Documentation

Data discrepancy issues

“Ad Group...” and “Ads...” Report types data discrepancy

Google Ads doesn’t have an Ad Group and Ad level for these Campaign types. This could cause less reported data for the “Ad Group...” and “Ads...” Report types in your reports than in Google Ads UI.

Because of this, Report types at this level of detail don’t contain data for the Performance Max and Smart Campaign types. Learn more here.

We suggest using campaign-level Report types to avoid data discrepancy.

Impression Share metrics data discrepancy

Impression share (Search impression share, Display impression share, Search lost IS (budget), etc.) metrics are reported separately for each campaign type and aren’t aggregated across the account. Learn more here.

Keywords, Search Query, and Shopping Reports data discrepancy

Data discrepancy issues could be observed with reports that use keyword_view, search_term_view, and shopping_performance_view resources. The most likely reason is that Google Ads does not allocate metrics on deeper levels of granularity.List of Report types, that use these resources:

Keyword and Search Query reports contain only Search Campaigns, while Shopping reports contain onlyShopping Campaigns. So, make sure that missing data is not from Performance Max or Display or Video campaigns. If you’re looking for data from non-supported campaigns, we suggest using different Report types with less (not deep) granularityThis is also true for all Report types that use fields from these views as a segment.

In most cases, Google Ads data actually matches the data from your reports when compared with the same dimensions and granularity. If that’s also the case for you, then we suggest using different reports with lower granularity (not Keywords/Shopping), where data is consistent. Also, you could contact Google Ads Product Team to ask why the data isn’t allocated properly on Keyword/item_id levels.

Search keyword performance

Metric values for Search keywords are not currently supported by Google Ads API.

Because of this, we can’t retrieve data for keywords-based Report types via Google Ads API that you see in the “Total: Search keywords on display network” row of the report generated in the UI:

Campaign types support for different resources

Campaign type vs. Advertising Channel Type/Sub Type

Campaign subtypes in the Google Ads UI, such as Standard and All features, help UI users find relevant campaign options, but there is no corresponding attribute in the API's Campaign object. This UI column is similar to the AdvertisingChannelType and AdvertisingChannelSubType fields in the API, but there is no one-to-one mapping between these fields and the Campaign subtype in the UI.

For example, a Search-only campaign created using the API will always be a Features campaign from the UI perspective. Learn more here.

Smart campaigns, Performance Max campaigns

Some campaigns (e.g., Smart, Performance Max) can’t contain assigned ad groups. Hence, they will not be included in Adgroup-level Report types.

Google Ads API supports Performance Max report data at a campaign level, and not Adgroup level or Ad level. That means that no rows for Performance Max campaigns will be returned when requesting Adgroup or Ad level metrics. Learn more here.

‍Note: Performance (impressions, cost, clicks, etc.) for Performance Max is available using the Campaign resource.

Custom columns

Google Ads UI has a Custom columns feature which allows you to add custom columns with formulas.

These metrics are not available in your reports because we cannot obtain these columns from Google Ads API. But, as an alternative, you can calculate these columns on your side using available metrics.

Relation between Video Views and Video Quartiles

If you compare numbers from the Video Quartiles Report (Video-played-to metrics) and View or View Rate, you will observe a significant discrepancy.

The reason is that quartile views (reported as free clicks in Google Ads UI) aren't de-spammed, so they aren't representative of the actual view rates. Also, the view numbers are de-spammed (potentially heavily). Seeing a large discrepancy here is possible.Additional notes:

• Bumper ads are 6-second non-skippable ads that do not accrue view counts on the video and only record impressions. This is expected behavior and should be noted when looking at reporting.
• However, for bumper ads, you can measure the video play rate to help advertisers learn how much of your video ads customers actually see.
• Play rate is a ratio that calculates the number of plays your video ads receive divided by its impressions (the number of times your video ad is shown).
• The Playbacks through 50% of the video column, for example, will display the number of playbacks that reached at least halfway through the video. Keep in mind that because people may skip to different sections of the video, percent playback numbers won't always decline linearly.

You can learn more about Measuring image and video ad performance and Play rate.

Discovery product feed campaign subtype

Even though Discovery campaigns are already supported by the Google Ads API v12, the Discovery product feed campaign subtype is currently not supported by Google Ads API. Learn more here.

Install metrics are not supported yet

Install metrics are currently not supported by Google Ads API. But to get this value you can try to use conversions for the  first_open event. Learn more here.