Google Ads GeoTargeting Not Providing Correct IDs

[Charles Michael]

Hi,

I'm using the value track {loc_physical_ms} in my finalurl to track the geolocation but the ID's that we are receiving from Google are not what we are targeting. In our campaign settings, we are targeting thousands of city's from the geolocation database found here: https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/appendix/geotargeting but the ids that google is sending to us via {loc_physical_ms} are not for cities that we are targeting but for postalcodes within those cities. Is there a way to accurately get just the geolocation that we were targeting (ie: just the geolocation targets that we submitted)? 

Thank you

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hello Charles,

Could you please confirm if it is the case for all the the results that you are getting via {loc_physical_ms} or for only a specific locations? Please share those details using reply privately to the author option.

Regards,
Sai Teja, Google Ads API Team

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[Charles Michael]

Hi, I replied privately to this 2 days ago, but I'm not sure where follow ups go. Is there a mailbox on google groups or does the messages go to my email? 

Thank you.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hello Cahrles.

I don't find any of your response for this concern. At the latest i have your concern reported on Nov 6  only. In general when you respond here you will get a email from our alias "
adwor...@googlegroups.com". Also, you can post your concern on the advertisers community forum where the product specials will be able to explain the product level overview on this concern.

Regards,
Sai Teja, Google Ads API Team.

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[Charles Michael]

Hi, that's strange. To answer your question, this issue is happening about 90% of the time. This is best shown by example, looking at my server logs I am seeing ID's for postalcodes even though I am targeting criteriaID's for cities. Here is an example: 

I am targetting in my targetingoptions ID = 1013778 (this is Fairfield, California, USA) but the ID that we are receiving via {loc_physical_ms} is 9032003 (this ID is for postal code = 94533 which is within Fairfield, California, USA). 

Basically the problem is we are targeting cities, but google is providing the ids for postalcodes. I was under the impression that {loc_physical_ms} would give me the ID's that we provided in location targeting options. Is this not what the API documentation shows here: https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/guides/valuetrack-mapping ? According to this, the location ID's we provided should be what we receive, but its not. How do we receive just the criteriaID that we provided and not a subset that we didn't anticipate? 

Thank you

Charles

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hello Charles,

I understand your concern. In the guide it is specifying that the {loc_physical_ms} will be providing the ID of the geographical location of the click. So, looks like it is tracking at the least granular level to track the click and pin point the location. So, we can't expect it to provide only the locations at the level at which you targeted. Since, the concern is related to the product level, I recommend you to post your concern on the advertisers community forum where the product specials will be able to address this from the product level.

Regards,

[Charles Michael]

I'll open a ticket there to figure out what level of detail the ID can be as I was expecting the ID's we submitted is what would be provided. 

Thanks for your help.

[Charles Michael]

Hi, I did get a good suggestion from the advertiser forum in that the geolocation CSV that google publishes (See: https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/appendix/geotargeting ), each criteriaID does have an associated parentID so in theory I should be able to map postal codes to the nearest city ID. However postalcodes have as their parentID a state or province, not a city. Is there another way I'm not seeing of how to map a postal code to a city rather than a state?  

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hello Charles,

I don't see the data in that Geo Targets is mapped in such a way. You can map that postal-codes to a state but not to the city. Please ask the same question in the advertiser forum to see if there are any alternatives for this.