Dimensions and Metrics

AI-generated Key Takeaways

• The AdSense Management API reporting system mirrors the AdSense website, allowing for flexible and customizable reports by specifying dimensions and metrics.

• Dimensions, like date or platform type, group data for analysis, while metrics, such as earnings or clicks, measure performance.

• While you can use multiple metrics freely, it's recommended to limit the use of dimensions to two per report to avoid excessive data complexity.

• Some dimension and metric combinations are incompatible and cannot be used together within the same report, similar to limitations in the AdSense website's Performance reports.

• You can further explore handling results, choosing the right dimensions, specifying date ranges, and reviewing a comprehensive list of available metrics and dimensions through the provided links.

The AdSense Management API reporting system exposes the flexibility and customization capabilities of the AdSense website. Reports are generated by specifying a list of dimensions and metrics.

Dimensions

Each time AdSense displays an ad, every event associated with that ad is logged with a set of attributes: date, country, channel, ad unit, etc. These attributes are called dimensions.

Dimensions are used for grouping purposes in reports.

Some examples:

DATE

Groups data in individual days.

MONTH

Groups data in months.

PLATFORM_TYPE_NAME

Groups data into platform types, such as "Desktop" or "Tablet"

Metrics

When a report is requested, the logged events are added together according to the chosen dimensions. Metrics represent the different measurements you can make on that data.

Some examples:

ESTIMATED_EARNINGS

Measures how much the publisher earned.

CLICKS

Measures how many times ads were clicked on the publisher’s property.

Some metrics are calculated, instead of being measured directly.

Some examples:

COST_PER_CLICK

Measures how much the publisher earns each time a user clicks on their ad.

AD_REQUESTS_RPM

Measures the revenue per thousand ad requests.

Using multiple dimensions wisely

The generated report consists of a series of rows, each having one or more fields. Adding a new metric to a report produces a new column but adding a dimension multiplies the number of rows.

For example, a report with DATE as a dimension will generate a set of rows, one row for each day with activity. Adding a new dimension, like CUSTOM_CHANNEL_NAME, will generate a row per day and per existing channel. As a guideline it's fine to use as many metrics as you like, but try not to use more than two dimensions per report.

Incompatible dimensions and metrics

There are some metrics and dimensions that cannot be combined in a single report. For example, a conflict will arise when trying to fetch URL and custom channels at the same time. This limitation is the same as in the AdSense website (Performance reports tab).

Next steps

• Handling the Results
• Using the Right Dimension
• Specifying a Date Range
• List of Metrics and Dimensions