CRITERIA_PERFORMANCE_REPORT for all criteria types and aggregate on account, campaign or ad group level to get the overall account, campaign or ad group performance (i.e. overall clicks, impressions, conversions etc.).

On the Ads API, the replacement for the CRITERIA_PERFORMANCE_REPORT is the criteria_view which turned into a multiple attribution data source, see https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/migration/reports#attribution . This means even if we try to retrieve for each criteria type its performance via the criteria_view (as described here https://groups.google.com/d/msg/adwords-api/JSvsPy9MYYY/C4KP1kn7BgAJ ), we can't replicate the feature from the Adwords API to determine overall account, ad group or campaign performance based on the criteria performance data only - due to multiple attribution, we'd count KPI values several times, leading to wrong results.

I wonder how an overall account, campaign or ad group performance can be aggregated from criteria performance data retrieved from the Ads API - so something similar to how it worked with single attribution CRITERIA_PERFORMANCE_REPORT on the Adwords API. Not being able to simply aggregate criteria performance is quite impractical and limits flexibility a lot. I wonder what the best solution (if even possible at all) for this problem is on the Ads API.

Thanks,

Robert

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Robert, 

Thank you for the detailed explanation. The Google Ads API criteria reports are multi-attribution and you will not be able to combine the results. One option is to use the ad_group_criterion, campaign_criterion along with the other criteria resources to combine the data for each individual criteria. However, I have shared your feedback with the team. Please continue to monitor our blog for the future updates.

Regards,
Bharani, Google Ads API Team

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[Robert Heise]

Hi Bharani,

thank you for your answer. I'm not sure I completely understand your suggestion. Do you suggest to use ad_group_criterion along with the metrics (i.e. impressions, clicks) to get a response from the Ads API which would be safe to aggregate on? Is ad_group_criterion using single attribution model in the Ads API? The docs for Ads API say that no report uses single attribution, so I wonder how metrics retrieved via ad_group_criterion would be aggregatable across criteria types without counting KPIs twice. Please give more detail how you think an aggregation across criteria types would work via the Ads API using the suggested ad_group_criterion or campaign_criterion.

Thanks,

Robert

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hello Robert, 

The Ads API reports are multi-attribution which means that the reports should not be aggregated together as this might result in the metrics (Impressions and count) being double counted. You will be able to use different criteria reports and map the results between the Google Ads UI and the API. Since the AdWords API Criteria Performance Report being a single attribution report, this means that only one criteria will be attributed randomly. That means that not all keywords will be included. This could result in a difference between the data. 

Thanks,

[Robert Heise]

Hi Bharani,

thanks for your answer. I understand that multi-attribution reports can't be aggregated. What I tried to ask is how your suggestion to use i.e. ad_group_criterion along with metrics helps to achieve an account / campaign / ad group overall performance. AFAIS due to multi-attribution, the aggregate would still count some KPIs twice - so I guess using ad_group_criterion or campaign_criterion doesn't help. Using a single criteria type only for ad group, campaign or account level aggregations is missing out on performance for criteria types which are not covered by the selected criteria type. Using multiple criteria types leads to potentially counting KPIs twice due to multi-attribution.

I wonder whether there is a way via the Ads API to aggregate from criteria level data to an overall ad group, campaign or account performance. AFAIS this feature is sadly missing completely in the Ads API and could possibly only achieved by fetching separate, non-critiera level reports which already aggregate on the desired level (?) (If so, an example would be nice how to replace this Adwords API behavior in the Ads API...) This is quite a big break and makes the migration from Adwords API to Ads API much more complicated, time and resource consuming.

Regards,

Robert

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Robert, 

That's right. It is not possible to aggregate the data at the criteria level. I have shared your feedback with the team and raised a feature request. I will keep you posted on the updates.

Thanks,
Bharani, Google Ads API Team. 

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[Vipul]

is there any update for this feature ?  because I also have large manager account and have more than 500+ customer IDs. currently I am manually performing aggregation  for all customer IDs to get overall data which takes more than 20mins.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Vipul,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

Since your concern is that you have a large manager account and have more than 500+ customer IDs, and you are currently manually performing aggregation for all customer IDs to get overall data, which takes more than 20 minutes, then I would suggest you check out and try this sample code (https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/samples/parallel-report-download?hl=en) for Parallel Report Download, which shows how to download a set of reports from a list of accounts in parallel. Let me know if you have further questions.
 

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Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team