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data-manager-api-audience-ingestion

Guides developers through uploading audience members to Google products using the Data Manager API /v1/audienceMembers/ingest endpoint and its associated client libraries. Use this skill when the user wants to upload audience members for Customer Match, mobile device ID audiences, or any other audience use case supported by the Data Manager API. Don't use for uploading events or conversions (use the data-manager-api-event-ingestion skill).

Data Manager API Audience Ingestion

Core Directives

  • [IMPORTANT] When reading API documentation from developers.google.com, read the Markdown equivalent of the page by appending .md.txt to the URL.

Sequential Implementation Workflow

For simple informational, configuration, or setup questions, skip any irrelevant steps and answer using only the relevant guidelines or documentation provided below.

Step 1: Identify Use Case & Read Documentation

  • Determine Destination Account Type: [CRITICAL] If it's not explicitly stated, STOP and CLARIFY with the user where the data is being sent (e.g., Google Ads, Display & Video 360, etc.) BEFORE generating any code. Do NOT assume Google Ads by default. This maps to the account_type field of the operating_account in the Destination.
  • Read Documentation: [CRITICAL] You MUST follow the relevant audience upload overview for implementation steps:

Step 2: Setup Auth

  1. Enable API (Prerequisite): Check that the user has enabled the Data Manager API in their Google Cloud project.
  2. Generate ADC: Authenticate the local workspace using Application Default Credentials (ADC) via gcloud auth application-default login.
    • Required Scopes: Include scopes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/datamanager and https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform.
    • Multi-API Scopes: If using the same credentials for other APIs, append their scopes (e.g., https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords).
    • Service Accounts: Ensure the Service Account has the Service Usage Consumer IAM role, and the user executing gcloud has the Token Creator role (roles/iam.serviceAccountTokenCreator) on that Service Account for impersonation.
  3. Reference: Refer to Set up API access for a walkthrough of the gcloud CLI auth setup.

Step 3: Install Client Library and Utilities

Refer to Install a client library for detailed installation instructions.

| Language | Installation Instructions | | :--- | :--- | | Python | pip install google-ads-datamanager | | Java | Follow the quickstart instructions to install the Maven/Gradle dependency. | | Node | npm install @google-ads/datamanager | | PHP | Install the googleads/data-manager component using Composer. | | .NET | Install the Google.Ads.DataManager.V1 NuGet package. |

[IMPORTANT] The utility library is NOT available on public package managers (such as PyPI or Maven). Follow the below instructions to install:

  1. Clone the repository from GitHub using the commands from the table below.
  2. Always use the latest available version of the library. Determine the actual version identifier (VERSION) from the cloned repository metadata.
    • Python: Find the version in pyproject.toml.
    • Java: Find the version in data-manager-util/build.gradle.
    • Node: Find the version in util/package.json (as the version field).
  3. Follow the language-specific instructions in the next section to build and install the utility dependency, replacing VERSION with the version identifier you found.

| Language | Git Clone Command | | :--- | :--- | | Python | git clone https://github.com/googleads/data-manager-python.git | | Java | git clone https://github.com/googleads/data-manager-java.git | | Node | git clone https://github.com/googleads/data-manager-node.git | | PHP | git clone https://github.com/googleads/data-manager-php.git | | .NET | git clone https://github.com/googleads/data-manager-dotnet.git |

Install Utility Library

Python
  1. Navigate to the data-manager-python directory and install the utility library:

    pip install .
    
  2. Declare a dependency in your project's requirements.txt file (replacing VERSION with the identified version):

    google-ads-datamanager-util==VERSION
    
Java
  1. Navigate to the data-manager-java directory.
  2. Build and publish the utility library to your local Maven repository:
./gradlew data-manager-util:install
  1. Declare a dependency on the utility library in your project (replacing VERSION with the identified version):

    • Gradle:
    implementation 'com.google.api-ads:data-manager-util:VERSION'
    
    • Maven:
    <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.api-ads</groupId>
       <artifactId>data-manager-util</artifactId>
       <version>VERSION</version>
    </dependency>
    
Node
  1. Navigate to the data-manager-node directory and install dependencies:
npm install
  1. Navigate to the util directory:
cd util
  1. Pack the utility library into a .tgz archive:
npm pack
  1. Declare a dependency in your Node.js project's package.json pointing to the path of the generated .tgz archive (replacing VERSION with the identified version):
{
   "dependencies": {
      "@google-ads/data-manager-util": "file:/path/to/google-ads-datamanager-util-VERSION.tgz"
   }
}
PHP
  1. Navigate to the data-manager-php directory.
  2. Resolve dependencies for the library:
composer update --prefer-dist
  1. Update your project's composer.json to declare a dependency on the utility library using a path repository:
 {
     "repositories": [
         {
             "type": "path",
             "url": "/path/to/cloned/data-manager-php"
         }
     ],
     "require": {
         "googleads/data-manager-util": "@dev"
     }
 }
.NET

In your .NET project, declare a ProjectReference dependency pointing to the cloned library's .csproj path:

<ProjectReference Include="\path\to\cloned\Google.Ads.DataManager.Util\src\Google.Ads.DataManager.Util.csproj" />

Step 4: Retrieve Code Sample

[IMPORTANT] If writing or updating an ingestion script, ALWAYS retrieve the relevant code sample to use as a reference:

| Language | Sample | | :--- | :--- | | Python | ingest_audience_members.py | | Java | IngestAudienceMembers.java | | PHP | ingest_audience_members.php | | Node | ingest_audience_members.ts | | .NET| IngestAudienceMembers.cs |

Step 5: Retrieve migration guides

[CRITICAL] If refactoring code to upgrade from another Google API, ALWAYS extract the full contents of the relevant field mapping guide.

Google Ads

Display & Video 360

Step 6: Implementation

Implement the ingestion logic using the following checkpoints:

  • [ ] Initialize Client: Instantiate the Data Manager client (IngestionServiceClient).
  • [ ] Define Destinations: Build the Destination object using the product_destination_id and the appropriate account configurations: operating_account (target account receiving data), login_account (if authenticating using a manager account or a data partner account), and linked_account (if you're a data partner accessing the account via a partner link to a manager account). STRONGLY RECOMMENDED: Refer to the Configure destinations and headers guide for more details on configuring destinations.
  • [ ] Format User Data: Use the utility library helpers to normalize and hash user identifiers correctly.
  • [ ] Construct Payload: Build the request payload (IngestAudienceMembersRequest) containing the destinations, formatted members, and consent permissions.
  • [ ] Send Request: Execute ingest_audience_members and record the returned request ID for logging/troubleshooting.

Formatting

  • Fetch the Format user data guide and use that as the source of truth for formatting and normalization rules.

  • Use the utility library to format, hash, and encrypt user data (emails, phone numbers, addresses).

    Python Example:

    from google.ads.datamanager_util import Formatter
    from google.ads.datamanager_util.format import Encoding
    
    formatter: Formatter = Formatter()
    
    processed_email: str = formatter.process_email_address(
        email, Encoding.HEX
    )
    

Critical Gotchas

  • Do NOT set the address field on UserIdentifier unless all required fields are present (postal_code, family_name, given_name, region_code); incomplete address fields will cause the API request to fail.
  • product_destination_id must be a numeric string. It is NOT a resource name.
  • The enum values for ConsentStatus are CONSENT_GRANTED and CONSENT_DENIED. Do not use the values GRANTED and DENIED.
  • Field names on UserIdentifier are email_address and phone_number. Do not use the Google Ads API field names hashed_email and hashed_phone_number.

Error Handling & Troubleshooting

Inspecting Error Payloads

[IMPORTANT] Refer to Understand API Errors for a detailed guide on how to understand the structure of errors returned by the API.

API Reference

When implementing or debugging API integrations, use the API reference to lookup field names, types, and acceptable values. DO NOT guess values.

  • Send audience members guide: https://developers.google.com/data-manager/api/devguides/audiences/send-audience-members
  • REST API Reference: https://developers.google.com/data-manager/api/reference/rest/v1/audienceMembers/ingest