Google launches Data Manager API to centralize first-party data uploads

Google announced the Data Manager API on December 9, 2025, establishing a centralized ingestion point for first-party data across Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Display & Video 360. The application programming interface consolidates multiple platform-specific APIs into a single integration, addressing technical complexity that has historically required developers to maintain separate implementations for each advertising product.

According to Ginny Marvin, Ads Product Liaison at Google, the API builds on the codeless Data Manager tool that has served tens of thousands of advertisers. The programmatic interface enables developers, agencies, and marketing technology vendors to automate audience list uploads and offline conversion event transmission at scale. Marvin stated the API addresses a fundamental challenge in digital advertising infrastructure, noting that "managing multiple APIs for different platforms is a big headache."

The launch includes partnerships with eleven marketing technology providers. AdSwerve, Customerlabs, Data Hash, Fifty Five, Hightouch, Jellyfish, Lytics, Tealium, Treasure Data, and Zapier have integrated the Data Manager API into their platforms. These partnerships enable immediate availability for customers using customer data platforms, marketing automation systems, and analytics tools that connect advertiser data sources with Google's advertising infrastructure.

Technical specifications and capabilities

The Data Manager API operates through both REST and gRPC protocols, providing flexibility for different implementation requirements. The interface supports three primary data types: audience members using Customer Match, mobile device identifiers, and Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation identifiers. For conversion tracking, the system handles offline conversions, enhanced conversions for leads, and conversion events serving as additional data sources for tag-based conversions.

According to the official documentation, the API limits each Google Cloud project to 100,000 requests per day and 300 requests per minute. Individual requests can contain up to 10,000 audience members or 2,000 conversion events. Each audience member or conversion event may include up to 10 user identifiers, enabling comprehensive matching capabilities while maintaining system performance standards.

The authentication framework requires OAuth 2.0 credentials with the datamanager scope. Google Cloud projects serve as the foundation for API access, with developers configuring OAuth clients through the Google Cloud Console. The system supports both user account credentials for direct human interaction and service account credentials for automated application workflows. Application Default Credentials enable automatic credential discovery from the environment, simplifying deployment across different infrastructure configurations.

Encryption capabilities support both Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services key management systems. The API accepts data encrypted using XChaCha20-Poly1305 algorithms, with wrapped data encryption keys secured by cloud provider key management services. This multi-cloud encryption support accommodates diverse enterprise security architectures while maintaining data protection standards throughout transmission and processing.

Operational workflow and integration patterns

The Data Manager API introduces destination-based routing that enables advertisers to specify multiple target accounts within single requests. A destination object contains three account identifiers: the login account making the API call, an optional linked account accessed through established product links, and the operating account receiving the data. This three-tier structure accommodates complex organizational relationships, including data partners accessing client accounts and manager accounts uploading data to sub-accounts.

Request validation mechanisms support testing without data commitment. The validate_only parameter enables developers to verify request formatting, authentication, permission structures, and destination configurations without actually ingesting data or modifying audience lists. This capability reduces production errors and accelerates implementation cycles during initial integration phases.

According to the release notes, the system processes requests asynchronously and returns request identifiers for status tracking. The RetrieveRequestStatus method provides diagnostic information including success rates, error counts by reason, and warning information for partially successful uploads. This observability enables developers to monitor data quality and troubleshoot integration issues through programmatic interfaces rather than manual investigation.

The API enforces consent requirements aligned with Digital Markets Act regulations. Request-level and user-level consent settings specify whether users have granted permission for ad user data collection and ad personalization. The system includes terms of service acceptance fields, with Customer Match uploads requiring explicit acceptance of Google's Customer Match terms. These compliance mechanisms ensure advertisers meet regulatory obligations while leveraging first-party data for advertising purposes.

Conversion tracking enhancements

The Data Manager API extends beyond audience management to support multiple conversion tracking methodologies. Offline conversion uploads enable advertisers to attribute sales completed through phone calls, in-store transactions, or other non-digital channels back to online advertising interactions. The system matches offline transactions to ad clicks or views using Google click identifiers, transaction identifiers, or user identifying information.

Enhanced conversions for leads supplement standard conversion tracking by providing additional customer information from lead forms. According to the API documentation, advertisers upload hashed email addresses or phone numbers collected during lead submission. The system matches this information with signed-in Google accounts to recover conversions that standard cookie-based tracking would miss due to privacy restrictions or technical limitations.

The November 5 release introduced support for Google Analytics purchase events as an additional data source. According to the release notes, advertisers can send conversion events to tag-based conversion actions, maximizing ad interaction signals and strengthening overall performance data. This capability addresses scenarios where website implementations capture some but not all conversion events, enabling comprehensive conversion measurement through multiple data collection methods.

The system processes conversion value, currency codes, cart data, and custom variables for each event. Advertisers can specify event sources including web, app, in-store, phone, and other channels. User properties enable transmission of advertiser-assessed information about customers, including customer types, value buckets, and custom properties. These structured data fields provide Google's automated bidding systems with richer signals for optimization compared to basic conversion counting.

Data quality and matching capabilities

The API implements strict formatting requirements for user identifying information. Email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses must be hashed using SHA-256 algorithms before transmission. The encoding parameter specifies whether hashed values use hexadecimal or base64 encoding. This preprocessing protects customer privacy while enabling Google to match advertiser data with its own user database for attribution and targeting purposes.

Address information requires specific formatting combining given name, family name, postal code, and two-letter country code. According to the documentation, all components must be lowercase without punctuation, leading spaces, or trailing spaces before hashing. Phone numbers require E.164 standard formatting. These requirements ensure consistent matching across different data sources and implementation methods.

The platform provides match rate feedback for audience uploads. Match rates indicate the percentage of uploaded identifiers that Google successfully matched to user accounts. According to industry implementation patterns observed across Google Ads API updates, higher match rates correlate with more effective targeting and measurement. The system returns match rate ranges rather than precise percentages, balancing advertiser insight needs with user privacy protection.

Error handling mechanisms provide detailed feedback for failed records. The API returns error counts categorized by reason, including invalid formats, missing required fields, policy violations, and technical processing failures. According to the API reference documentation, the system distinguishes between errors that prevent processing entirely and warnings that allow partial processing while flagging potential data quality issues.

Performance implications and optimization benefits

Treasure Data reported an 80 percent reduction in engineering effort following Data Manager API implementation. According to Thanh Tran-Lambert, Director of Technology Partnerships at Treasure Data, the consolidated integration "drastically simplified our architecture and slashed our engineering overhead." The company's customer data platform previously maintained separate integrations for Google Ads Customer Match, Google Analytics audiences, and Display & Video 360 audience management.

The near real-time data transmission capabilities enable more responsive advertising strategies. According to Tran-Lambert, the API "allows us to connect customer data to Google Ads in near real-time, empowering our clients to be more agile and effective in their marketing efforts." This reduced latency between data collection and advertising activation enables advertisers to react faster to customer behavior changes and market conditions.

The single integration point reduces ongoing maintenance burden when Google updates platform-specific APIs. Rather than monitoring and updating multiple codebases across different advertising products, developers maintain one implementation that works across Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Display & Video 360. This consolidation becomes particularly valuable for agencies and marketing technology vendors serving multiple clients across different Google advertising products.

According to Google's blog post announcing the API, marketers who have deeply integrated AI tools report 60 percent greater revenue growth than their peers. The Data Manager API facilitates this integration by streamlining the connection between first-party data and Google's AI-powered advertising systems. Automated bidding strategies, audience expansion, and performance prediction all improve with stronger first-party data signals flowing through the consolidated interface.

Industry context and competitive positioning

The Data Manager API launch occurs as digital advertising platforms increasingly emphasize first-party data infrastructure. Google Analytics refocused its user-provided data feature on advertising conversions on November 5, 2025, shifting away from session attribution toward Enhanced Conversions and Customer Match optimization. This strategic realignment reflects broader platform priorities around leveraging advertiser-owned customer data for targeting and measurement.

The unified API approach mirrors competitive developments across the digital advertising ecosystem. Amazon DSP expanded in-market audiences to 32 countries with unified targeting definitions on November 4, 2025. Display & Video 360 made AI-powered Audience Personas available to all users on September 18, 2025, simplifying audience creation through natural language processing. These parallel developments indicate industry-wide movement toward consolidated data management and AI-enhanced audience capabilities.

Privacy regulations continue shaping first-party data utilization patterns. The API's encryption support for both Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services key management systems addresses enterprise security requirements in regulated industries. Consent management fields align with Digital Markets Act requirements in the European Union. These compliance features enable global advertisers to leverage first-party data while meeting jurisdiction-specific privacy obligations.

The marketing technology ecosystem has expanded support for unified data platforms throughout 2024 and 2025. According to the announcement, eleven integration partners launched Data Manager API support on December 9. This immediate ecosystem availability contrasts with historical API launches requiring months or years for third-party adoption. The coordinated partner launch indicates Google prioritized ecosystem enablement during the development process.

Access requirements and implementation considerations

Advertisers must meet several prerequisites before accessing the Data Manager API. A Google Cloud project with the Data Manager API enabled serves as the foundation. Developers need appropriate permissions including serviceusage.services.enable on the Google Cloud project. The API enforces account-level access controls, requiring that login accounts have write access to operating accounts receiving data uploads.

The gradual rollout timeline provides phased availability across different use cases. Audience uploads to Google Ads and Display & Video 360 became available on April 2, 2025. Conversion event uploads launched on June 25, 2025, supporting tag conversion supplementation. Google Analytics purchase events gained support on November 5, 2025. This staged deployment enabled Google to validate infrastructure scalability and gather feedback from early adopters before expanding functionality.

Implementation patterns vary based on organizational structure. Direct advertisers typically use their own Google Ads account as both login and operating account. Data partners employ specialized account structures where the data partner account serves as the login account while client accounts function as operating accounts. Manager account scenarios involve agencies using their manager account credentials to upload data to client sub-accounts accessed through account hierarchy permissions.

The API documentation emphasizes following best practices for user data formatting. Normalization requirements include converting all text to lowercase, removing spaces and special characters, and applying consistent hashing before transmission. According to the formatting guides, phone numbers must use E.164 international format. Email addresses require removal of dots in Gmail addresses and stripping of plus-addressing before hashing. These preprocessing steps maximize match rates by ensuring consistency across different data collection methods.

Related API developments and ecosystem evolution

The Data Manager API represents one component within Google's broader advertising API strategy. Google Ads API v22launched on October 15, 2025, introducing targetless bidding for App campaigns and expanded first-party data capabilities. API v21 introduced AI Max features on August 13, 2025, while v20 brought Performance Max negative keywords on June 4, 2025.

The platform shifted to monthly release cadence starting January 2026. According to announcements from September 4, 2025, this accelerated schedule replaces the previous pattern of two major releases and one minor release annually. The increased velocity reflects growing API sophistication and expanding feature surface area as Google adds capabilities across advertising products.

Enhanced conversion tracking infrastructure received multiple updates throughout 2025. The mandatory conversion environment field requirement launched on September 30, enabling attribution differentiation between web and app conversions. Google launched a Chrome extension for Enhanced Conversions troubleshooting on July 7, 2024, addressing setup complexity that previously deterred adoption.

Customer Match capabilities have evolved substantially since the feature's introduction. Google expanded access thresholds in Fall 2021, reducing barriers for advertisers with strong compliance histories. The platform introduced instant match rate visibility in March 2021, enabling advertisers to assess data quality immediately upon upload rather than waiting for processing completion.

Timeline

• April 2, 2025: Data Manager API v1.0 released supporting audience uploads to Google Ads and Display & Video 360
• June 4, 2025: Google Ads API v20 launched with Performance Max negative keywords
• June 25, 2025: Data Manager API v1.1 added conversion event support for tag conversion supplementation
• August 6, 2025: Data Manager API v1.2 introduced offline conversions and enhanced conversions for leads
• August 13, 2025: Google Ads API v21 released with AI Max features
• October 6, 2025: Data Manager API v1.3 became generally available with diagnostic request status retrieval
• October 15, 2025: Google Ads API v22 launched with targetless bidding
• November 5, 2025: Data Manager API v1.4 added Google Analytics purchase event support
• November 5, 2025: Google Analytics refocused user-provided data on Enhanced Conversions
• December 9, 2025: Google publicly announced Data Manager API availability with eleven integration partners

Summary

Who: Google announced the Data Manager API for developers, agencies, and advertisers using Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Display & Video 360, with integration partnerships from AdSwerve, Customerlabs, Data Hash, Fifty Five, Hightouch, Jellyfish, Lytics, Tealium, Treasure Data, and Zapier.

What: A unified API consolidating first-party data ingestion for audience management and conversion tracking across multiple Google advertising platforms, supporting Customer Match uploads, mobile identifiers, PAIR data, offline conversions, enhanced conversions for leads, and Google Analytics purchase events through REST and gRPC interfaces with encryption support.

When: Announced December 9, 2025, following staged releases beginning April 2, 2025 for audience data, June 25, 2025 for conversion events, and November 5, 2025 for Google Analytics integration, with general availability declared October 6, 2025.

Where: Available globally through Google Cloud Platform projects requiring OAuth 2.0 authentication, accessible via cloud-based API endpoints for data upload to Google Ads accounts, Display & Video 360 advertisers, and Google Analytics properties across all markets where these products operate.

Why: Addresses engineering complexity from managing multiple platform-specific APIs, reduces integration maintenance burden by 80 percent according to Treasure Data, enables near real-time data transmission for responsive advertising, supports marketers reporting 60 percent greater revenue growth through deeper AI tool integration, and aligns with industry movement toward consolidated first-party data infrastructure amid privacy regulation changes.