Google released version 1.6 of the Data Manager API on May 7, 2026, introducing two substantial additions to the platform: native support for uploading store sales conversions to Google Ads, and expanded event ingestion for Google Analytics across both web and app data streams. The update, announced on the Google Ads Developer Blog by Lindsey Volta on behalf of the Data Manager API Team, marks the most comprehensive feature addition to the API since it reached general availability in October 2025.

The release formalises a capability that Google had signalled as forthcoming. As PPC Land reported in early May 2026, Google had announced that an expansion of the Data Manager and the Data Manager API was expected in the coming weeks, with store sales specifically named as an incoming signal type. The v1.6 release delivers on that disclosure, arriving less than two weeks before Google Marketing Live 2026, scheduled for May 20.

What store sales support actually means

Store sales measurement is not new to Google Ads. According to Google's Help Center documentation, the system "models the number of offline purchases that have occurred after your customers interacted with your Google ads and the modeled value of those." Advertisers can use it to connect in-store transaction data to online advertising interactions - a persistent gap in offline-to-online attribution that has historically required complex pipeline management.

What changes with v1.6 is how that data reaches Google Ads. Previously, uploading store sales conversions required creating and monitoring multiple offline jobs. The Data Manager API collapses that into a single API request using the IngestEventsRequest method. The workflow handles the full ingestion cycle without the operational overhead of managing individual job statuses.

According to the release notes, several new fields accompany the store sales feature. The event_location field was added to the Event resource, which supports providing a physical store_id - allowing advertisers to tie transactions to specific retail locations. A third_party_user_data field was also added to Event, allowing ingested data to be explicitly flagged as being owned by a third party. That field is, however, restricted: "populating this field is only allowed for data partners," according to the documentation.

Additional fields were added to the Item resource within this release. These include merchant_id, merchant_feed_label, merchant_feed_language_code, conversion_value, and custom_variables, the last of which accepts a list of ItemCustomVariable objects. The coupon_codes field was added to CartData to track all coupon codes applied to the cart for events sent to both Google Ads and Google Analytics. For coupon redemption use cases within Google Ads, the documentation specifies using the OFFLINE_PROMOTION_REDEMPTION conversion type.

Eligibility requirements remain a constraint

One important caveat applies. According to the developer blog post, "to use this feature, your Google Ads account must meet certain eligibility requirements." Store sales measurement is available for retailers, restaurants, and automotive OEMs or regional dealer groups, according to the Google Ads Help Center. Not all accounts qualify automatically. This restriction is not new - it has applied to store sales measurement broadly - but it means that not every advertiser upgrading to the Data Manager API will have immediate access to the store sales ingestion workflow.

The Help Center documentation notes that dynamic store sales reporting requires opting into automation solutions "powered by survey and receipts data from over 10 million users of the Google Opinion Reward app, third party partnerships, or by uploading your 1P data in a privacy-safe way." The Data Manager API's new workflow corresponds to the first-party data upload path within that framework.

Google Analytics event ingestion: what changed

The second major addition in v1.6 concerns Google Analytics event delivery. The update substantially broadens what the Data Manager API can send to Analytics properties, moving beyond the purchase-event restrictions that had previously defined the feature.

Until this release, sending events as an additional data source through the Data Manager API was limited to purchase events sent to web data streams. According to the release notes, that restriction is now removed. The API "now supports sending any event with a transaction ID to both web and app data streams as an additional data source for your tag or Google Analytics for Firebase (GA4F) SDK implementation." This opens the mechanism to a wider range of conversion types, provided the event carries a transaction ID.

Event routing is configured by destination. According to the documentation, a Firebase App ID routes an event to a Google Analytics app stream, while a Measurement ID routes it to a web stream. This mirrors the existing destination-based architecture of the Data Manager API, where the routing logic is handled at the request level rather than in the data itself.

The Data Manager API is positioned as an alternative to Measurement Protocol for sending recommended and custom events directly to Google Analytics. That is a meaningful distinction for measurement architects. Measurement Protocol is a well-established mechanism that allows developers to send hits to Google Analytics via HTTP requests. The Data Manager API provides a different entry point with a unified schema, additional metadata support, and a processing model designed for high-volume ingestion. PPC Land's reporting on the API's unified schema noted that under the old architecture, each Google product had its own field names and requirements, with mismatches creating subtle data quality issues that were difficult to diagnose.

New metadata fields for app events

For app event ingestion specifically, v1.6 adds several new fields. The app_instance_id field was added to the Event resource. New fields were added to DeviceInfo to support metadata about the user's device. The mobile_device_id field was added to AdIdentifiers. And the event_location field - the same one supporting store_id in the store sales workflow - also captures geographic metadata including city, subdivision_code, region_code, subcontinent_code, and continent_code for app events.

The Data Manager API's unified schema, according to the developer blog, "now supports important metadata like app instance ID, event location, and mobile device information for app events." This enriches the data available in Analytics for app-generated events, particularly for businesses running campaigns across both physical and digital touchpoints where correlating device context with store-level activity matters for attribution.

The allowlist restriction on additional data source events

A notable operational limitation applies to the expanded additional data source feature. According to the release notes, "this feature is limited to Google Analytics properties on an allowlist; please fill out this form if you're interested in adding your property to the allowlist." This restriction has applied since Google first introduced the additional data source capability in the Data Manager API, and it remains in place for the expanded version in v1.6.

The separate note in the February 10, 2026 release - now visible in the version history - confirms that "sending conversions with multiple data sources to boost performance and data strength is now generally available to all Google Ads accounts," but the Analytics-side feature remains allowlisted. Advertisers and developers who want to use any event with a transaction ID as an additional data source to Google Analytics properties must apply, regardless of their access level for Google Ads-side features.

Other additions in v1.6

Beyond store sales and Analytics events, the v1.6 release adds a new OAuth scope: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/datamanager.partnerlink. This scope covers methods related to creating, searching, and deleting partner links, corresponding to the PartnerLink resource and PartnerLinkService that were introduced in v1.5 back in February 2026. The youtube_members_count and gmail_members_count fields were also added to the SizeInfo resource, providing audience size metadata for lists that include YouTube members or Gmail users.

New values were added to the ErrorReason enum to support detailed validation for store sales and Google Analytics event ingestion - a practical addition for developers who need to diagnose specific failure modes during ingestion. These error codes extend the existing validation framework that has grown across every major version of the API.

Where v1.6 fits in the broader API trajectory

The Data Manager API has accumulated significant capability since its initial launch on April 2, 2025. Version 1.0 supported only audience data for Google Ads and Display & Video 360. Version 1.1 added offline conversion event ingestion. Version 1.2 extended that to enhanced conversions for leads. Version 1.3 brought general availability to all users in October 2025. Version 1.4 added Google Analytics purchase events. Version 1.5 in February 2026 introduced the full end-to-end audience management workflow, adding UserListService and partner links. Version 1.6 completes a gap that had been present since the API's launch: the ability to send in-store transaction data directly through the same pipeline that handles digital conversion data.

Each version has expanded the set of use cases the API can handle, progressively reducing the number of separate integrations that advertisers and developers must maintain. As PPC Land has tracked across multiple updates, Google has been systematically redirecting data operations from the Google Ads API toward the Data Manager API, with hard deadlines applied to Customer Match uploads from April 1, 2026.

The addition of store sales closes one of the remaining asymmetries between what the Data Manager API could do and what the older, fragmented workflows could do. For retailers and restaurant groups with offline transaction data, the single-request workflow represents a meaningful operational simplification compared to managing multiple job statuses. For developers migrating existing store sales implementations from the Google Ads API, the documentation includes a specific upgrade guide.

Why this matters for marketing measurement

The timing of the v1.6 release is deliberate. Google has been assembling a unified measurement infrastructure across its advertising products throughout 2025 and 2026. Enhanced conversions for web and leads were unified into a single toggle in April 2026, with the method selection screen removed and multiple data sources accepted simultaneously. Google Analytics had already refocused user-provided data toward advertising conversion accuracy in November 2025. Session attributes and IP address imports were restricted in the Google Ads API from February 2026, pushing developers toward the Data Manager API.

Store sales fits precisely into that trajectory. The gap between a customer clicking an ad and walking into a store to complete a purchase has historically been one of the most difficult measurement challenges in retail advertising. By integrating store sales ingestion into the same API that handles digital conversion uploads, Google reduces the architectural complexity of maintaining separate data pipelines for online and offline attribution. The result is a more complete signal picture within Smart Bidding systems - the engine that translates conversion data into bid decisions.

The Data Manager API's confidential matching and encryption capabilities - features that are not available through the older Google Ads API pathway - are also available for store sales data under the new workflow. According to the developer blog, the store sales ingestion workflow supports "confidential matching, encryption for user identifiers, and support for sending multiple items per event in CartData." These capabilities matter for retailers handling large volumes of customer transaction data where data security requirements are part of the implementation criteria.

What developers need to do now

For teams with existing store sales implementations through the Google Ads API, Google's documentation includes an explicit upgrade path. The developer blog states: "Upgrade your existing store sales workflows to gain access to future improvements and features." The upgrade guide walks through migration steps from the Google Ads API to the IngestEventsRequest-based workflow in the Data Manager API.

For teams looking to send events to Google Analytics, the documentation references three entry points: sending recommended and custom events, upgrading from Measurement Protocol, and a recommended events reference. Developers with questions about the release can reach the team through the "Google Advertising and Measurement Community" Discord server or through the support page. Data partners interested in becoming part of the ecosystem can fill out the Partner Interest Form referenced in the developer blog.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Google's Data Manager API Team, led in this announcement by Lindsey Volta. The release affects developers, agencies, and marketing technology vendors integrating first-party data with Google Ads and Google Analytics. Retailers, restaurant groups, and automotive OEMs or dealer groups are specifically relevant to the store sales feature.

What: Data Manager API v1.6 introduces store sales conversion ingestion via a single IngestEventsRequest, replacing multi-job offline workflows. It also expands Google Analytics event ingestion to any event with a transaction ID across both web and app data streams, adds new Item resource fields including merchant_id and conversion_value, adds event_location and third_party_user_data to the Event resource, introduces a new OAuth scope for partner links, and adds coupon_codes to CartData.

When: The release was published on May 7, 2026, on the Google Ads Developer Blog.

Where: The Data Manager API is a server-side API accessible via REST and gRPC. It supports Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Display & Video 360 as destinations. Store sales ingestion is available to eligible Google Ads accounts that meet the platform's requirements for retailers, restaurants, and automotive sectors. The expanded Google Analytics event feature is restricted to properties on an allowlist.

Why: The release closes a gap between digital and offline conversion attribution by adding store sales to the same ingestion pipeline that already handles online conversions, audience uploads, and enhanced conversions for leads. It positions the Data Manager API as a replacement not only for the Google Ads API's audience and conversion upload paths - where migrations have already been enforced - but also for Measurement Protocol in certain Google Analytics event ingestion scenarios. The broader pattern, visible across multiple 2025 and 2026 updates, points toward consolidating first-party data flows through fewer, more capable infrastructure components.

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