A common question for the AdWords API Team is “when is the best time to run reports” (and for that matter, when to retrieve statistical data via the API). The quick answer is: it depends on the type of data and report. Read on for details.
The reporting system is very complex and statistical data is not available in realtime. For most reports and API services, the statistical data for a given date is expected to stabilize three hours after midnight in the account's local time zone. The information below applies specifically to post-V13 reports.
For some reports, the underlying statistical data is populated in daily batch operations. These operations take a while to finish, which means the statistical data won’t be available as quickly. These reports will have their data ready at 6pm PST the following day and include the following:
All other reports should have their statistical data ready three hours after midnight in the account’s local time zone.
Conversions are a special case. Every day we start a batch process to recalculate all statistical data up until the job begins. This process will be complete by 6pm PST but will only include data up until 10am PST (when the process starts). Please note that since conversions can occur weeks later, these will never be completely stable, but will always take into account the latest data.
Note that due to ongoing operations such as click fraud detection, some of the data, such as clicks, may change for up to a month later. Statistical data is “frozen” on the first day of every month and will not change after this time, except for conversions that do not incur cost.
Please see this page for more information about reports. If you have any questions about using reports with the API, you can ask us on the forum.
Kevin Winter, AdWords API Team
The reporting system is very complex and statistical data is not available in realtime. For most reports and API services, the statistical data for a given date is expected to stabilize three hours after midnight in the account's local time zone. The information below applies specifically to post-V13 reports.
For some reports, the underlying statistical data is populated in daily batch operations. These operations take a while to finish, which means the statistical data won’t be available as quickly. These reports will have their data ready at 6pm PST the following day and include the following:
- Automatic Placements Performance
- Demographic Performance
- Geo Performance
- Search Query Performance
- URL Performance
All other reports should have their statistical data ready three hours after midnight in the account’s local time zone.
Conversions are a special case. Every day we start a batch process to recalculate all statistical data up until the job begins. This process will be complete by 6pm PST but will only include data up until 10am PST (when the process starts). Please note that since conversions can occur weeks later, these will never be completely stable, but will always take into account the latest data.
Note that due to ongoing operations such as click fraud detection, some of the data, such as clicks, may change for up to a month later. Statistical data is “frozen” on the first day of every month and will not change after this time, except for conversions that do not incur cost.
Please see this page for more information about reports. If you have any questions about using reports with the API, you can ask us on the forum.
Kevin Winter, AdWords API Team
