Reporting is not real-time - but how much?

Possible solution for time shift problem

[Sujan]

You know, here in Germany we have a time shift (9 hours) problem with Adwords [webmasterworld.com] and its stats. When a new day begins here, Adwords is in the mid of the day, 3 PM. When Adwords begins the new day we already have 9 AM here. Google knows about the problem, but they say it's not easy to find a good solution. But for every problem there is a solution:
There is an API for adwords now and I could get my clicks and cost at 0 and 9 every day and calculate my local day-cost and clicks. Just a little script using php and mysql.

But, there is the following in every account under the stats-tables:

Reporting is not real-time. Clicks and impressions received in the last 3 hours may not be included here.

How much is reporting behind real-time? Is it really 3 hours? I don't think so, more like 15 minutes or so. What did you observe?

- Jan

[mike_ppc]

I think that depends, and it's not constant.

Not even clicks and impressions are counted at the same time for the same adgroup (you can sometimes see 1 click and 0 impressions, for example).

I guess an average is something like 30 minutes delay, but that could also depend where is the server reporting the impression/clicks.

You are probably aware (and AWA said it many times) that even when you pause or resume your ads, there could be a lag of about 1 hour!

[inasisi]

I have seen lags varying from 15 mins to 2 hrs. So I don't think this would be a reliable solution to your time shift. Unless, you get very few clicks during the night time and don't care about a 1-2 hour shift here and there.

[mike_ppc]

One cause of the lag is how the information propagates through the system.

If you are, for example, serving ads only in Germany, it's more likely to see a smaller lag and to keep it constant in time (three months later).
But if you are serving both in Germany and Nigeria, the lag could be variable.

[Sujan]

Well, if the data isn't 100% accurate it's no problem. But it's a problem if I can't compare the stats my customers or merchants have, and what Adwords gives you.

So I thought I could create an extra adgroup, "make" an automatic click at 0 and 9 and fetch the data at the moment when it appears in the stats. Or measure the average. Once again, it needn't be 100% accurate, but give ma an estimate.

Thanks for your answers. Perhaps AWA will jump in and tell me that there will be a Google-solution in 5 days or so... then I will leave my editor closed and wait so long :)

- Jan

[Sujan]

Just recognized: A click isn't required... an impression would be enough. Only has to be a very rare keyword.

- Jan