How to obtain human-readable names for all audience segments (criterion) through Google Ads API v20?

[Mark Ignacio]

Hi Google Ads API team,

Business need  
I’m building a reporting tool that lists metrics (impressions, clicks, conversions, cost, etc.) per audience segment.  
For every segment we must show the same friendly name the Google Ads UI displays.

Current workflow (API v20)

1.  Metrics per audience criterion

    ```gaql
    SELECT
      ad_group_criterion.criterion_id,
      metrics.impressions,
      metrics.clicks,
      metrics.conversions,
      metrics.cost_micros
    FROM ad_group_audience_view
    WHERE campaign.id = <CAMPAIGN_ID>
      AND segments.date BETWEEN 'YYYY-MM-DD' AND 'YYYY-MM-DD'
    ```

2.  Attempt to map each `criterion_id` to a label

    ```gaql
    SELECT
      ad_group_criterion.criterion_id,
      ad_group_criterion.user_list.user_list,
      ad_group_criterion.display_name
    FROM ad_group_criterion
    WHERE campaign.id = <CAMPAIGN_ID>
      AND ad_group_criterion.type = AUDIENCE
    ```

3.  Translate numeric topic IDs (placeholders like “Audience #123 …”)

    ```gaql
    SELECT
      vertical_constant.resource_name,
      vertical_constant.name
    FROM vertical_constant
    WHERE vertical_constant.resource_name IN ('verticalConstants/123', ...)
    ```

Processing logic  
• use `display_name` when it’s non-empty  
• look up user lists by resource name to get their `.name`  
• replace “Audience #<n>” with the returned `vertical_constant.name`  
• tidy Google’s auto-generated strings `AdGroupPersona_<hash>_<ts>`

Problem  
After all steps many criteria still show only “Audience #<ID>”.  
Those same criteria display a friendly name in the Google Ads UI.

What we tried (and failed)  
• Adding `ad_group_criterion.user_interest`, `.custom_audience`, `.combined_audience` to SELECT → GAQL error: “field may not be used in SELECT clause”.  
• Querying `user_interest`, `custom_audience`, `combined_audience` tables directly – we have only numeric `criterion_id`, no resource names.  
• Granting “Audience Manager” UI permissions is not possible for every customer.

Questions

1. Is there any supported way to convert **every** audience `criterion_id` to the same human-readable label the UI shows, especially when `display_name` is just “Audience #<ID>”?  
2. Do the orphan numeric IDs map to an internal taxonomy that isn’t exposed via `vertical_constant`? If yes, what fallback should we show?  
3. Are there other fields/services (GoogleAdsFieldService, etc.) that let us resolve names for user-interest, custom-audience, or combined-audience criteria programmatically?

Thanks for any guidance—our users need meaningful audience names and we’d like to avoid scraping or static mapping tables.

Thank you.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for contacting the Google Ads API support team. 

Please note that it is not clear to us what data you are trying to retrieve using the Google Ads API. In order to assist you further, please elaborate on your concern, provide your Google Ads customer Id, uncropped UI screenshot of your Google Ads account highlighting the data which you are trying to retrieve and the complete GAQL queries including campaign Id without redacting any information and explain the meaning of the phrase “display a friendly name in the Google Ads UI.” 

You can send the details via Reply privately to the author option, or direct private reply to this email.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-09-08 15:28:27Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01u622G:ref" (ADR-00332060)

[Mark Ignacio]

Hello Google Ads API support,

Thanks for the quick reply—here are the exact details you requested.

Google Ads Account Information

• Customer ID(MCC): 🔵 601-996-9454

• Campaign ID (Video campaign used for testing): 🔵 22709819255

What We Want to Retrieve

For every audience segment in a campaign we need:

• the human-readable segment name (the same label users see in the Google Ads UI); and

• impression / click / conversion / cost metrics for a selected date range.

By “display a friendly name in the Google Ads UI” we mean the text that appears in the UI table under Audiences ► Segments.

Example from the UI: “TV Lovers”, “Technology”, “Lifestyle & Hobbies” etc.

GAQL Queries

Code snippet

-- (1) Metrics per audience criterion

SELECT

  ad_group_criterion.criterion_id,

  metrics.impressions,

  metrics.clicks,

  metrics.conversions,

  metrics.cost_micros

FROM ad_group_audience_view

WHERE campaign.id = 22709819255

  AND segments.date BETWEEN '2024-08-01' AND '2024-08-31';

Code snippet

-- (2) Attempt to translate each criterion_id into a label

SELECT

  ad_group_criterion.criterion_id,

  ad_group_criterion.user_list.user_list,

  ad_group_criterion.display_name

FROM ad_group_criterion

WHERE campaign.id = 22709819255

  AND ad_group_criterion.type = AUDIENCE;

Code snippet

-- (3) Translate numeric topic / vertical IDs when needed

SELECT

  vertical_constant.resource_name,

  vertical_constant.name

FROM vertical_constant

WHERE vertical_constant.resource_name IN ('verticalConstants/51668104735');

Problem We Need Help With

For criterion ID 51668104735, query #2 returns display_name = "Audience #51668104735" and query #3 returns no match.

Yet the UI shows the friendly name “TV Lovers” for that same criterion (see screenshot).

Questions

• Is there an API method or mapping that converts all criterion_id values to the friendly names shown in the UI?

• If certain IDs belong to an internal taxonomy that is not publicly exposed, what is the recommended workaround so our users don’t see “Audience #<ID>” placeholders?

Thank you for your assistance—let me know if any other details are needed.

Thanks,

--

Mark Ignacio

Client Success Manager

mark.i...@kopamedia.io | www.kopamedia.io

My working hours may not be your working hours. Please do not feel obliged to reply to this email outside of your normal working hours.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Based on the adGroupCriterion with criterion ID 51668104735 and displayName: "uservertical::9280", you can use the user_interest resource to fetch the audience segments you need, such as the one named "TV Lovers". You can use the following query:

SELECT user_interest.availabilities, user_interest.launched_to_all, user_interest.name, user_interest.resource_name, user_interest.user_interest_id, user_interest.taxonomy_type, user_interest.user_interest_parent FROM user_interest WHERE user_interest.user_interest_id = 92800 

Additionally, you can utilize the Google Ads Query Builder and Query Validator to build and validate the queries for retrieving the data from the Google Ads API.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-09-09 14:21:11Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01u622G:ref" (ADR-00332060)

[Mark Ignacio]

Hi Google Ads API Team,

Thank you for the detailed suggestion regarding the user_interest resource for resolving uservertical display names. We appreciate the guidance.
We implemented that logic, but unfortunately, it hasn't solved the core issue for our active campaigns. The problem appears to be more fundamental: the API is returning a different number of rows for metrics versus audience names for the same campaign and date range.

Here is what our logs now show for our test campaign (Campaign ID: 22709819255):
1. Mismatched Row Counts
When we query for metrics, we get 51 rows, but when we query for the audience names, we only get 6 rows.

• Metrics Query (returns 51 rows):

SELECT ad_group_criterion.criterion_id FROM ad_group_audience_view

WHERE campaign.id = 22709819255 AND segments.date BETWEEN '...' AND '...'

• Names Query (returns 6 rows):

SELECT ad_group_criterion.criterion_id, ad_group_criterion.display_name FROM ad_group_criterion

WHERE campaign.id = 22709819255 AND ad_group_criterion.type = AUDIENCE

2. Mismatched Criterion IDs
The criterion_ids returned by these two queries are also completely different, so we cannot join them.

3. Multiple Audience Types
Furthermore, our reports from the Google Ads UI show that our campaigns contain many audience types (In-market, Affinity, Custom Segments, etc.), not just the uservertical or AdGroupPersona types.
Given this discrepancy, it's impossible for us to reliably map the metrics to the correct human-readable names.

Could you please advise on the correct and reliable API workflow to get the display_name for every audience segment that has metrics in the ad_group_audience_view?

Thank you for your continued help in resolving this.