Hi,
I just noticed that with ETAs, the path1 and path2 fields are optional—you can create an ad without either of these two fields set. This is in contrast to the previously used text ads, where every field is required.
This has an interesting effect, as the CSV reports show unset path fields as " --" (a space and two hyphens)—but you can also set either path field to consist of two hyphens, which also causes the field in the report to show a space and two hyphens.
This means that theoretically, you can't tell from a CSV report whether a path field of an expanded text ad is really empty or has been set as "--". Here's an actual CSV report from a test account:
Path 1,Path 2,Headline 1,Headline 2,Description
--, --,Headline 1,Headline 2,Empty path fields.
--, --,Headline 1,Headline 2,"Path fields set to ""--""."
Total, --, --, --, --
Now I freely admit that this is a contrived scenario, but I wonder whether it would be possible to leave the field empty instead of using " --".
Seeing as " --" usually means "Not applicable" in the CSV reports (it's mainly used if a metric doesn't have a meaningful aggregate in the totals line, for example), I feel a clear distinction would be helpful.
Any thoughts on this matter?
Best regards,
Dorian