Google Ads Data Manager: when the shiny new tool isn't quite ready

Original: Google Ads Data Manager: Severely Unfinished Business

Lukas Oldenburg

June 2, 2025

18 min read

Case Study

Advanced

Technology Foundations

Visit Original Article

Google Ads Data Manager: Severely Unfinished Business

Summary

Exploring the key features and trade-offs of column-store data warehouse engines like Snowflake, BigQuery, and Redshift. Understand partitioning, clustering, compute-storage separation, and query optimization strategies for performance and cost optimization.

Who This Is For

Performance Marketers

Marketing Analysts

Technical Marketers

Key Takeaways

Google Ads Data Manager has major limitations including no support for wbraid/gbraid parameters and a maximum 14-day conversion window
Setting up BigQuery connections with Data Manager involves numerous undocumented issues and workarounds that can take months to resolve
The 'point-and-click' promise doesn't match reality - expect significant troubleshooting and potential need to fall back to Google Ads API
Critical features like proper mobile app conversion tracking are missing, making it unsuitable for many advanced use cases

Tools & Technologies

Google Ads Data Manager BigQuery Google Sheets Adobe Analytics Google Cloud Platform Google Ads API Google Cloud Functions Google Cloud Storage

Topics Covered

data-warehouses snowflake bigquery redshift

Ready to dive deeper?

Read Full Article on thebounce.io

More from Lukas Oldenburg

Diving deep into Piwik Pro's privacy settings (and why they're confusing)

An overview of the various privacy modes and consent management features in Piwik Pro, a popular web analytics platform. Covers techniques for enabling session-only tracking and ensuring compliance with GDPR and CCPA regulations.

Lukas Oldenburg June 2, 2025

Advanced

Why we ditched Google Analytics 4 for Piwik Pro (and skipped Matomo)

Techniques and best practices for implementing client-side data tracking on web and mobile applications, including SDKs, virtual URLs, element selectors, event throttling, and handling browser quirks like ad-blockers and ITP/ETP.

Lukas Oldenburg June 2, 2025

Intermediate

Why analytics tools make us feel things (and what that tells us)

This article explores the emotional experiences of users during the usage of three popular analytics platforms - Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, and Piwik Pro. By examining the author's emotional state while using these tools, the article provides a unique perspective on the user experience and decision-making process when selecting an analytics solution.

Lukas Oldenburg June 2, 2025

Intermediate

Related Resources in Technology Foundations

Diving deep into Piwik Pro's privacy settings (and why they're confusing)

Lukas Oldenburg June 2, 2025

Advanced

Why we ditched Google Analytics 4 for Piwik Pro (and skipped Matomo)

Lukas Oldenburg June 2, 2025

Intermediate

That whole server-side tracking debate (and why it's complicated)

This article provides an introduction to server-side tracking, highlighting the potential benefits and drawbacks of this approach compared to traditional client-side tracking. It covers the technical aspects of server-side data collection, including latency, schema, and cost trade-offs, as well as the implications for data privacy and compliance.

Lukas Oldenburg June 2, 2025

Intermediate

Topics

data-warehouses snowflake bigquery redshift