Zero metrics

Page Summary

• Zero metrics in search results can occur if entities are ineligible for display or were paused within the report's date range.

• You can explicitly exclude zero metrics using a predicate in the WHERE clause of your Google Ads Query Language query.

• Zero metrics are always excluded when segmenting a report if all selected metrics are zero.

• Rows where all selected metrics are zero will not be returned in search results.

This guide explains why rows with zero metrics appear in Google Ads API reports and how to exclude or handle them in your queries.

Zero metrics in search results

When you execute a query, you may encounter metrics for entities that are zero. This could be because:

• The entities are ineligible for display.
• They were paused within the report's date range.

With query results, you often want to obtain information about how your campaigns are performing. In this context, zero metrics may not be desirable. To produce a more useful report, you can explicitly exclude zero metrics.

Exclude zero metrics with a predicate

A predicate is an expression that evaluates to TRUE, FALSE, or UNKNOWN. Predicates are used in the search condition of the WHERE clauses in Google Ads Query Language.

The following query demonstrates how to explicitly remove zero metrics with a predicate:

SELECT
  campaign.id,
  metrics.impressions
FROM campaign
WHERE metrics.impressions > 0

Exclude zero metrics by segmenting

Zero metrics are always excluded when segmenting a report, provided all selected metrics are zero (see Returned rows with zero metrics).

Segmenting a report is done by including any segments field in the SELECT clause of the search query (filtering on a core date segment in WHERE without selecting it in SELECT does not segment the report). For example, if you segment a report by segments.date, metrics are broken down with one row for each date. Dates with no metrics are not returned in such a report.

For the following query, the report won't include zero-metric rows:

SELECT
  campaign.name,
  metrics.impressions,
  segments.date
FROM campaign
WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS

Returned rows with zero metrics

Rows whose selected metrics are all zero won't be returned when segmenting. For example, consider the following query that selects metrics.impressions, metrics.clicks, and metrics.conversions:

SELECT
  ad_group_criterion.criterion_id,
  metrics.impressions,
  metrics.clicks,
  metrics.conversions,
  segments.date
FROM keyword_view
WHERE segments.date BETWEEN '2026-01-01' AND '2026-01-31'

The resulting report won't contain any rows in which all three selected metrics are zero, but it will return rows where at least one of the three selected metrics is greater than zero.

When querying historical data beyond the data retention period, granular data older than 37 months is unavailable and won't return rows. Requests for granular date segments (segments.date, segments.week, and segments.hour) covering ranges older than 37 months return DateRangeError.REQUESTED_DATE_GRANULARITY_NOT_SUPPORTED in v24 and later (or DateRangeError.UNKNOWN in v23). High-level aggregated data (segments.month, segments.quarter, and segments.year) is retained for 11 years, aligned to the start of the next complete calendar period. For example, if the 11-year lookback cutoff falls on 2015-03-22 (or 2015-03-01), monthly data is available starting from the first full calendar month after the cutoff (2015-04-01). See Date Ranges for details.

Reach metric suppression and zero values

In addition to entities that didn't serve impressions, reach metrics (such as metrics.unique_users and frequency bucket metrics metrics.unique_users_two_plus through metrics.unique_users_ten_plus) can appear as zero or be omitted when reach data is suppressed. The metrics.unique_users metric (and metrics.unique_users_info) is supported on Display, Video, Demand Gen, and App campaigns, whereas the metrics.unique_users_*_plus frequency bucket metrics (and metrics.unique_users_*_plus_info) apply to Video campaigns.

Reach suppression happens for several reasons:

• Privacy thresholds: Reach data is suppressed when user counts don't meet privacy thresholds (such as k-anonymity) to protect user identity.
• Quality thresholds: Reach data may be withheld if the data doesn't meet quality standards.
• Data retention: Historical reach data is retained for 3 years (36 months). Queries spanning dates beyond this 3-year retention window can't return reach metrics. While queries covering dates between 36 and 37 months ago succeed without returning DateRangeError.REQUESTED_DATE_GRANULARITY_NOT_SUPPORTED described in the preceding section, they omit reach metrics (and return DATE_RANGE_BEYOND_RETENTION when companion reach metadata is selected).

In v26 and later, each unique user reach metric has a companion metadata field of type ReachMetricInfo (such as metrics.unique_users_info and metrics.unique_users_two_plus_info through metrics.unique_users_ten_plus_info).

In Google Ads Query Language (GAQL), companion reach fields are MESSAGE metrics selected directly in the SELECT clause (for example, metrics.unique_users_info). Don't append .reach_metric_states in the SELECT clause, because selecting nested message fields in GAQL fails with UNRECOGNIZED_FIELD. Instead, selecting metrics.unique_users_info returns a ReachMetricInfo message containing the repeated enum field reach_metric_states of type ReachMetricState, which describes whether the metric was suppressed or is complete.

Whenever a reach metric is suppressed or outside the retention window (PRIVACY_SUPPRESSION, QUALITY_SUPPRESSION, or DATE_RANGE_BEYOND_RETENTION), its optional int64 field on Metrics is unset (which evaluates to 0 if field presence isn't checked), whereas LOW_QUALITY still populates the numeric metric:

• COMPLETE: The reach metric is complete with no suppression.
• PRIVACY_SUPPRESSION: Reach data was suppressed due to privacy constraints.
• QUALITY_SUPPRESSION: Reach data was suppressed due to data quality reasons.
• LOW_QUALITY: The reach metric was calculated but is flagged as low quality.
• DATE_RANGE_BEYOND_RETENTION: Reach metrics are unavailable because the date range falls outside the 3-year data retention limit for reach data.

By selecting both the reach metric and its companion metadata field, your application can distinguish between genuine zero reach and reach values that were suppressed:

SELECT
  campaign.id,
  campaign.name,
  metrics.unique_users,
  metrics.unique_users_info,
  metrics.unique_users_two_plus,
  metrics.unique_users_two_plus_info,
  metrics.unique_users_ten_plus,
  metrics.unique_users_ten_plus_info
FROM campaign
WHERE campaign.advertising_channel_type = 'VIDEO'
  AND segments.date DURING LAST_30_DAYS

Note: Companion reach metadata fields (metrics.unique_users*_info) are MESSAGE metrics with filterable: false and sortable: false, so they can't be used in WHERE or ORDER BY clauses. In addition, reach metrics can't be aggregated across rows. The metrics.unique_users metric can only be requested for date ranges of 92 days or less, while unique_users_*_plus frequency bucket metrics can only be requested for date ranges of 31 days or less. See Campaign reach and frequency reporting for the full list of Video reach and frequency metrics.