Ads on Graph api: adgroup stats data inconsistencies
Digital Marketing
Facebook Marketing API
2 years ago
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We've noticed what appear to be some changes in how Facebook is returning adgroup stats data when requested using:
https://graph.facebook.com/stats/startime/endtime?ids={adgroup_id}&access_token=...
I am wondering if a) anyone else experiencing similar behavior and b) if there is more documentation available other than the API documentation at: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/ads-api/ (I have requested to included in the Marketing API Facebook Group but have not been accepted).
1) Prior to the New Year we determined that to match the stats reported through the UI, our API calls needed to have starttime and endtime relative to PST, ie 08:00:00. It now appears that Facebook is using the timezone setting of accounts. For instance, to match the data reported by the UI for an account with an eastern timezone we need to request times starting and ending with 05:00:00. Our archived data files suggest that this change occured after 1/1/2012: data pulled on 1/1/2012 from 2011-12-28 08:00:00 to 2011-12-29 08:00:00 differs from data pulled on 1/3/2012 using the same time frame.
2) Stats data appears to be aggregated into one second: from midnight to one second after midnight in the timezone of the the account:
.../stats/2011-12-28 05:00:00/2011-12-28 05:00:01?ids={adgroup_id}&access_token=...
pulls all the data for 2011-12-28,
.../stats/2011-12-28 05:00:01/2011-12-28 05:00:02?ids={adgroup_id}&access_token=...
pulls almost no data (more about this later).
3) We can only pull unique_impressions and social_unique_impressions if we specify a start time that is equal to midnight in the account's timezone and the end time is within one day of the start time. Otherwise these fields are returned as zero. There is a similar response with unique_clicks and social_unique_clicks, however the requirements are slightly more lenient (I haven't fully explored them).
EDIT https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/ads-api/adstatistics/ answers this question for me (under the unique stats heading) - this is how Facebook's system is designed.
4) unique_clicks and social_unique_clicks do not appear to be aggregating properly. Requesting data, for instance from 00:00:00 EST to 00:00:01 EST returns the same data as 00:00:02 EST to 00:00:03 EST and as 00:00:00 EST to 00:00:03 EST. One would expect the data from 00:00:00 to 00:00:03 to be equal to that from 00:00:00 to 00:00:01 plus that from 00:00:02 to 00:00:03.
EDIT I will guess from https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/ads-api/adstatistics/ (under the unique stats heading) that these unique stats are not meant to be aggregated.
I am pulling this data using firefox and get similar results whether I use a unix time or the string-formatted time.
Any help information, explanation, confirmation of similar results, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Posted on 16 Aug 2022, this text provides information on Facebook Marketing API related to Digital Marketing. Please note that while accuracy is prioritized, the data presented might not be entirely correct or up-to-date. This information is offered for general knowledge and informational purposes only, and should not be considered as a substitute for professional advice.
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