Retrieving Performance Metrics for Observed Audiences via Google Ads API

[Pablo Lemos]

Hello Google Ads API Team,

We're encountering a challenge retrieving performance metrics specifically for 'observed' audiences within the Google Ads API. We understand the distinction between targeted and observed audiences, but we're struggling to obtain granular metrics for the latter.

Current Situation:

• We can successfully retrieve metrics for 'targeted' audiences using the ad_group_audience_view resource. For example:

SELECT segments.date, campaign.id, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.impressions, ad_group_audience_view.resource_name FROM ad_group_audience_view WHERE segments.date BETWEEN '2024-03-01' AND '2024-03-01' AND campaign.id IN (20547189556);

This is a Demand Gen campaign, 20547189556, where all audiences are "segmented", I get all the metrics.

But if I run

SELECT segments.date, campaign.id, metrics.cost_micros, metrics.impressions, ad_group_audience_view.resource_name FROM ad_group_audience_view WHERE segments.date BETWEEN '2024-03-01' AND '2024-03-01' AND campaign.id IN (12911341324);

12911341324 is a search campaign. So this query returns empty since all audiences are "observational".

• We can identify all audiences (both targeted and observed) associated with an ad group using the ad_group_criterion resource:

SELECT ad_group.id, ad_group_criterion.resource_name, ad_group_criterion.user_list.user_list FROM ad_group_criterion WHERE campaign.id IN (12911341324) AND ad_group_criterion.type = 'USER_LIST';

• However, the ad_group_criterion resource does not provide performance metrics like clicks, impressions, or conversions.
• We understand that the nature of "observation" means the ad group's targeting isn't restricted to that audience, making precise metric isolation difficult.

Our Question:

Is there any alternative approach or combination of resources within the Google Ads API that would allow us to:

1. Obtain performance metrics (clicks, impressions, conversions, etc.) specifically for observed audiences?
2. Or provide a method to accurately attribute performance to an observed audience.

If there are any recommended best practices or workarounds for analyzing the performance of observed audiences, we would greatly appreciate your guidance.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

At the end of the day, the screenshot below shows what I am trying to reproduce.
Link to this ad report: https://ads.google.com/aw/reporteditor/view?ocid=451241934&ascid=451241934&reportId=930387320&euid=318807353&__u=3296107697&uscid=93529446&__c=1539529654

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[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to the Google Ads API support team. 

Based on the information provided, I understand that you are encountering a challenge retrieving performance metrics specifically for 'observed' audiences within the Google Ads API. Upon filtering and checking the campaign ID (20547189556), I could see that audiences are targeted at the ad_group level so you were able to retrieve them using the ad_group_audience_view report whereas for the campaign (12911341324) you were unable to retrieve the audiences using the ad_group_audience_view report. I have filtered the campaign ID (12911341324) in your account and tried to check the audience segments page, then I could see all of your audiences are targeted at the campaign level not the ad_group level and this is main reason why you were unable to retrieve the audiences for the campaign ID (12911341324) by using the ad_group_audience_view report. 

As your audiences for the campaign ID (12911341324) are targeted at the campaign level, you should use the campaign_audience_view report retrieve the audiences along with the metrics using the Google Ads API. We have tried to retrieve this audiences using the campaign_audience_view report and we were successfully able to retrieve them without any issues, so I would suggest you to try the same approach and let us know how it goes from your end. However, I am sharing the sample GAQL query as per your requirement: 

SELECT campaign.id, campaign_audience_view.resource_name, metrics.impressions, metrics.cost_micros, segments.date, 
campaign_criterion.type FROM campaign_audience_view WHERE segments.date = '2025-03-01' AND campaign.id = 12911341324

I hope this clarifies.
 

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-03-10 04:59:46Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vH7O4:ref" (ADR-00292480)

[Pablo Lemos]

Thank you so much for your response. That clarifies a lot.

But it creates a 2 other questions:

1 - How do I get the metrics per audience data for 12911341324 at the adgroup level? I can do this through the UI. If I add adgroup dimension it just works. (see screenshot attached. this is the report.)

2 - What is the best recommended approach to get the audience metrics broken down by campaign & adgroup of all campaigns in the account?
Do I need to query all campaigns from ad_group_audience_view then query all campaigns from campaign_audience_view then sum them up? And also getting non-audience data from all campaigns and subtract from it the metrics from the previous 2 queries to get the remaining untouched by audiences numbers? This sounds incredibly cumbersome, specially because the UI renders it so easily.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Please refer to the below response to your queries respectively.

How do I get the metrics per audience data for 12911341324 at the adgroup level? I can do this through the UI. If I add adgroup dimension it just works. (see screenshot attached. this is the report.)

Since the audiences in campaign (12911341324) are targeted at campaign level, it is not possible to get the metrics at adgroup level.  

What is the best recommended approach to get the audience metrics broken down by campaign & adgroup of all campaigns in the account?

Please note that the campaign level targeted audience metrics can be fetched using campaign_audience_view and the adgroup level targeted audience metrics can be fetched using ad_group_audience_view. It is not possible to fetch metrics of both campaign level and adgroup level targeted audiences using single resource.

Do I need to query all campaigns from ad_group_audience_view then query all campaigns from campaign_audience_view then sum them up? And also getting non-audience data from all campaigns and subtract from it the metrics from the previous 2 queries to get the remaining untouched by audiences numbers? This sounds incredibly cumbersome, specially because the UI renders it so easily.

Yes, it appears to be only way to fetch metrics of all campaigns via API.

Hope this answers your queyr. If you have any more queries, please feel free to get back to us.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-03-17 21:55:06Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vH7O4:ref" (ADR-00292480)

[Pablo Lemos]

Thank you so much.

One last thing so I can get this straight and inform our clients:

"

How do I get the metrics per audience data for 12911341324 at the adgroup level? I can do this through the UI. If I add adgroup dimension it just works. (see screenshot attached. this is the report.)

Since the audiences in campaign (12911341324) are targeted at campaign level, it is not possible to get the metrics at adgroup level.  

"

I can tell my client that the API has no parity with the UI on this regard, since using the UI we can get metrics at adgroup level for audiences targeted at campaign level. Like we can see in this report.
Right?

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

I would like to inform you that if a campaign has audiences targeted at the ad_group level, you can retrieve those audiences using the ad_group_audience_view report. If a campaign does not have audiences targeted at the ad_group level, it is not possible to retrieve these audiences using the ad_group_audience_view report.

As mentioned earlier, for the campaign (12911341324) audiences are targeted at the campaign level not the ad_group level. That is the reason you should use the campaign_audience_view report to retrieve the audiences along with the metrics using the Google Ads API. If you try to retrieve the audiences using the ad_group_audience_view report you will not be able to do it.

Also, the reason why you are able to retrieve the audience for the other campaigns that are present in the UI is because those campaigns have audiences targeted at the ad_group level not at the campaign level.

I hope this helps! feel free to get back to us in case of any further queries.
 

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-03-19 05:46:20Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vH7O4:ref" (ADR-00292480)

[Pablo Lemos]

Perfect! Thanks a lot!