Duplicate googleClickID for "Headline" and "Sitelink" in Click Performance Report - recent change?

[HK]

Hi,

I the last 3-4 days, we are seeing the Click Performance Report returning rows for with duplicate googleClickID values. We are using  v201609. Only difference is the clickType in those rows. I understand this is expected for reports dealing with impressions, but we've been running this click report for at least a year, and never seen it return dupes like this, so we suspect a recent (intentional?) change.

Based on the documentation, it seems that as the user can only click one area of the ad, only one row (click type) should be returned. If they clicked it twice, it should have a different googleClickID the second time:

"The ClickType field will reflect each area of the ad that the user clicked for each GclId. This differs from other reports, where the ClickType shows every area of the ad that was shown to the user for each impression."

Example:

<row adGroupID="26784431459" network="Search Network" campaignID="377706899" clickType="Headline" adID="101702313179" keywordID="1921524420" day="2017-04-14" device="Mobile devices with full browsers" googleClickID="EAIaIQobChMI5OuP84yk0wIVB0wNCh1S_wMFEAAYASAAEgKcsfD_BwE" userListID="--" />

<row adGroupID="26784431459" network="Search Network" campaignID="377706899" clickType="Sitelink" adID="101702313179" keywordID="1921524420" day="2017-04-14" device="Mobile devices with full browsers" googleClickID="EAIaIQobChMI5OuP84yk0wIVB0wNCh1S_wMFEAAYASAAEgKcsfD_BwE" userListID="--" />

Can someone please let us know if this is a permanent change or a change that will be reverted? It is affecting a good chunk of our customers.

Thanks,

Hans

[Peter Oliquino]

Hi Hans,

There has been a recent change in the AdWords API wherein GCLIDs are now generated at impression time. For an impression made within the day, rows will appear to have duplicate GCLIDs because clicks made (with different click types) to your ads will have only a single GCLID as reference as a result of the impression generated on that same day.

Also, you may follow our blog for any future changes and announcements in the AdWords API.

Thanks and regards,

Peter

AdWords API Team

[Eric B]

Peter, we have adjusted our code per your comments above (I work with Hans) which fixed our problems. However, today we have just encountered a new unexpected duplicate:

<row adGroupID="43902098308" network="Search Network" campaignID="689081186" clickType="Shopping ad - Standard" adID="154131121840" keywordID="281271283605" day="2017-05-14" device="Mobile devices with full browsers" googleClickID="CP6JicTl79MCFVOZGwodj4kBCg" userListID="--" clicks="1"/>

<row adGroupID="39455494019" network="Search Network" campaignID="689081027" clickType="Shopping ad - Standard" adID="176045324527" keywordID="269678030771" day="2017-05-14" device="Mobile devices with full browsers" googleClickID="CP6jicTl79MCFVOZGwodj4kBCg" userListID="--" clicks="1"/>

This one is so odd because it's the same gclid across campaigns. Bug?  If not, I need to know the distinct set of identifiers to key off of.

thanks,

Eric

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Eric,

Did you see the duplicate rows below in a single report run? I ask because I just ran the CLICK_PERFORMANCE_REPORT against those two campaigns for 20170514, and I only see a row for that GclId in campaign ID 689081186.

Thanks,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[Eric B]

Yes, it is the result of a single report run. In case it helps, these are the columns we're requesting if that helps:

AdGroupId,

AdNetworkType1,

CampaignId,

ClickType,

CreativeId,

CriteriaId,

Date,

Device,

GclId,

UserListId,

Clicks

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Eric,

Have you retried the report request recently? Even with the list of fields you mentioned below, I still only see that GCLID appear once in the report under campaign ID 689081186.

Thanks,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[Eric B]

If you run the report using this definition file (below) using the API, you get duplicate googleClickIDs. Yes, they differ by campaignID. Is it expected that the same googleClickID would be re-used across different campaigns?  

<reportDefinition>

<selector>

<fields>AdGroupId</fields>

<fields>AdNetworkType1</fields>

<fields>CampaignId</fields>

<fields>ClickType</fields>

<fields>CreativeId</fields>

<fields>CriteriaId</fields>

<fields>Date</fields>

<fields>Device</fields>

<fields>GclId</fields>

<fields>UserListId</fields>

<fields>Clicks</fields>

<dateRange>

<min>20170514</min>

<max>20170514</max>

</dateRange>

</selector>

<reportName>Click Performance</reportName>

<reportType>CLICK_PERFORMANCE_REPORT</reportType>

<dateRangeType>CUSTOM_DATE</dateRangeType>

<downloadFormat>GZIPPED_XML</downloadFormat>

</reportDefinition>

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Eric,

I just realized what's happening: it looks like your comparison is case insensitive. I see two GCLIDs that differ only by case in that date range:

CP6JicTl79MCFVOZGwodj4kBCg

CP6jicTl79MCFVOZGwodj4kBCg

So although they are similar, they actually are distinct if you do a case sensitive comparison.

Thanks,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[Eric B]

Josh, on Friday, I repro'd the issue by running in the debugger locally and downloading this via the API (request below). I can send you the resulting XML report privately, which shows the same duplicate as above. It seems we may have hit an API bug.

thanks,

Eric

[Josh Radcliff (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Eric,

In the case of GCLID EAIaIQobChMI5OuP84yk0wIVB0wNCh1S_wMFEAAYASAAEgKcsfD_BwE, I suspect that was due to the fact that GCLID is now generated at impression time instead of click time, and the user clicked separately on the headline and the sitelink.

Thanks,

Josh, AdWords API Team

[Eric B]

Ah, right... I hadn't noticed. We are using a CI column to store these... so that completely makes sense.  It just so happens that this is the first time we've run into this. Thanks Josh!