Finding a keyword ID

[Scope]

Am I correct that there is no other way to find an ID of a particular
keyword other than by calling getAllKeywords() on a given adgroup?

The problem with this approach is that it rapidly consumes the API
quota as each id retreived counts as 1 operation.

So I want to perform a certain action on 1 keyword out of 500, I first
have to retrieve IDs for all 500 and then find mine among them. This is
500 API operations.

[Bob B.]

you can use "getKeywordList" and supply the id of the keyword in a list
of length one. Check out the exact syntax here
(http://tinyurl.com/3lxod)

[Scope]

The whole point is to find an id of a keyword for further actions (such
as deleting a keyword). getKeywordList requires that you supply an
already known id.

[Bob B.]

Sorry, I read the question wrong. I save my IDs in a database. You're
correct though, the only way to get the IDs through the SOAP API is
with getAllKeywords or something equivalent. I'd warn against this
though, as you'll probably gobble up your entire monthly quota in a day
or so if you have to check this often.

[Scope]

Thannks, Bon B. I too save them in a database but you have to fetch
them at least once. I am surprised nobody is talking about this issue.

[inasisi]

Well, if you haven't signed up for the adwords API, you can screen
scrape the "Estimate Keywords and CPC" page . The URL of this page is
of the form

https://adwords.google.com/select/EditKeywords?adgroupid=111111&mode=editprice&campaignid=2222222&recalculate=Estimate+Traffic

If you look at the link for "find alternatives" or "delete", the URL
contains a parameter called "criterionid" which is nothing but the
keyword id.

But if you signed up for Google API, then unfortunately you signed away
your rights to screen scrape the Google website.

I had earlier written screen scraping scripts to automate many of my
processes. But unfortunately after signing up for this API, I am not
able to use those scripts and the number of operations allowed in the
API is too very restrictive.

I am even thinking of scrapping my existing account and opening a new
adwords account. I would then not sign up for the Google API and
continue to use my old screen scraping scripts. What a pity!!!

[John Krystynak]

Hmm. Maybe there needs to be a secondary market for quota... ?!?

Inasisi, did you really ever have the right to scrape the website? Are you
talking about the UI for AdWords. The TOS for the main google site is pretty
restrictive... Who knows?

--
Check out my AdWords and Overture blog:
http://gotads.blogspot.com

[inasisi]

Yes I was referring to the Adwords UI. I didn't see any restrictions to
scrape the Adwords UI. Infact Adwords support did confirm a year ago
that I could scrape the UI.

[Bob B.]

When you initially add the keywords that SOAP function returns all the
keywords that were added with their corresponding IDs. That way you
don't have to add them and then call getAllKeywords to find out which
IDs were assigned to them. However, even the initial upload would run
through most of the quota.