Unexpected geographic_view segmentation by location_type

[Dylan Sprayberry]

Hi team,

When issuing requests against the geographic_view, we've observed that the resulting data is segmented by geographic_view.location_type regardless of whether this field is included in the GAQL query.

Although the documentation here slightly alludes to this behavior, this does not mirror functionality available via the Google Ads UI and is not behavior we would expect for a field that has been excluded from the GAQL query.

We discovered this based off our own users reporting discrepant data for queries against the geographic_view, which lead us to this support thread where the Forum Advisor Mitchell appears to suggest this is expected behavior. The behavior is very easily reproducible by issuing requests against the geographic_view.

Could you clarify:
1) whether the geographic_view.location_type field is truly an attribute that can be excluded, where the behavior we're observing should be considered a bug in the API,

2) if yes to question 1, could you direct us to a page where we can track the status of your team's progress on correcting this bug so that we can direct our shared customers to that page for follow up,

3) whether the geographic_view.location_type field is actually a segment inherent to the geographic_view (as observed via current behavior) that users must assume will be applied to queries against this resource and thus should be included in all queries against the geographic_view resource for distinction within the result-set, and

4) if the answer to question 3 is yes, is there another resource that can be queried to provide a result-set that is truly segmented ONLY BY COUNTRY (and not location_type) that would be more akin to the pre-defined geographic report available in the Google Ads user interface?

Thanks in advance,
-Dylan