AdWords Audience Stats and Attachment Level

[Austin Smith]

I have a few questions re: AdWords audiences in the context of reporting.

1.  In terms of the AdWords object hierarchy, are Audiences associated with (ie. belong to) campaigns, ad groups, or can it be both?

2.  Is an audience ID a unique identifier?  Or is an Audience ID and Ad Group/Campaign ID combination a unique identifier in this case?

[Vincent Racaza (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Austin,

Please see answers below to your questions.

1.  In terms of the AdWords object hierarchy, are Audiences associated with (ie. belong to) campaigns, ad groups, or can it be both?

Audiences can only be associated in a campaign or in ad group, and not both. If your campaign has a user list already, and then you try to add a user list in an ad group under that campaign, the API will generate an error. This is also specified on this guide specifically on the "If you are switching from ad group level user list criteria" line.

2.  Is an audience ID a unique identifier?  Or is an Audience ID and Ad Group/Campaign ID combination a unique identifier in this case?

There are two IDs associated to an audience. The first one is an independent UserList ID (created when you create a user list) and the other one is a Criterion ID (AdGroupCriterionId or CampaignCriterionId) which is created when you associate your user list to a campaign or ad group and this has a scope of uniqueness. The Criterion ID is not globally unique. The CampaignId and CampaignCriterionID pair or AdGroupId and AdGroupCriterionId pair are globally unique. You can refer to this guide for more information on the uniqueness of the different IDs.

Let me know if you have further clarifications. 

Thanks,

Vincent

AdWords API Team