Google Ads

💎Premium Feature

This feature is exclusive for Premium users!

The Google Ads module transforms raw Google Ads Data Transfer tables into a more analysis-ready, efficient format. It joins metrics and dimensions from different raw Google Ads tables (BasicStats, ConversionStats, Lookup tables) and enables simplified reporting across ad entities.

Key Features

• Multiple Customer IDs: Consolidate data from multiple Google Ads accounts (not just under the same MCC account)
• Dimension Lookups: Maintain latest metadata for ad entities (campaigns, ads, ad groups, keywords, gclid)
• GCLID: deduplicated, incremental GCLID table that can be joined to other data sources (such as GA4) in downstream queries
• Conversion Action Handling: Flexible configuration for multiple conversion actions
• Incremental Processing: Process only new data from certain raw Ads tables that can get costly in high volume accounts

Google Ads BigQuery Data Transfer

• Include all relevant tables in your Google Ads BigQuery Data Transfer.
• Set the Refresh window to 30 (which is the maximum)
• If your metrics do not match very closely to the Google Ads UI - try to run a backfill, sometimes the data can get stale (especially if you didn't set the Refresh window). Conversion differences should be below 1-2%, non-conversion metrics should be mostly 1:1.

Limitations

• Only Primary Conversions are supported (for now)
• GCLID join query is not provided (for now)
• Only the latest entity information is stored in the google_ads_dim_* tables
• google_ads_paid_organic_search_term_report table is only available if Search Console and Google Ads are connected
• Custom reports of the Google Ads Data Transfer are not supported (for now)

Configuration

The module uses a YAML configuration file: includes/custom/modules/google_ads/config.yaml

# set by Superform Labs team to indicate changes
version: 1
# true/false to toggle this feature, default is false
enabled: false
# list of Google Ads Customer IDs to use as sources
# if you use MCC (Manager) accounts - use the customer ID of the topmost account to include all subaccounts
gads_sources:
#    - customer_id: '123456789'
#      gcp_project: 'dataform-package'
#      dataset: 'google_ads'
#    - customer_id: '9876554321'
#      gcp_project: 'ga4dataform-demo'
#      dataset: 'google_ads'
# list the names of conversion actions you need
# these will have their own conversion columns (conversions_* and conversions_value_*)
conversion_action_names:
    - name: 'Purchase'
      renameTo: 'transaction'
    - name: 'Add to Cart'
      renameTo: 'add_cart'
    - name: '30s on page'
      renameTo: 'engagement'

Configuration Options

Essential Settings

Setting	Description	Example
enabled	Enable/disable the module	true or false
version	Configuration version (set by Superform Labs)	1

Data Sources

Define one or more Google Ads accounts to process:

gads_sources:
    - customer_id: '123456789'
      gcp_project: 'ga4dataform-com'
      dataset: 'google_ads'
    - customer_id: '9876554321'
      gcp_project: 'ga4dataform-demo'
      dataset: 'google_ads'

If you use MCC (Manager) accounts - use the customer ID of the topmost account to include all subaccounts.

Field	Required	Description
customer_id	Yes	Google Ads customer ID (10 digits, no dashes)
dataset	Yes	BigQuery dataset containing raw Google Ads tables
gcp_project	No	GCP project name (uses default if omitted)

Conversion Actions

Configure which conversion actions to track as separate columns:

# Simple format
conversion_action_names: ['Purchase', 'Lead', 'Signup']

# With custom column names
conversion_action_names:
  - name: 'Purchase'
    renameTo: 'transaction'  # Creates: conversions_transaction and conversions_value_transaction
  - name: 'Add to Cart'
    renameTo: 'cart_add'      # Creates: conversions_cart_add and conversions_value_cart_add
  - 'Lead Form Submit'         # Creates: conversions_lead_form_submit and conversions_value_lead_form_submit

# Mixed format
conversion_action_names:
  - name: 'Purchase'
    renameTo: 'txn'
  - 'Lead'  # No rename
  - name: 'Signup'

Generated Columns:

• conversions_{name}: Conversion count
• conversions_value_{name}: Conversion value
• all_conversions: Sum of metrics_conversions across all configured conversion_action_names
• all_conversions_value: Sum of metrics_conversions_value across all configured conversion_action_names

Stable column for dashboards

all_conversions and all_conversions_value give downstream dashboards a stable column to bind to regardless of which individual conversion actions are configured. Add or remove entries in conversion_action_names without rewiring your dashboards.

Column Naming

Use renameTo to create cleaner column names. For example, "Add to Cart" becomes conversions_cart_add instead of conversions_add_to_cart. If you don't use renameTo, the field name is still sanitized (lower case + underscore separator).

Apostrophes and special characters

Conversion action names containing apostrophes (e.g. Client's Call) and other special characters work as-is from v2.2.4 onwards - the module wraps them in BigQuery triple-quoted string literals so escaping no longer breaks Dataform compilation.

Conversion Attribution Time

Conversions in Google Ads Data Transfer are attributed to the click date, not the conversion date. For example, a conversion that occurs on January 15th from a click on January 10th will be attributed to January 10th.

Table Structures

The module follows the following structure:

1. Dimension Tables (google_ads_dim_*): Latest metadata for campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords, accounts. These are materialized in the superform_transformations_* dataset.
2. Metric Tables (google_ads_*_report): Daily performance data with basic stats (impressions, clicks, cost) and conversions at various grains. These are materialized in the superform_outputs_* dataset.
3. GCLID Table (google_ads_gclid): GCLID is a special output table as it contains click-level information that is joined with google_ads_dim_ tables.

Dimension Tables

google_ads_dim_accounts (table)

Granularity: One row per Google Ads account

Latest metadata for each Google Ads customer account.

Column	Description
account_last_updated	Date when this account metadata was last updated
customer_id	Google Ads customer ID
customer_descriptive_name	Account name
customer_currency_code	Account currency (e.g., USD, EUR)
customer_time_zone	Account timezone
customer_auto_tagging_enabled	Whether auto-tagging is enabled
customer_manager	Whether this is a manager account
customer_test_account	Whether this is a test account

Customer = Account in Google Ads

Google Ads calls an "account" a "customer" which can be confusing.

google_ads_dim_campaigns (table)

Granularity: One row per campaign per account

Latest metadata for each campaign.

Column	Description
campaign_last_updated	Date when this campaign metadata was last updated
campaign_id	Campaign ID
customer_id	Google Ads customer ID
campaign_name	Campaign name
campaign_status	Campaign status (ENABLED, PAUSED, REMOVED)
campaign_advertising_channel_type	Channel type (SEARCH, DISPLAY, VIDEO, etc.)
campaign_advertising_channel_sub_type	Channel sub-type
bidding_strategy_name	Name of bidding strategy
campaign_bidding_strategy	Bidding strategy resource name
campaign_bidding_strategy_type	Type of bidding strategy
campaign_budget_amount	Daily budget amount
campaign_budget_total_amount	Total budget amount (for non-daily budgets)
campaign_budget_explicitly_shared	Whether budget is shared
campaign_budget_has_recommended_budget	Whether recommended budget exists
campaign_budget_period	Budget period (DAILY, CUSTOM)
campaign_start_date	Campaign start date
campaign_end_date	Campaign end date
campaign_experiment_type	Experiment type if campaign is an experiment
campaign_serving_status	Serving status
campaign_tracking_url_template	Tracking template
campaign_url_custom_parameters	Custom URL parameters
campaign_maximize_conversion_value_target_roas	Target ROAS for maximize conversion value
campaign_manual_cpc_enhanced_cpc_enabled	Whether enhanced CPC is enabled
campaign_percent_cpc_enhanced_cpc_enabled	Whether percent CPC enhanced CPC is enabled

google_ads_dim_ad_groups (incremental)

Granularity: One row per ad group per campaign per account

Latest metadata for each ad group.

Column	Description
ad_group_last_updated	Date when this ad group metadata was last updated
ad_group_id	Ad group ID
campaign_id	Campaign ID
customer_id	Google Ads customer ID
ad_group_name	Ad group name
ad_group_status	Ad group status (ENABLED, PAUSED, REMOVED)
ad_group_type	Ad group type (SEARCH_STANDARD, DISPLAY_STANDARD, etc.)
ad_group_ad_rotation_mode	Ad rotation mode
ad_group_cpc_bid	CPC bid amount
ad_group_cpm_bid	CPM bid amount
ad_group_cpv_bid	CPV bid amount
ad_group_display_custom_bid_dimension	Display custom bid dimension
ad_group_effective_target_cpa	Effective target CPA
ad_group_effective_target_cpa_source	Source of effective target CPA
ad_group_effective_target_roas	Effective target ROAS
ad_group_effective_target_roas_source	Source of effective target ROAS
ad_group_tracking_url_template	Tracking template
ad_group_url_custom_parameters	Custom URL parameters
campaign_bidding_strategy	Campaign bidding strategy
campaign_bidding_strategy_type	Campaign bidding strategy type
campaign_manual_cpc_enhanced_cpc_enabled	Campaign enhanced CPC enabled
campaign_percent_cpc_enhanced_cpc_enabled	Campaign percent CPC enhanced enabled

google_ads_dim_ads (incremental)

Granularity: One row per ad per ad group per campaign per account

Latest metadata for each ad creative.

Column	Description
ad_last_updated	Date when this ad metadata was last updated
ad_group_ad_ad_id	Ad ID
ad_group_id	Ad group ID
campaign_id	Campaign ID
customer_id	Google Ads customer ID
ad_group_ad_ad_name	Ad name
ad_group_ad_ad_type	Ad type (RESPONSIVE_SEARCH_AD, EXPANDED_TEXT_AD, etc.)
ad_group_ad_status	Ad status (ENABLED, PAUSED, REMOVED)
ad_group_ad_ad_strength	Ad strength (POOR, AVERAGE, GOOD, EXCELLENT)
ad_group_ad_policy_summary_approval_status	Policy approval status
ad_group_ad_ad_final_urls	Final URLs
ad_group_ad_ad_final_mobile_urls	Final mobile URLs
ad_group_ad_ad_tracking_url_template	Tracking template
ad_group_ad_ad_display_url	Display URL
ad_group_ad_ad_device_preference	Device preference
ad_group_ad_ad_added_by_google_ads	Whether ad was added by Google Ads
ad_group_ad_ad_system_managed_resource_source	System managed resource source
Responsive Search Ad fields
ad_group_ad_ad_responsive_search_ad_headlines	RSA headlines
ad_group_ad_ad_responsive_search_ad_descriptions	RSA descriptions
ad_group_ad_ad_responsive_search_ad_path1	RSA path 1
ad_group_ad_ad_responsive_search_ad_path2	RSA path 2
Expanded Text Ad fields
ad_group_ad_ad_expanded_text_ad_headline_part1	ETA headline 1
ad_group_ad_ad_expanded_text_ad_headline_part2	ETA headline 2
ad_group_ad_ad_expanded_text_ad_headline_part3	ETA headline 3
ad_group_ad_ad_expanded_text_ad_description	ETA description 1
ad_group_ad_ad_expanded_text_ad_description2	ETA description 2
ad_group_ad_ad_expanded_text_ad_path1	ETA path 1
ad_group_ad_ad_expanded_text_ad_path2	ETA path 2
Responsive Display Ad fields
ad_group_ad_ad_responsive_display_ad_headlines	RDA headlines
ad_group_ad_ad_responsive_display_ad_descriptions	RDA descriptions
ad_group_ad_ad_responsive_display_ad_long_headline	RDA long headline
ad_group_ad_ad_responsive_display_ad_business_name	RDA business name
ad_group_ad_ad_responsive_display_ad_call_to_action_text	RDA call to action
App Ad fields
ad_group_ad_ad_app_ad_headlines	App ad headlines
ad_group_ad_ad_app_ad_descriptions	App ad descriptions

google_ads_dim_keywords (incremental)

Granularity: One row per keyword per ad group per campaign per account

Latest metadata for each keyword.

Column	Description
keyword_last_updated	Date when this keyword metadata was last updated
ad_group_criterion_criterion_id	Keyword criterion ID
ad_group_id	Ad group ID
campaign_id	Campaign ID
customer_id	Google Ads customer ID
ad_group_criterion_keyword_text	Keyword text
ad_group_criterion_keyword_match_type	Match type (EXACT, PHRASE, BROAD)
ad_group_criterion_status	Keyword status
ad_group_criterion_system_serving_status	System serving status
ad_group_criterion_approval_status	Approval status
ad_group_criterion_negative	Whether this is a negative keyword
ad_group_criterion_effective_cpc_bid	Effective CPC bid
ad_group_criterion_effective_cpc_bid_source	Source of effective CPC bid
ad_group_criterion_effective_cpm_bid	Effective CPM bid
Quality Score fields
ad_group_criterion_quality_info_quality_score	Quality score (1-10)
ad_group_criterion_quality_info_creative_quality_score	Creative quality score
ad_group_criterion_quality_info_post_click_quality_score	Post-click quality score
ad_group_criterion_quality_info_search_predicted_ctr	Predicted CTR
Position Estimate fields
ad_group_criterion_first_page_cpc	First page CPC estimate
ad_group_criterion_first_position_cpc	First position CPC estimate
ad_group_criterion_top_of_page_cpc	Top of page CPC estimate
ad_group_criterion_position_estimates_estimated_add_clicks_at_first_position_cpc	Estimated additional clicks
ad_group_criterion_estimated_add_cost_at_first_position	Estimated additional cost
ad_group_criterion_final_urls	Final URLs
ad_group_criterion_final_mobile_urls	Final mobile URLs
ad_group_criterion_tracking_url_template	Tracking template
ad_group_criterion_final_url_suffix	Final URL suffix
campaign_bidding_strategy	Campaign bidding strategy
campaign_bidding_strategy_type	Campaign bidding strategy type
campaign_manual_cpc_enhanced_cpc_enabled	Campaign enhanced CPC enabled
campaign_percent_cpc_enhanced_cpc_enabled	Campaign percent CPC enhanced enabled

Metric Tables

All metric tables include configured conversion columns based on your conversion_action_names configuration.

google_ads_campaign_report (table)

Campaign-level performance data

Grain: segments_date, campaign_id, customer_id, segments_slot, segments_ad_network_type

Metrics:

• impressions, clicks, interactions, cost
• conversions_{action_name}, conversions_value_{action_name} (for each configured conversion)
• all_conversions, all_conversions_value (sum across all configured conversion actions)

Dimensions: Join to google_ads_dim_campaigns and google_ads_dim_accounts

google_ads_ad_group_report (table)

Ad group-level performance data

Grain: segments_date, campaign_id, ad_group_id, customer_id, segments_device, segments_slot, segments_ad_network_type

Metrics:

• impressions, clicks, interactions, cost
• conversions_{action_name}, conversions_value_{action_name} (for each configured conversion)
• all_conversions, all_conversions_value (sum across all configured conversion actions)

Dimensions: Join to google_ads_dim_ad_groups, google_ads_dim_campaigns, and google_ads_dim_accounts

google_ads_ad_report (table)

Ad-level performance data

Grain: segments_date, campaign_id, ad_group_id, ad_group_ad_ad_id, customer_id, segments_device, segments_slot, segments_ad_network_type

Metrics:

• impressions, clicks, interactions, cost, view_through_conversions
• conversions_{action_name}, conversions_value_{action_name} (for each configured conversion)
• all_conversions, all_conversions_value (sum across all configured conversion actions)

Dimensions: Join to google_ads_dim_ads, google_ads_dim_ad_groups, google_ads_dim_campaigns, and google_ads_dim_accounts

google_ads_keyword_report (table)

Keyword-level performance data

Grain: segments_date, campaign_id, ad_group_id, ad_group_criterion_criterion_id, customer_id, segments_device, segments_slot, segments_ad_network_type

Metrics:

• impressions, clicks, interactions, cost, view_through_conversions
• conversions_{action_name}, conversions_value_{action_name} (for each configured conversion)
• all_conversions, all_conversions_value (sum across all configured conversion actions)

Dimensions: Join to google_ads_dim_keywords, google_ads_dim_ad_groups, google_ads_dim_campaigns, and google_ads_dim_accounts

google_ads_paid_organic_search_term_report (table)

Combined paid and organic search performance

Grain: segments_date, campaign_id, ad_group_id, customer_id, paid_organic_search_term_view_search_term, segments_search_engine_results_page_type

Metrics:

• clicks, impressions
• combined_clicks, combined_queries
• organic_clicks, organic_queries, organic_impressions
• average_cpc, ctr
• combined_clicks_per_query, organic_clicks_per_query, organic_impressions_per_query

Dimensions: Join to google_ads_dim_ad_groups, google_ads_dim_campaigns, and google_ads_dim_accounts

GCLID Table

google_ads_gclid (incremental)

Granularity: One row per GCLID (Google Click ID)

Output table containing Google Click IDs (GCLIDs) and their associated metadata. GCLIDs are unique identifiers assigned to each ad click, enabling cross-platform tracking between Google Ads and other analytics platforms like GA4.

Column	Description
gclid_last_updated	Date when this GCLID metadata was last updated
click_view_gclid	Google Click ID - unique identifier for the ad click
campaign_id	Campaign ID associated with this click
ad_group_id	Ad group ID associated with this click
ad_group_ad_ad_id	Ad ID associated with this click
customer_id	Google Ads customer ID
click_view_ad_group_ad	Ad group ad resource name
click_view_area_of_interest_city	City of interest for the user
click_view_area_of_interest_country	Country of interest for the user
click_view_area_of_interest_metro	Metro area of interest for the user
click_view_area_of_interest_most_specific	Most specific area of interest
click_view_area_of_interest_region	Region of interest for the user
click_view_campaign_location_target	Campaign location target
click_view_keyword	Keyword associated with the click
click_view_keyword_info_match_type	Keyword match type (EXACT, PHRASE, BROAD)
click_view_keyword_info_text	Keyword text
click_view_location_of_presence_city	City where user was present
click_view_location_of_presence_country	Country where user was present
click_view_location_of_presence_metro	Metro area where user was present
click_view_location_of_presence_most_specific	Most specific location of presence
click_view_location_of_presence_region	Region where user was present
click_view_page_number	Page number where ad appeared
click_view_user_list	User list associated with this click
segments_ad_network_type	Network type (SEARCH, DISPLAY, etc.)
segments_click_type	Type of click (HEADLINE, SITELINK, etc.)
segments_date	Date of the click (YYYY-MM-DD format)
segments_device	Device type (MOBILE, DESKTOP, TABLET)
segments_slot	Ad slot position

Dimensions: Join to google_ads_dim_ad_groups, google_ads_dim_campaigns, and google_ads_dim_accounts

Common Use Cases

1. Campaign Performance Dashboards: Track key metrics across all campaigns
2. Keyword Optimization: Identify high-performing keywords and negative keyword opportunities
3. Search Query Mining: Discover new keyword opportunities from actual searches
4. Multi-Account Reporting: Consolidated reporting across multiple Google Ads accounts
5. Budget Pacing: Monitor spend vs. budget allocation
6. Paid vs. Organic: Compare paid and organic search performance

Data Studio Template

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We do not (yet) have a Data Studio template for this module.