Google Ads Query Validator

The Google Ads Query Validator is an interactive tool designed to help developers construct and verify Google Ads Query Language (GAQL) queries before integrating them into applications. It lets you enter a GAQL query string and receive immediate feedback on its validity, helping to catch syntax errors, field incompatibilities, and other issues early in the development process.

Benefits

  • Error prevention: Catches invalid queries early, before they are integrated into applications, reducing runtime errors and API call failures.
  • Faster development: Enables rapid testing and debugging of GAQL statements without the overhead of full API request and response cycles.
  • Understanding GAQL constraints: Helps developers learn the complex rules about which fields are compatible and how resources relate to each other.
  • Debugging queries: Provides specific error messages when a query is invalid, often more detailed than a generic API error, and sometimes suggests valid alternatives.
  • Resource efficiency: Avoids unnecessary API calls with queries that are destined to fail.

How it works

The Query Validator parses your GAQL query against the Google Ads API's schema and the rules defined in the Google Ads Query Language. It uses metadata, much of which is accessible from GoogleAdsFieldService, to perform checks, including:

  1. Syntax and structure: Ensures the query follows the correct GAQL grammar, including the proper use and order of clauses like SELECT, FROM, WHERE, ORDER BY, and LIMIT.
  2. Field validity: Checks if all specified fields (resources, segments, metrics) exist and are spelled correctly.
  3. Resource compatibility: Verifies that the fields selected in the SELECT clause are compatible with the primary resource specified in the FROM clause.
  4. Segment and metric compatibility: Ensures that the segments and metrics used together in the same query are compatible with each other and the resource in the FROM clause.
  5. Clause requirements: Validates rules such as the requirement for certain fields used in WHERE or ORDER BY clauses to also be present in the SELECT clause.
  6. Operator usage: Checks for the correct use of operators within the WHERE clause conditions.

If the query is valid, the tool confirms it. If issues are found, it provides error messages designed to help pinpoint the problem, sometimes offering suggestions for fixes, such as compatible resources for a given metric.

Get started

To use the Google Ads Query Validator:

  1. Navigate to the Query Validator.
  2. Input your GAQL query.
  3. Click the Validate Query button.
  4. Review the validation message that appears below the Query Validator widget. A success message indicates that the query is valid. Otherwise, an error message describing the issue is displayed. The error messages guide you to correct the query. For example, a field incompatibility error might list alternative resources that *are* compatible with the metric or segment you're trying to query.

For more in-depth explanations of GAQL concepts and validation, you can also refer to the GAQL video guides.