Trying to get performance report on individual Display Ads across Placements

[Garik Tate]

Hey Guys,

I'm trying to run a report to see how individual ads are performing across different Placements.

Kind of like running a placement performance report with the AdGroupId, but instead of "ad group", I'm trying to get down to the individual "ad" level.

https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/appendix/reports/v201609/placement-performance-report

I've also tried looking into Google Analytics, but haven't had much luck. I've tried everything I can think of.

Has anyone done something like this before? Or have any ideas how to do it?

[adwordsapiad...@google.com]

Hi Garik,

The Placement Performance Report will only show the data per campaign and ad group levels as the placement can only be added as criterion in campaigns and ad groups.

However, you can use the Ad Performance Report and filter it by CriterionId or CriterionType (CriterionType=Placement) to get the performance report for ads across placements. If this is not what you are looking for, then let us know so we can provide other alternatives if available.

Thanks,

Vincent

AdWords API Team

[Garik Tate]

Wow! So long as I can still track performance (things like Impression, Clicks, Cost) I think that might be the solution! :D

How do you set the Criterion Type to Placement? Is there any sample code for that?

[Vincent Racaza (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Garik,

It is good to hear that I am able to help.

You can do something like this in your query:

String query = "SELECT CampaignId, AdGroupId, Description, Headline, CriterionType, "
        + "Impressions, Clicks, Cost FROM AD_PERFORMANCE_REPORT "
        + "WHERE CriterionType = PLACEMENT "
        + "DURING LAST_MONTH";

Let me know if you have further clarifications.

[Garik Tate]

Hey Vincent,

I filtered the CriterionType down to just placements (I'm using PHP with selectors).

    $selector->setPredicates([
        new Predicate('CriterionType', PredicateOperator::IN, ['PLACEMENT'])
 ]);

But the reports are showing up blank. I think it's because my campaigns use Keywords to find automatic placements. 

When I don't filter by CriterionType, all I get is "KEYWORD" in the CriterionType column.

If my campaigns are using Keywords and automatic placements, is it still possible to generate the report I described above (where I can see the performance of my individual ads across individual placements)?

[Vincent Racaza (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Garik,

The information regarding your report was passed on by Peter to me, so I have also seen the screenshot you attached in your thread.

Based on your screenshot, it seems that you are using a Google Analytics integration in retrieving the report. However, there are only four Google Analytics columns that is supported in AdWords API as described here. If you are using Google Analytics API, you can run queries to fetch reporting data. You can see here the available metrics for AdWords in the Google Analytics API.

Back to the concern regarding Ad Performance Report with CriterionType filter, apologies if I was not able to make it clear in my previous response that this report will only return the ads which triggers a particular CriterionType. In your case, all your ads are triggered by KEYWORD CriterionType, so there are no ads being returned with PLACEMENT type.

The Ad Performance Report is the only report type which has a CriterionType field. So currently, it is not possible in the API to generate the report data same as your screenshot.

[Garik Tate]

Hey Vincent,

Thank you anyways for all your help. :-)
I really appreciate it. You guys on the Adwords support team on this forum are seriously amazing!

I might have found a different solution. But it relies on the results found in the "Final Url" column in the Placement Performance Report: https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/appendix/reports/v201705/placement-performance-report#finalurls

But every time I run the report, the column shows up blank. Is that because Final Url's weren't defined on a Placement by Placement level, they were defined on an Ad by Ad level?

[Vincent Racaza (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Garik,

You are correct. The Placement Performance Report is based on placements so all fields such as the FinalUrls field of this report will be based on the information on that specific placement. And since your final URLs were defined on an ad level, then the final URLs for the placement will be returned for this report and these are blank values since you have not set them on the placement level.

Let us know if you need further assistance.