Multiple ads with the same ID

[Rob]

Hi,

 

We recently had an unexpected result from the AdWords API, where two ads with the same Ad ID are being returned from an AdGroupAdService request. It is only happening in one client’s account and only for two Ad IDs that we have seen so far.

 

We've never seen this happen before in many years of using the AdWords API, and were under the impression that Ad IDs are globally unique. Could you please confirm if this is a bug or not?

I can provide request & response examples by email if necessary.

Thanks,

Rob

[Florian Lherbette]

Ad IDs are not globally unique, and this has been documented for quite some time: https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/guides/working-with-objects?hl=en#understanding-objects

I did although make the same assumptions as you in the past. I thought that Ad IDs were globally unique and did not manage to find collisions when I tried.

-- 

Florian

[Rob]

Thanks for the reply Florian!

It's a shame that ValueTrack simply describes {creative} as "A unique ID for your ad" without mentioning it's only unique within the ad group.

At least we now have {campaignid} and {adgroupid} ValueTrack parameters, so we can find a way a way round it now... back to the drawing board :(