Question on Dimensions

[Erin Shadle]

I've just started working with the Google Analytics PHP API and have a
question.

If I run this query:
$ga->requestReportData(ga_profile_id,array
('campaign','keyword','adContent'),array
('impressions','adClicks','newVisits','visits', 'CTR', 'transactions',
'bounces','pageviews','timeOnSite','adCost'),

I get 1,002 results.

If I run this query:
$ga->requestReportData(ga_profile_id,array('campaign','keyword'),array
('impressions','adClicks','newVisits','visits', 'CTR', 'transactions',
'bounces','pageviews','timeOnSite','adCost')

I get 1,184 results.... why do I get fewer results when I add
'adContent' to my dimensions?

[Erin Shadle]

I think I figured something out.... but I don't know WHY. If I
perform a custom report in Google using the same dimensions and
metrics, I see that a campaign/keyword with impressions but NO clicks
will show me no 'ad content' when I drill down. A campaign/keyword
with impressions AND clicks will show me the ad content.

Why can I not see ad content for what was displayed for an impression
but failed to work to entice someone to click through? This smells
like a bug.

[Nick]

Well...in it's current form, GA only reports on post click metrics,
save for impressions of ads that got at least one click to your site.

What happens is when you link GA and AdWords and enable autotagging,
when somebody clicks an ad, the ad server appends a "gclid" parameter
to the destination URL. This contains an ID and when encountered by
the GA tracking code on the page, gets sent to Google Analytics and
decoded into campaign, adgroup, source, medium, term, content,
impression variables.

Currently, if there is no click, there is no gcild, there is no
mapping to AdWords data.

I think this is what you are experiencing.
-Nick

[Erin Shadle]

I think this answers the question somewhat. However, I'm not
understanding then why I have Campaigns-->Keywords showing something
like 11,639 impressions, 433 clicks, 425 visits, but when I drill down
on the keywords to ad content, I have 3 ads, which show 0 clicks and
406 visits. How is that even possible?