Keyword ID field causes discrepancy between results from AdWords and Google Ads for AD_PERFORMANCE_REPORT

[Marc Potvin]

Hello,

I'm trying to migrate the Ad Performance Report to the Google Ads API but I've noticed that when I add the Keyword ID (CriterionId in AdWords and segments.keyword.ad_group_criterion in Google Ads), I tend to get back a different number of rows. 

The pattern seems to be that AdWords will sometimes return more rows and Google Ads will return fewer (sometimes none). Is there a reason for this that I'm missing? I'm afraid this might effect our aggregated statistics.

Thanks for your help!

Marc

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hi Marc, 

Could you please share the report queries that you are using for generating the AdWords API and Google Ads API reports along with the client customer Id, using Reply privately to author option?

Thanks,
Bharani, Google Ads API Team

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[Marc Potvin]

Hello,

I was wondering if there were any updates on this issue. I got a very promising response from Nadine Sundquist in September but nothing since. Here is what she wrote to me:

 

This took me forever to figure out because it's so nuanced what has happened. You probably notice that when you remove the segment in the select cause for keyword, the data all adds up. I figured out why this is happening. You segmented by keyword. Some keywords come back while others don't. We know that all the keywords have impressions. However, the ones that do not come back have something in common; they are now removed keywords. So, the query is not returning keywords that are now removed even though on that day they had impressions.

Here are the next steps I'll take on this one. I've filed an issue with our query geniuses to ask if this is expected behavior. It seems odd, but I have a feeling I know why this may be happening. As you've seen, in the UI, there's no view like this where you can have the ads and the keywords nicely together. The UI doesn't have to account for that; you either see keywords with ad groups and campaigns or you see ads. I don't currently know of a workaround. I'll keep an eye on that internal issue to figure out if something can be done. I want to set expectations here that something as complicated as this may take a bit of time to figure out. I'll get back to you when I hear more. I'm really happy we have a 'why'; now we need to figure out the 'how' for how we're going to move forward.

 

Best,
Nadine Sundquist, Google Ads API Team
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I understand that this is a complicated one but I need to provide updates on this so any information would be helpful.

Thanks,

Marc

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hello Marc,

I'm so sorry for not getting back to you sooner. Thank you for pinging this thread. It looks like this may have been recently fixed. There was an issue where the API may filter out deleted criteria. Can you please give this a try to see if it's now working as expected?

Thanks,
Nadine, Google Ads API Team

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[Marc Potvin]

Hello Nadine,

Yes, the results seem to be the same now.

Thank you very much for your help!

Marc

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor Prod]

Hello Marc,

Thanks for getting back to me!

Happy coding,

[Matías Dell'Oso]

Hello,

I work for the same company as Marc. We are resuming the migration to Google Ads and I am getting the same problem despite the comment above says it was solved. If I try to segment by Keyword ID  (CriterionId in AdWords and segments.keyword.ad_group_criterion in Google Ads) I get back a different number of rows than AdWords (most of the time I get 0 rows in Google Ads).

In a comment above, Marc said that this could be happen due deleted keywords, but I would like to have an official confirmation and also know if this is the expected behavior.

Thanks in advance,

Regards,

Matías.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hello Matías,

Could you please reply privately to author with the queries for each of the APIs and the client customer ID? A log would be even better if you have it. The reason I would find that helpful is because there could be something else happening as well. When segments are being used, it can be possible that if the row does not have metrics, then it will not return, so I need to confirm if that may be happening here.

Thanks,

[Matías Dell'Oso]

Done,

Looking forward for your reply,

Regards,

Matías.