Google Ads API Account Diagnostics

Google Ads API Account Performance Diagnostics Skill

This skill provides instructions on how to use the Google Ads MCP server tools to diagnose common account performance issues.

Workflows

Identifying Active Client Accounts

Most diagnostics tasks require sending GAQL queries to a specific customer account. If the customer ID is not explicitly provided by the user, you must first call the list_accessible_customers (or customers_list_accessible_customers) tool to retrieve the customer resource names/IDs you have access to.

Once you have the list of accessible customer IDs, query the customer_client resource using the search tool under those customer accounts to find active client customer accounts. Make sure to select only enabled client accounts and filter out manager accounts:

SELECT
  customer_client.id,
  customer_client.descriptive_name,
  customer_client.status,
  customer_client.manager
FROM customer_client
WHERE customer_client.status = 'ENABLED' AND customer_client.manager = FALSE

Only run subsequent diagnostic queries against the enabled client customer IDs retrieved from this list. Do not query deactivated or manager accounts, as doing so will cause API errors.

Using the MCP Tools Directly

To retrieve information and run queries, you must call the search tool on the MCP server directly (with arguments like customer_id, fields, resource, and conditions). Do not write or execute custom Python scripts or use the Google Ads client library to query the API, as they will fail authentication inside the evaluation sandbox.

1. Conversion and Conversion Value Loss

When conversions or conversion value suddenly decline, use the following steps to diagnose the issue.

Steps:

1. Discover Fields: Use get_resource_metadata with resource campaign or ad_group to ensure you have the correct field names.

2. Query Performance: Use search to retrieve performance data.

   • Resource: campaign or ad_group
   • Fields: Include campaign.name, metrics.conversions, metrics.conversions_value, metrics.cost_micros.
   • Segments: To isolate the loss, include segments like segments.date, segments.device, segments.conversion_action.
   • Conditions: Compare the period of decline with a previous period (e.g., segments.date >= '{start_date}').
   • Gotcha: metrics.cost_micros must be divided by 1,000,000 to get standard currency amounts.

   Example GAQL Query: To query performance data for a customer account {customer_id} between {start_date} and {end_date}:

   SELECT
     campaign.name,
     metrics.conversions,
     metrics.conversions_value,
     metrics.cost_micros,
     segments.date,
     segments.device,
     segments.conversion_action
   FROM campaign
   WHERE segments.date >= '{start_date}' AND segments.date <= '{end_date}'

3. Analyze: Check if the loss is limited to certain devices (e.g., mobile vs desktop) or specific conversion actions.

4. Check Uploads: If using offline imports, query offline_conversion_upload_conversion_action_summary to verify upload pipeline health. If the query returns no results, report that no offline uploads exist for the account and proceed.

   Example GAQL Query: To check upload pipeline health for a customer account {customer_id}:

   SELECT
     offline_conversion_upload_conversion_action_summary.conversion_action_name,
     offline_conversion_upload_conversion_action_summary.successful_event_count,
     offline_conversion_upload_conversion_action_summary.total_event_count,
     offline_conversion_upload_conversion_action_summary.status
   FROM offline_conversion_upload_conversion_action_summary

2. Opportunities Lost (Impression Share)

To identify lost opportunities due to ad rank, bids, or budgets, analyze impression share metrics.

Steps:

1. Query Impression Share: Use search to retrieve impression share metrics.

   • Resource: campaign
   • Fields: Include campaign.name, metrics.search_impression_share, metrics.search_rank_lost_impression_share, metrics.search_budget_lost_impression_share.
   • Gotcha: Impression share values in the API are returned as decimals (e.g., 0.35 = 35%) or formatted strings (e.g., "< 0.10").

   Example GAQL Query: To query impression share metrics for a customer account {customer_id} between {start_date} and {end_date}:

   SELECT
     campaign.name,
     metrics.search_impression_share,
     metrics.search_rank_lost_impression_share,
     metrics.search_budget_lost_impression_share
   FROM campaign
   WHERE segments.date >= '{start_date}' AND segments.date <= '{end_date}'

2. Analyze:

   • High search_budget_lost_impression_share indicates opportunities lost due to limited budget.
   • High search_rank_lost_impression_share indicates opportunities lost due to low ad rank (bid or quality issues).