Phantom Keywords

[Yehor Brahinets]

Hi everyone,

I'm writing to report a perplexing issue where the Google Ads API appears to be inventing data. I was running a highly specific GAQL query with the sole purpose of confirming that certain keywords did not exist with an EXACT match type in a particular ad group. Based on the actual contents of the ad group, the expected output from this query was an empty result.

To my surprise, the query did not return empty. Instead, it returned ENABLED keywords that are demonstrably not present in the Google Ads UI. This has created a situation where the API data is in direct contradiction with what is visible and manageable in the account.

The request I`ve used

SELECT
  campaign.id,
  campaign.name,
  ad_group.id,
  ad_group.name,
  ad_group_criterion.keyword.text,
  ad_group_criterion.status
FROM ad_group_criterion
WHERE ad_group_criterion.keyword.text IN ('техніка АСКО', 'asko київ')
  AND ad_group_criterion.keyword.match_type = 'EXACT'

Case
For example, I`ll show an ad group about dishwashers (Посудомийні машини) in Ukrainian. In the search campaign.  On the screenshot "API Output.png" you can see that the API finds the keywords "техніка АСКО" and "asko київ", BUT those keywords don`t exist in that ad group, because there is only ONE keyword "посудомийна машина asko" (asko dishwasher). You can check it by looking at the second screenshot "All keywords in the "Dishwashers" Ad Group"

Question

So, tell me, please, how can I fix that, because the process of correct keywords downloading is crucial for my automations