Differences in geo targeting options - API vs UI

[Alex Papageorgiou]

Dear Google ads API team,

Can you please help me understand the differences regarding geo-targeting, API vs UI? 

Context: keyword planning

I have a specific example with Washington, DC. 

When I type washington in the search bar as in attachment "dc", I see a limited number of options that include this location. 

However when I look at the geotarget csv  file containing the criteria ID, there are many more options. 

For example when looking for children having as parent ID 21140 (District of Columbia) I see entries like: 

(post codes) 

20001,District of Columbia,United States

20002,District of Columbia,United States

20003,District of Columbia,United States

DC-AT LARGE,District of Columbia,United States (Congressional district)

(superbs? )

Northeast Washington,District of Columbia,United States

Southeast Washington,District of Columbia,United States

Northwest Washington,District of Columbia,United States

Southwest Washington,District of Columbia,United States

Georgetown,District of Columbia,United States

All the above are not available through the keyword planner UI

Questions:

1) Does that mean that using the API I can avail of more granular targeting options compared to the UI, or is there a good reason why this is not available through the UI? For example that the level of granularity is too low for any reliable data to be returned ?

2) Is there a way to match the criterion ID from the geotargets list to something I can visualise on Google maps and a way to find out what's the reach in terms of audience? (attachment "reach") this the information that I can normally find on the UI map when I search for a location, but obviously it won't work for locations that are not available through the UI.

Thank you

Alex Papageorgiou

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Alex,

Thank you for reaching out to our API support team. You may refer below for my responses :

1) Does that mean that using the API I can avail of more granular targeting options compared to the UI, or is there a good reason why this is not available through the UI? For example that the level of granularity is too low for any reliable data to be returned ?

Location targeting using the geo codes should be similar for both the API and UI. This is because the API mirrors what is available in the UI. As for the codes not showing up in the Keyword Planner or in the UI in general, I would recommend that you reach out instead to the Google Ads Product Support team, via this link, for further clarity.

2) Is there a way to match the criterion ID from the geotargets list to something I can visualise on Google maps and a way to find out what's the reach in terms of audience? (attachment "reach") this the information that I can normally find on the UI map when I search for a location, but obviously it won't work for locations that are not available through the UI.

In the API's perspective in terms of retrieving reach information, you can check out our reach forecasting guide. You can specify a media plan, then generate a curve.

Best regards,

Peter Laurence Napa Oliquino Google Ads API Team

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[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Alex,

Thank you for your reply.

Could you provide the complete screenshot of the Keyword Planner view that you are using? Since you are generating keyword ideas, you can refer to this section for the API and UI mapping for the parameters you can use. Also, could you try not including the GenerateKeywordIdeasRequest.geo_target_constants in the request to try retrieving ideas for all locations? 

For the requested screenshot, and if you continue to encounter issues, you may enable logging and provide to our team the complete request and response logs with the request-id. 

You may then send all the requested information via the Reply privately to author option. If this option is not available, you may send the details directly to our googleadsa...@google.com alias instead.