SEM - Google Adwords API Data Retriever

If you are running many large campaigns or thousands of campaigns and want to track keyword performance of Google Adwords, the following application helps retrieve the data on regular intervals (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). Using your data warehouse and reporting infrastructure you can slice and dice the data based on your business requirements.

Application is a multi-threaded implementation of pulling data through API. Each thread gets a campaign id to pull keyword performance report.  The code included here is a skeletal code and you need to add error handing, code to suit your database schema and some ETL.  In my environment I have used MySQL 5.0, linux (2.6) and Windows, Perl 5.10.1 and Google Adwords API v13.  You can also use Google's client libraries available in many languages including Java, Python, DotNet, Perl, PHP and others.


Other posts that may be of interest:
1. Google Analytics Data Retriever
2. Bulk data loading using Talend
3. Google Keyword Performance data pull


Campaign Class:

package Campaign;

#-------------------------------------
# Campaign Package
#-------------------------------------

use strict;
use DBI;

sub new {
    my $self = {};
    $self->{campIds} = [];  #-- Master campaign ID array

    bless($self);

    $self->_populateCampaignIds();
    return $self;
}

sub _populateCampaignIds {
    my $self = shift;

    #--------------------------
    #- Connect to database to get list of campaigns (IDs).
    #--------------------------
    #- my $dbh = DBI->connect($data_source, $user_name, $pw);
    #- my $sth = $dbh->prepare(
    #-                  "SELECT campaign_id from campaign
    #-                   WHERE  search_engine = 'google'
    #-                     AND  status = 'active';
    #-                  ";
    #- $sth->execute() or die "Unable to execute a query.\n";
    #- while ( @id = $sth->fetchrow_array ) {
    #-     push (${$self->{campIds}}, $id[0]);
    #- }
    #-
    #- $dbh->disconnect;

    #---- For demo, I have hard-coded some IDs.
    push( @{$self->{campIds} }, '1111');
    push( @{$self->{campIds} }, '2222');
    push( @{$self->{campIds} }, '3333');

    return 1;
}

#----------------------------
#- Returns master list of campaign IDs
#----------------------------
sub getCampaignIds {
    my $self = shift;

    return @{ $self->{campIds} };
}

#----------------------------
#- Returns chunk of campaign IDs from master array.
#----------------------------
sub getCampaignIdChunk {
    my $self = shift;
    my $chunks = shift;
    my $index = shift;

    if (!defined $index and !defined $chunks) { 
        return undef; 
    }

    my $chunkSize = int (scalar(@ {$self->{campIds}})/$chunks);
    if ($chunkSize < 1) {
        print "Error: no campaigns to process for thread $index\n";
        return undef;
    }
    my $lIx = $chunkSize * ($index - 1);  #-- low index
    my $hIx = $chunkSize * ($index);      #-- high index

    my @campIds = ();
    if ($index < $chunks) {
        @campIds = splice (@ {$self->{campIds}}, $lIx, $chunkSize);
    } else {
        #- print "Getting LAST chunk for $index from lower $lIx element and a chunk size of $chunkSize\n";
        @campIds = splice (@ {$self->{campIds}}, $lIx);
    }

    return @campIds;
}

1;


Prototype application:

#-------------------------------------------------
# Adwords Data Retriever
#   This is skeleton application to pull Adwords Keywords Performance Report Data
#   from Google through Adwords API.
#   Uses multi-threaded programming technique for simultaneous pull of many campaigns. 
#   Campaign ids in the application are hard-coded with dummy values and hence replace them by connecting
#     to your database and getting actual campaign ids (code shown).
#   Also, for authentication use your user name, password, developer & application code.
# Valid for Google Adwords v13.  
# Author: Shiva M.
#-------------------------------------------------

#- use lib "Add directory where you installed Campaign.pm";
use strict;
use Benchmark;
use Getopt::Std;
use Data::Dumper;

use XML::Simple;
use LWP::Simple;
use Crypt::SSLeay;
use SOAP::Lite;
use IO::Uncompress::Gunzip qw();

use threads;
use threads::shared;

use Campaign;

my (%opts, @worker) = undef;
my $NUM_THREADS = 3;     #-- Modify this to suit your environment. Or better use Config module with ini file to setup application configuration.
my $GOOGLE_API = 'https://adwords.google.com/api/adwords/v13';

#-------------------------------------------------
# Main program.
#-------------------------------------------------
getOpts();

if ($opts{'s'} == 1) {
    for (my $i = 1; $i < ($NUM_THREADS+1); $i++) {
        print "MASTER: Starting thread " . $i, "\n";
        $worker[$i] = threads->new(\&pullCampaignData, $i);
        sleep 5;
    }

  while(anyRunningThread()) {
     for (my $ii = 1; $ii < scalar(@worker); $ii++) {
         my $thr = $worker[$ii];
         if ($thr->is_joinable) {
            my $ret = eval { $thr->join() };
            print "Thread $ii returned: $ret\n";
         }
     }
     sleep(10);
   }
}

exit (0);

#-------------------------------------------------
# Subroutines.
#-------------------------------------------------
sub getOpts {
    if (!getopts('s:d:', \%opts)) {
        print "Invalid option. Exiting\n";
        exit (-1);
    }

    return 1;
}

#-----------------------------
#- Any thread still running?. Returns Yes/No (1/0)
#-----------------------------
sub anyRunningThread {
    my $runThrs = threads->list(threads::running);
    print "Still $runThrs threads are running.\n";
    if ($runThrs) { return 1; }

    return 0;
}

#---------------------------
#- Each thread to pull keyword performance reports for a list of campaigns
#---------------------------
sub pullCampaignData {
    my ($tId) = @_;
    my $thr = $worker[$tId];

    my $to_dollar_conv_factor = 1 /(1000 * 1000);  #-- Currency in micros. $1 <=> 1000 * 1000;

    my $log = "thread_$tId.log";
    open (TFH, ">$log") or die "Unable to open file $log\n";   #-- Log file for the thread.

    #---------------------------------
    #- Get this thread share of load - list of campaign IDs
    #---------------------------------
    my $campaign = Campaign->new();
    my @tCampIds = $campaign->getCampaignIdChunk($NUM_THREADS,$tId);

    print TFH "\npullCampaignData \$tId: $tId: campaignIDs:", map {"$_ "} @tCampIds;

    my @headers = (SOAP::Header->name('email'            => $email),
                   SOAP::Header->name('password'         => $pw),
                   SOAP::Header->name('useragent'        => $ua_name),
                   SOAP::Header->name('developerToken'   => $developer_token),
                   SOAP::Header->name('applicationToken' => $application_token)
                  );

    my $url = sprintf('https://%s.google.com/api/adwords/v13/ReportService', 'adwords');
    my $wsdl = $url . '?wsdl';
    my $service = SOAP::Lite->service($wsdl)->autotype(0)->readable(1)->proxy($url);
    print TFH "\ndebug:service=$service" if $opts{d};

    $service->on_fault(
                sub {
                     my $response = $::ARG[1];
                     die('The following SOAP fault occurred:', "\n", 'faultcode: ',
                         $response->faultcode(), "\n",
                         'faultstring: ', $response->faultstring(),
                         "\n");
                }
    );
    SOAP::Lite->import(+trace => 'debug') if $opts{d};


    #---------------------------
    # Make SOAP call.
    # Get one campaign data at a time. Generate a file to bulk load into database.
    #---------------------------

    foreach my $cId (@tCampIds) {

        my $AWJobParams = {
                  'selectedReportType' => 'Keyword',
                  'name'               => 'AW Keyword Perf Daily Report',
                  'aggregationTypes'   => ['Daily'],
                  'startDay'           => $yesterday_date,
                  'endDay'             => $yesterday_date,
                  'selectedColumns'    => [ qw (
                     KeywordId Keyword CampaignId CampaignStatus
                     AdGroupId AdGroupStatus AdGroupMaxCpa AdWordsType
                     Impressions Clicks CTR CPC Conversions ConversionRate Cost
                     AveragePosition QualityScore AverageConversionValue BottomPosition
                     CPM CostPerConverstion CostPerTransaction DailyBudget DefaultCount
                     DefaultValue FirstPageCpc KeywordDestUrlDisplay KeywordStatus
                     KeywordTypeDisplay LeadCount LeadValue MaxContentCPC MaximumCPC
                     MaximumCPM PageViewCount PageViewValue SalesCount SalesValue
                     TopPosition TotalConversionValue Transactions ValuePerClick
                     ValuePerCost CustomerName ExternalCustomerId )  
                                          ],
                  'crossClient'        => 1,
                  'campaigns'          => [$cId]
        };


        #------------------------------
        # Step 1. Define a job
        #------------------------------
        my $report_job = SOAP::Data->name('job' => $AWJobParams);
        $report_job->attr({'xsi:type' => 'DefinedReportJob', 'xmlns' => "$GOOGLE_API"});

        #------------------------------
        # Output XML file after unzipped.
        #------------------------------
        my $output = "${cId}_kw_perf.xml";


        #-------------------------------
        # Catch any exception
        #-------------------------------
        eval {

            #------------------------------
            # Step 2. Validate report.
            #------------------------------
            $service->call('validateReportJob' => $report_job, @headers);
            print TFH "debug: about to schedule report \n";

            #------------------------------
            # Step 3. Schedule report.
            #------------------------------
            my $job_id = $service->call('scheduleReportJob' => $report_job, @headers)->result();
            $job_id = SOAP::Data->name('reportJobId' => $job_id);

            #------------------------------
            # Step 4. Get report status. Wait until finish or error.
            #------------------------------
            my $status = $service->call('getReportJobStatus' => $job_id, @headers)->result();
            while ($status ne 'Completed' and $status ne 'Failed') {
                print TFH "Report job status is $status\n";
                sleep(30);
                $status = $service->call('getReportJobStatus' => $job_id, @headers)->result();
            }
            if ($status eq 'Failed') {
                die("Report job generation failed.\n");
            }

            #------------------------------
            # Step 5. Get report URL to download the file.
            #------------------------------
            my $report_url = $service->call('getGzipReportDownloadUrl' => $job_id, @headers)->result();
            print TFH "Report is available at $report_url\n" if $opts{d};

            #------------------------------
            # Step 6. Get the data file (report).
            #------------------------------
            my $gzip_report_data = LWP::Simple::get($report_url);


            #------------------------------
            # Step 6a. Save it to local file.
            #------------------------------
            my $localFile = "${cId}_kw_perf.xml.gz";
            open(LFH, ">$localFile") or die "Could not open $localFile: $!\n";
            print LFH $gzip_report_data . "\n";
            close LFH;


            #------------------------------
            # Step 7. Unzip the file and build xml hash.
            #------------------------------
            IO::Uncompress::Gunzip::gunzip(\$gzip_report_data => $output);

            my $xml_hash = XMLin($output);
            print TFH Dumper($xml_hash) if $opts{d};

            #------------------------------
            # Step 8. Create database bulk load file.
            #------------------------------
            open (BLFH, ">${cId}_bulk_load_input.txt") or die "Unable to create bulk load file: $!\n";


            #-- Uncomment the fields that are of interest to you.
            foreach my $row (@{$xml_hash->{table}->{rows}->{row}}) {
                print BLFH
                    $row->{keywordid},"\t", $row->{keyword},"\t",
                    $row->{campaignid},"\t",
                    # $row->{campaign},"\t",
                    $row->{campStatus},"\t", $row->{adgroupid},"\t",
                    # $row->{adgroup},"\t",
                    # $row->{agstatus},"\t",
                    # $row->{agMaxCpa} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,"\t",
                    # $row->{adwordsType}, $row->{keywordid}, $row->{keyword}, $row->{kwStatus},
                    # $row->{customerid}, $row->{acctname}, $row->{kwDestUrl},
                    $row->{imps},"\t", $row->{clicks},"\t", $row->{ctr},"\t",
                    # $row->{cpc} * $to_dollar_conv_factor, $row->{conv},
                    # $row->{convRate},
                    $row->{cost} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,"\t",
                    $row->{pos},"\t",
                    $row->{qualityScore},"\t",
                    # $row->{avgConvValue} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{bottomPosition}, $row->{cpm} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{costPerConv} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{cpt} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{budget} * $to_dollar_conv_factor, $row->{defaultConv},
                    # $row->{defaultConvValue} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{firstPageCpc} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    $row->{kwDestUrl},"\t", $row->{kwType},
                    # $row->{leads}, $row->{leadValue} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{maxContentCpc} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{maxCpc} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{maxCpm} * $to_dollar_conv_factor, $row->{pageviews},
                    # $row->{pageviewValue} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{purchases},
                    # $row->{purchaseValue} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{topPosition},
                    # $row->{convValue} * $to_dollar_conv_factor,
                    # $row->{transactions}, $row->{convVpc},
                    # $row->{valueCostRatio},
                    "\n";
            }
            close(BLFH);
        };

        if ($@) {
            print("Report job failed validation due to the following error: ", $@, "\n");
            exit (-1);
        }
    }

    close(TFH);
    return 1;
}


Bulk loading into data warehouse staging and perform summarization.

#- Psuedo code
#-  1. Cleanup or perform any needed transformation of data in the application.
#-  2. Concatenate all the campaign keyword performance data to a file(s).
#-  3. Bulk load file into a staging table.
#-  4. Transform and summarize the data through SQL.

Enjoy,
Shiva

Adwords Keyword Performance data pull

If you are handling multiple accounts or a large account at Adwords center managing few tens of thousand of keywords to millions of keywords, you would be interested in tracking the keyword performance over a period of time. You can do so by pulling daily summary report from Google through Adwords API and storing the data in your data mart or data warehouse for further analysis.

Pulling the data through API involves 6 steps:
   1. definedReportJob object - Specifies the type of report you want.
   2. validateReportJob - Validate the report that you would like to get. Returns nothing.
   3. scheduleReportJob - Now schedule the job for above object. This request returns an ID.
   4. getReportJobStatus - Get status of the report. If "Completed" go to next.
   5. getReportDownloadUrl - Retrieve the URL where your report is stored. The returned URL is valid for five minutes. If the URL expires, just call getReportDownloadUrl again. Keep this URL private, since anyone can use it to access your report.
   6. getGzipReportDownloadUrl - Download your report by sending an HTTP GET request.

Following pseudo code and code explains each step execution in more detail.  I use Perl SOAP calls to generate Adwords requests. Also, note the following code works well with API version v13 and Google is transitioning many of its Adwords API to v2009. As of Dec.2009 ReportService was still available only in v13.

Google NS Individual Search Box

Today, while searching for "cygwin" keyword I was presented with results that caught my eye.  The first result had its own search box.  See picture below.  Had anyone seen this before?  I liked the feature and pretty handy if you are looking for a specific information from a specific site. I entered "latest version" and hit "Search cygwin.com" that showed search entry "latest version site:cygwin.com" in the next search. Nice.


Other posts that may be of interest:
1. Best Google home page logos
2. Better quicker SEM ROI
3. 99 bottles of beer in different laguages






Cheers,
Shiva

Forecasting SEM ROI with Eureqa

There is a is powerful tool to detect equations and hidden relationships among the data sets.  What makes it irresistible tool is its cost - FREE!.  It is Eureqa.  In this blog I will explain how to find relationship between cost and long term revenue for a keyword campaign in Google Adwords.  This is a simplied version of identifying a relationship at macro level and then drilling down further to identify more details.

The sample I have taken is over two months summarized data at daily level for a campaign.  Since cost and revenue are affected by other factors including the keywords or ad words that comprised a campaign, competitors' bidding, landing page or page optimizations, etc., it is important to note that the following is to get a quick insight into how cost is related to revenue for a particular campaign.  This is one of important arsenal out of few to get better positive ROI.

The data set is shown below in the application's tab 1(Enter Data).  This very much looks like Excel spreadsheet!.  First column is cost and second is long term revenue.

Related Posts: Generating quick positive SEM ROI

Quick ROI for SEM (Adwords) Defined

SEM or Internet paid advertisement or PPC or Adwords or what ever one may call, has been on high growth rate for many years now and has shown that it will continue to grow in the near future with the potential to grab market share from other advertisement channels.  This has implications on all companies that would like to have their products or services advertised.  By quickly responding to the market changes and being nimble, they can effectively spend their marketing dollars with positive ROI.


Though I use Google Adwords in the following explaination, you can replace the same logic for Yahoo and MSN. I assume that you are somewhat familiar with natural search, paid search, clicks, impressions and related; and what they mean.  


Related posts: Quick ROI forecasting technique