Discrepancy between metrics.video_quartile_*_rate and google Ads UI

[Oksana Sulyma]

Hi Google Ads API support team!

I pull report Campaign report with metrics.video_quartile_p25_rate, metrics.video_quartile_p50_rate, metrics.video_quartile_p50_rate, metrics.video_quartile_p100_rate included.

https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/fields/v11/campaign#metrics.video_quartile_p100_rate

Get very accurate values like 0.76829268292683. All the other metrics I pull like impressions, video_views, etc match Google Ads UI, but for summary video quartiles I get small discrepancy, like 1%-2%. 

My formula to get total 'Video Played to.. ' is like:

SUM(video_quartile25_rate*impression)/SUM(impression) 

Here is an example of discrepancy.

Google Ads UI:

API result with formula:

I suspect I miss something in my formula. Could you please help to understand why my summaries for 'Video Played to.. ' don't match UI? Will be happy to provide additional details privately.

Thanks in advance!

oksana

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Oksana,

Thank you for reaching out to our API support team.

To assist you even further, could you please send us the complete request and response logs with request ID and request header generated on your end where we can see the error? Also, provide a full-screenshot of the Google Ads UI so that we can check it as well. You can provide it via a reply privately to the author option. If this option is not available, then send it instead on this email address googleadsa...@google.com.


Best,

Anthony Cyril Google Ads API Team

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[Oksana Sulyma]

Hi Anthony and team! Details are sent in private message. Thank you!

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Oksana,

Thank you for the log and the screenshot. I set the summary_row_setting to SUMMARY_ROW_WITH_RESULTS and your query results match your UI results. This looks like it is working as intended.

Regards,

Aryeh Google Ads API Team

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[Oksana Sulyma]

Yes I know about summary_row_setting to SUMMARY_ROW_WITH_RESULTS . In our system we store daily data and use formulas like summary, average, etc to show totals for any date range customer requests WITHOUT making new API calls. So I'm interested in formula to get the same summary row values based at daily values. 
For Video played to 25% total value for May, I get 42.23% using daily values and formula  SUM(video_quartile25_rate*impression)/SUM(impression)  while summary row has 41.73%. So I wonder what is wrong with my formula. How is summary calculated at GOogle Ads API side? 

Thanks again for looking at this!

Oksana

[Oksana Sulyma]

Hi!

Any insight on my question will be highly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Zweitze]

I dealt with this some time ago - see

https://groups.google.com/g/adwords-api/c/oYvpfH1HsvY/m/8pkMydT7AwAJ

and for background (also mentioned in previous message)

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/adwords-api/KLLiGbhnHAA/EnUhS7_LBgAJ

So that was three to five years ago, and we had to use AdGroup reports to figure out how to aggregate these numbers.

In the mean time Google Ads changed, in the UI the segment "View Type" no longer exists, and segment "Network" seems to fulfill this function.

In the API you could try to segment on ad_network_type which now has enums for the youtube networks: What was previous called "In-stream" is now called YOUTUBE_WATCH, and previous "Discovery" is now YOUTUBE_SEARCH

If you can't get the numbers right, try the workaround with AdGroup reports.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

@Zweitze
Thank you for giving a workaround solution to the problem encountered by Oksana. We gratefully appreciate it.

@Oksana
If you have additional questions, feel free to send those over to our team and we would be happy to assist you further.

Best regards,

Heidi Google Ads API Team

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[Oksana Sulyma]

@Zweitze, thanks for information.

I've made different experiments based at our comment, but unfortunately still see the discrepancy. 

For account I look at we have data for CONTENT and YOUTUBE_WATCH networks, no data for YOUTUBE_SEARCH.

Speaking of ad_group.type, I've tried different combinations of filters for

VIDEO_BUMPER

VIDEO_EFFICIENT_REACH

VIDEO_NON_SKIPPABLE_IN_STREAM

VIDEO_OUTSTREAM

VIDEO_RESPONSIVE

VIDEO_TRUE_VIEW_IN_DISPLAY

VIDEO_TRUE_VIEW_IN_STREAM

and still with no luck.

This way I still need assistance here. 

Is this possible For Google Ads API team to check the formula for SUMMARY_ROW and provide it here, as SUMMARY_ROW matches Google Ads UI.

Thanks!

Oksana

[Zweitze]

Well, my point was that your aggregation formula

SUM(video_quartile25_rate*impression)/SUM(impression)

is essentially correct, but beware of the field impression. Make sure you ONLY include impressions for YOUTUBE_WATCH, and NEVER include impressions of the other networks.

What you could try is use the Web UI, select the fields like you have in your opening post. Then add segmentation for Network. Add a filter for one campaign.

Try to see if you can figure out the summary results for the quartile - shouldn't be hard because there's only one campaign.

Next, change the filter, add a second campaign. See if you can still determine the summary results. Then a third. Try a campaign that contains not only youtube network, but also other networks.

Remember: segmenting is the important thing to do here. Without segmenting you probably cannot validate the aggregation formula.

[Oksana Sulyma]

Hi @Zweitze, thank you, this was exactly what I've tried. 

For account I check we have data in YOUTUBE_WATCH and CONTENT Networks only, and no matter if I aggregate data for only YOUTUBE_WATCH or both YOUTUBE_WATCH and CONTENT I can't get data match. The difference is small, like 1% - 2%, but it exists. This is why I wanted to confirm if it is this possible for Google Ads API team to check the formula for SUMMARY_ROW and provide it here, as SUMMARY_ROW matches Google Ads UI.

Thanks, 

Oksana

[Oksana Sulyma]

Hello! Just wanted to confirm this issue is still actual for me. 

If it is this possible for Google Ads API team to check the formula for SUMMARY_ROW and provide it here? 

Will it be more suitable to reach product team for this calculation confirmation?

Thanks!

Oksana 

[vagh...@gmail.com]

Hi Fella, 

Same issue here.
I am facing this issue over and year ago and it's still same.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/forum/FMfcgzGpGBGPrqdtvZrsnWRjgxQvlgbZ

Need help on me please

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for bumping this thread. Our team is happy to assist you in resolving your concern.

However, the link you provided appears to open Gmail instead of a forum post. In addition, and for better tracking, could you create a new thread with the complete details of the issue you are still encountering? Also, if you are referring to an earlier forum thread that you raised, could you share that forum thread's subject, instead of a link?

Should your details contain your Google Ads account information or your complete logs, you may send those instead directly to our (googleadsa...@google.com) alias.

Best regards,

Peter Laurence Google Ads API Team

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[Daan Groot]

Hi,

We have the same issue and I did some digging. My findings:

The quartile rates are based on 'viewers who initiated the player', which is not always equal to the number of impressions. So you can't use impressions to calculate the average.

Unfortunately the google ads api does not offer a 'viewers who initiated the player' metric, so it's impossible to compute an accurate average.

More info: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375431?hl=en-GB#zippy=%2Cvideo-played-to-metrics