Search Terms report for Performance Max

[Pere Munar]

Hi!

I am interested in getting Search Term data for Performance Max campaigns. Is there a report in the Google Ads API that allows for that? I tried to use "Campaign search term" report but it does not return data for PMAX.

Thanks a lot.

Pere

[Bill Kimutai]

Hey Pere,

Did you succeed on this?

Regards, 

Bill

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to the Google Ads API support team.

After reviewing your concern, I understand that you want to retrieve search term data via the Google Ads API. I would recommend you check the search_term_view resource to get a search term view with metrics aggregated by search term. Since campaign is one of the attributed resources, you can get PERFORMANCE_MAX data by using the proposed resource.

Also, please go through Performance Max reporting to get the information, specifically campaign category is PERFORMANCE_MAX.

I hope this helps. If the above proposed resources are not able to provide your required information, please get back to us with an uncropped UI screenshot with clear visibility of the customer ID, where you are able to see the expected data that you want to retrieve via the Google Ads API, so that we can assist you accordingly. 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02rzHLQ:ref"

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

[Moshe Shechter]

Hi,

The search terms are NOT available on the search_term_view for Performance Max campaigns. Search terms can be found by accessing a single campaign (filter by campaign ID) and a single campaign_search_term_insight (campaign_search_term_insight.id) in the campaign_search_term_insight view .  In order to get all search terms you would need to iterate over the list of search term insights (these are the search categories you see in the UI) for a particular campaign. Please be aware that similarly to the PMAX search term report in the UI - the data is quite confusing, and is cannot be aggregated. 

My follow up question is - is there a way to avoid the iteration? This process becomes almost impossible for campaigns with large numbers of categories. Has anybody been able to find a smarter way of doing this?

Moshik

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi Moshik,

Kindly note that it is not possible to retrieve all the search terms at once from the Performance Max campaigns from the Google Ads API. However, it is possible to retrieve the search terms data individually from each of the Performance Max campaigns. If you try to retrieve the search terms data for all the campaigns, it will result in a "REQUIRES_FILTER_BY_SINGLE_RESOURCE" error. Please find the sample GAQL query for the same:

SELECT campaign_search_term_insight.campaign_id, 
campaign_search_term_insight.category_label, campaign_search_term_insight.id,  metrics.clicks, 
metrics.impressions, metrics.conversions, metrics.conversions_value FROM 
campaign_search_term_insight WHERE segments.date BETWEEN '2024-04-20' AND '2024-05-06' 
AND campaign_search_term_insight.campaign_id = '***********'"

Additionally, you can utilize the Google Ads Query Builder and Query Validator to build and validate the queries for retrieving the data from the Google Ads API.
 

This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02rzHLQ:ref" (ADR-00224131)

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

 

[Moshe Shechter]

Hello,

The query you provided relates to the search term categories, not the search terms.  In order to get the search terms (denoted as a segment in the campaign_search_term_insight view) you require a further selection of a single search term insight ID as follows:

SELECT campaign_search_term_insight.campaign_id, campaign_search_term_insight.id, campaign_search_term_insight.category_label, campaign_search_term_insight.resource_name, segments.search_term, metrics.impressions, metrics.conversions, metrics.conversions_value FROM campaign_search_term_insight WHERE campaign_search_term_insight.campaign_id = 123456789 AND campaign_search_term_insight.id = 987654321 AND segments.date BETWEEN '2024-01-01' AND '2024-01-31'

In order to get all serach terms for a single campaign, it is first necessary to extract all search term categories via the query you provided, and then iterate over those IDs to extract the individual search terms.

Some PMax campaigns have more than 10,000 search categories, requiring thousands of calls to Google Ads for a single campaign. That is a real problem

Moshik

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Yes, the query which was provided relates to the search term categories, not the search terms. Kindly note that it is not possible to retrieve all the search terms data in a single API request. As the insight_id value is unique, you need to pass this id separately in each API request that you make. If your campaign has 10000 insights, then you need to execute the 10000 API requests for retrieving the search terms data. 

[dd]

Google Ads Interface does show search terms from the Performance Max campaigns including all metrics you would expect.

Unfortunately campaign_search_term_insight report does not show the cost metric per term as we need. Or is there a way to get search term (categories) with metrics including costs?

DD

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Please provide an uncropped UI screenshot of your Google Ads account highlighting the data which you are trying to retrieve without redacting any information and your Google Ads customer Id. Please note that we will require this requested information in order to understand your concern properly and to assist you better.

You can send the details via Reply privately to the author option, or direct private reply to this email.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-06-19 23:01:12Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02rzHLQ:ref" (ADR-00224131)

[Michael Weichselbaumer]

Hi,

We're also looking to access the search term insights for Performance Max via API.

The search_term_view allows to restrict for advertising_channel_type but does not deliver results for Performance Max.

I've tried the following query:

SELECT search_term_view.search_term, search_term_view.status, search_term_view.ad_group, search_term_view.resource_name, metrics.clicks FROM search_term_view WHERE campaign.advertising_channel_type IN ('PERFORMANCE_MAX', 'SEARCH') LIMIT 100

1. Should the query work or am I looking in the wrong place?

2. If the query is correct - when will it start to return results for Performane Max?

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for contacting the Google Ads API support team. 

Upon reviewing your concern, I understand that you want to retrieve search term insights for Performance Max campaigns using the Google Ads API. Please note that this feature is currently not available in the Google Ads API. However, I will raise a feature request for this feature to be available in the Google Ads API. I cannot provide a scheduled timeline for the availability of these two features. So, I would recommend you to please follow our release notes and blog post for further updates on this feature.

However, please note that you can retrieve the search terms for a individual PERFOMANCE_MAX campaign using campaign_search_term_insight report by specifying the campaign Id and the campaign insight Id. Kindly refer to the following GAQL query in order to retrieve the search terms of a single PMax campaign.

SELECT campaign_search_term_insight.id, campaign_search_term_insight.campaign_id, segments.search_term, campaign_search_term_insight.resource_name, metrics.clicks FROM campaign_search_term_insight WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_7_DAYS AND campaign_search_term_insight.campaign_id = 'XXXXXXXXX' AND campaign_search_term_insight.id = 'XXXXXXXXX'

You can use the search or searchStream methods in making the API calls while retrieving the data. Additionally, you can utilize the Google Ads Query Builder and Query Validator to build and validate the queries for retrieving the data from the Google Ads API. 

I hope this clarifies your concern. Feel free to reach out for any further concerns/ queries.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-07-10 11:35:13Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02rzHLQ:ref" (ADR-00224131)