Bug with Search Query and Close Variants

[Mehmet Kocak]

Hey together,

I have a bug with the KeywordPlanKeywordHistoricalMetrics.
The "Main Keyword" which should be expected in the Search Query is in the Close Variants variable and not in the search_query variable. I Test this with different Languages and sometimes the API takes the "close variant" Keyword in the "search_query". And sometimes its clustering the Keywords wrong. Here are some examples that the APIs returns me.


search_query    |                Close Variants
lights for the garden    |   ['garden lights', 'garden lighting']
lights on the wall    |   ['wall lights', 'wall lighting']
table lamps    |   ['table lamp', 'lamp tables', 'table lampshades', 'tab lamp']

The Main keyword (search_query) should be the one with the most impressions am i right? So for example "wall lights" has more impressions then "lights on the wall". 
So Normally the "wall lights" should be the search query and the "lights on the wall" keyword should be a close variant.

API: 

https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v11/KeywordPlanKeywordHistoricalMetrics

The same applies on the Google Ads UI.
example:

It shows me always the first Keyword as the "Main Keyword" and I think the API works with the same Algorithm. But this should Keywords should be compared by Impressions and the one with the most should be the Main one. Is that right or did i dont get it?

Best Regards,
Mehmet

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Mehmet,

I checked the UI, and the first keyword entered becomes the main keyword. I tried with your set of 'lights on the wall', 'wall lights' and 'wall lighting' by changing the order.

The Ads API can only be a conduit to the Ads product as expressed in the Ads UI. I suggest you reach out to our product support team to find out why they use the first entered word when they can sort by a metric. 

Regards,

Aryeh Google Ads API Team

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[Mehmet Kocak]

Hey Aryeh,

I've been in contact with the Product Team, and they couldn't give me a concrete reason why they took the first Keyword as the "leading keyword".

In the description of the API (https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/reference/rpc/v11/KeywordPlanKeywordHistoricalMetrics)  it is written, that if I search for "car" and "cars" it will return only one of the keywords, in this case "cars". This seems to be misleading as there are two different outputs in the UI, depending on which keyword is entered first.

I just want to know why the search_query and the Ads UI is taking the first keyword as the "leading Keyword" instead of looking for the Keyword with the most Impressions, which is in my opinion the most important one. 

This will cause the search_query variable and the Google Ads UI to display the wrong keywords, leading to incorrect usages.

And this leads to confirmation bias.

Regards,
Mehmet

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Mehmet,

Thanks for getting back to us.

The list of close variant queries for search_query whose search results are combined into the search_query, and this is why the search_query takes the first keyword. However, regarding Ads UI, product support is appropriate to comment on this behavior.

As mentioned in our provided API document, we de-dupe your keywords list, eliminating close variants before returning the plan's keywords as text, and the list of de-duped queries will be included in close_variants field.

Also, as a side note on API vs UI behavior, you may refer to this guide. 

Regards,

Yasar Google Ads API Team

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