Looker API endpoints FAQ

All

My dashboard works, but why am I getting errors when I change the dates?

Adthena data is segmented daily for the last 30 days, weekly when viewing data older than 30 days but within the last 13 months, and monthly after that. 

This means errors can be expected when trying to segment Adthena data from the last 6 weeks daily, or if you’re blending Adthena data with other data sources and mixing date segmentations across them.

Why can't I select a drop-down filter for search term/search term group?

Search terms and search term groups are parameters/filters, while you can easily filter for individual terms/groups (or multiple terms/groups at a time), it needs to be done through the parameter as it’s not compatible with the drop-down filter widget. 

You can add a parameter filter (input box) to your dashboard to enable viewers to filter for different values.

Alternatively, where available, you can use the Segmented API endpoints like Segmented Search Term Detail, Segmented Market Share, and Segmented Market Trends - these endpoints are structured to have search term group as a dimension. This means a drop-down filter for search term groups is compatible with these endpoints and can be used.

Segmented Market Trends/Share

When I view data for all my search term groups together, it's not accurate, even though the data for each group individually is - why? 

The segmented data isn't meant to be combined or re-aggregated, if you'd like to see a total or aggregated view across multiple groups, you'll need to use the regular Market Trends/Share endpoint. 

For example, if you select 2 search term groups in this API endpoint, one where you have 10% market share and one where you have 80% market share, if you start combining this output further you would be re-aggregating already aggregated data. The average market share in this case would be 45%, because Looker will simply be taking the two numbers and averaging them, whereas our calculations take into account the underlying data and volume in the groups. 

When you select multiple search term groups in the regular Market Trends/Share endpoint, the calculation for the total will be pulled directly from the API rather than calculated in Looker, so it will accurately reflect the data.

Market Trends

Why doesn't Looker data match Adthena data?

If all the parameters accurately reflect the same view, it’s possible you’re re-aggregating data. For example, if you’re taking data from the last 30 days and grouping it by week rather than Adthena’s daily aggregation, you are re-aggregating already aggregated data. 

Why does my Looker trend chart shows different competitors to Adthena when I select Avg. Position or Avg. CPC?

In the platform, the top 10 competitors we showcase for these metrics are selected based on their Share of Impressions (Avg. Position) or Share of Clicks (Avg. CPC) - to ensure we show you the most relevant competitors.

If you pull this data into Looker, to get the same view as in-app, you would need to blend market trends Avg. Position with market trends Share of Impressions or Avg. CPC with market trends Share Of Clicks and sort your chart by Share of Impressions/Share of Clicks.

Without blending the data, you can still use the Avg. Position / Avg. CPC metrics, but you will have the default sorting options of metric ascending/descending, competitor, or date instead.

Market Share

Why does Looker pull in numbers instead search terms when I select 'search term'?

In the context of Market Share, search term is a parameter (filter) or a metric (count of terms a competitor has appeared for), not a dimension. Please refer to the in-app view for this end-point to see what data can be expected in the output. 

Why can’t I segment my Looker data by date/use a time series chart?

The data in the market share section of Adthena includes metrics for a specific time period. You can view the data for different date ranges, but in the context of Market Share date is a parameter/filter, not a dimension - if you’d like to view metrics over time, market trends can provide this as the data there is broken down by time period.

Top Ads & Google Shopping

Why isn't my Adthena data pulling through into Looker?

Double-check the parameters in the set-up - if you want data for both mobile and desktop you will need to connect the dataset twice, once per device. The platform doesn’t currently provide a total device view so selecting total in the parameter will cause errors:

 

Why doesn't my Google Shopping data change when I adjust the date range in my report?

The API data reflects what's in the Adthena platform, and currently, the shopping ads data has a fixed last 30-day date range. This means the data available through the connector will also have a fixed last 30-day date range, even if the report date range is amended to be smaller or larger.

 

Page & Page Size Parameters

What are the Page & Page Size parameters for Google Shopping and Brand Activator? 

These parameters will help you customize the amount of data you're pulling into your report through the API. The question marks next to each parameter name can be hovered over to see more information, but in short, the default configuration is 50 results on a page, first page (0 = first page, 1 = second page, etc. - the count starts at 0). 

These parameters can be amended when you configure the dataset, or later (if you tick "Allow x to be modified in reports". 

Example: 

There's a total of 20,000 shopping ads visible in your account.

1. You've set a page size of 10,000 - this means you will get 10,000 results
2. You've set the page parameter to 1 - this means you're on the second page (0 would be first)  
3. You can see a maximum of 10,000 ads as this is the page size you configured, but you can toggle between pages 0 and 1 to see data across both pages (for a total of 20,000 results). Or you can amend the page size to 20,000 to see all ads in one view

Make sure your page size contains all the data you need if you're planning to make any aggregations or top-level summaries. 

You can easily see how many pages are available overall through the Page Count column, and how many results are available overall through the Total column - this will tell you how much data you're covering with your current page size vs how much data is available via the API.