Google Ads - Lightdash

The Google Ads live data source reads one Google Ads account, by day and by campaign or ad group. Each query is one report request, and Lightdash shows the results as they come back from Google. It’s a level 3 integration: its API returns reports.

Before you start

Live data sources enabled for your organization. See Live data sources.
Admin role in the Lightdash project.
A Google account that can read the Google Ads account. Read-only access is enough.

Connect Google Ads

On the nav bar, click Browse → Semantic Layer.
In the sidebar, select Live data sources, then click Add.
Select Google Ads.
Enter a Name, such as Google Ads.
Click Continue to Google.
Sign in with your Google account and allow access.
Back in Lightdash, pick the account the source reads.

The list shows client accounts, including those under a manager account. Google only reports metrics for client accounts, so you can’t pick a manager account itself. Lightdash adds an Ad performance table to Explore. Queries run with the Google account that signed in. To change it, choose Sign in again from the source’s menu. Google’s consent screen asks for access to manage your Google Ads account, because Google has only one permission for its Ads API. Lightdash limits the source to the read-only report endpoint of the account you picked.

Dimensions

Dimension	Notes
Date, Date week, Date month, Date quarter, Date year	In the account’s time zone. Weeks start on Monday
Day of week, Device, Network
Account ID, Account name, Account currency
Campaign ID, Campaign name, Campaign status, Campaign type, Campaign bidding strategy type	A removed campaign can share its name with a live one. Add Campaign ID to tell them apart
Ad group ID, Ad group name, Ad group status, Ad group type	An ad group name is unique only within its campaign

Ads, keywords, search terms and conversion actions aren’t available.

Metrics

Metric	Notes
Cost, Average CPC, Average CPM	In the account’s currency
Clicks, Impressions, Click-through rate
Interactions, Interaction rate, Engagements
Conversions, Conversion value, Conversion rate, Cost per conversion, Value per conversion	Counted by the account’s bidding goals. Attribution can make them fractional
All conversions, All conversions value, View-through conversions	Include conversions not used for bidding
Search impression share, Search top impression share, Search absolute top impression share, Search lost impression share (budget), Search lost impression share (rank)

Combination rules

Google Ads returns one row per campaign or ad group and doesn’t group across them, so a query has to identify the rows it returns:

Any campaign dimension needs Campaign name or Campaign ID in the query.
Any ad group dimension needs Ad group ID, or Ad group name with Campaign name or Campaign ID.
To filter by Day of week, Device or Network, also add that dimension to the query.
To filter by a campaign or ad group, include a dimension at that level or a finer one. For example, add Campaign name before you filter by it.

Lightdash checks these rules before calling Google and tells you which dimension to add. Google also rejects some combinations of metrics and dimensions. When it does, Lightdash shows Google’s error.

Supported features

Feature	Available
Filters on text dimensions: is, is not, includes, doesn’t include, starts with, ends with	Yes
Filters on IDs, statuses and types: is, is not	Yes
Filters on metrics: greater than, less than, between	Yes
OR filters and nested filter groups	No
Table calculations, custom metrics and custom dimensions	No
Period-over-period comparisons, pivots and date zoom	No

Limits

Limit	Value
Default date range	Last 30 days ending yesterday, when the query has no filter on Date
Most rows per query	9,999
Timeout	60 seconds
Queries at once	5 per source
Calls per minute	60 per source
Calls per hour	1,000 per source

When a query has more than 9,999 rows, Lightdash shows an error rather than a partial result. Narrow the date range, add a filter or remove a dimension. Google Ads also applies its own daily quota to the Google Cloud project behind the sign-in, shared by every source that uses it.

Example questions

“Cost and conversions by campaign over the last 30 days.”
“Top 10 ad groups by clicks last month, with their campaign.”
“Weekly cost per conversion by device since the start of the quarter.”

Troubleshooting

Numbers don’t match the Google Ads interface. Check the date range first. Relative dates such as last 7 days use the project’s time zone to decide what today is, so they can be a day off from the account’s. Google can also keep updating conversions for several days. Your query needs a dimension you didn’t pick. See Combination rules. The error names the dimension to add.

​Before you start

​Connect Google Ads

​Dimensions

​Metrics

​Combination rules

​Supported features

​Limits

​Example questions

​Troubleshooting