Preventing Grouping of Similar Keyword using TargetingIdeaService

[Sam Green]

Hi,

Thanks for all the work on the AdWords API - it's amazing.

I have a question on the grouping of keywords using TargetingIdeaService, in particular related to historical search volumes - is there a way to determine via the API where the keywords are grouped? Is it possible to prevent this?

For example, take the keywords [flower] and [flowers]. They return exactly the same search volume, but whilst one is a plural of another, they are completely different keywords - one with a lot of commercial intent, and one with practically none - we know from advertising that the keyword volume is not at all the same, and the API returning the same data risks double counting vs the keyword planner (which doesn't dupe the data in that sense).

I'd like to retrieve the historical search volumes for the exact terms if possible, or at least be able to determine when keywords are grouped - is that possible?

Thanks

[Teja Makani]

Hello Sam,

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the TargetingIdeaService will offer exactly identical results to the keyword planner on the web interface. The Targeting Idea Service may return the stats of the close variant which is the corrected/valid keyword. Please take a look at this thread which explains the behavior in detail. You could follow the suggestion on that thread as it may be helpful. Our team is aware of this feedback and is looking into it. At this point, we do not have a timeline for this feature to be available. Please keep an eye on our blog for updates and announcements. 

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Regards,
Sai Teja, AdWords API Team.