Overdelivery Credits not reported in BudgetOrder spendingLimit

[Evan Giesel]

Hi,
For a little background, I'm using the Adwords Api to automatically detect when a budget order has been exhausted.

Using BudgetOrderService, I can grab the spendingLimit of a budget order, and then run a ACCOUNT_PERFORMANCE_REPORT over the time period of the budget order to get the amount spent. When the amount spent is equal to the spending limit, I know the budget order is exhausted. This method works perfectly most of the time.

I've been noticing some weird exceptions, though, as sometimes the amount spent is reported greater than the spendingLimit. I dug in a little, and I think this has to do with Overcharge Credits.

Here is an example of my problem:

I have a budget order starting on July 17 (no end date).

Budget Amount: $120.00 (with $0.56 of credit).

Where the amount spent is 100%, or $120.56 (120.56 / [120.00 + 0.56])

BudgetOrderService reports a spendingLimit of 120.56

ACCOUNT_PERFORMANCE_REPORT reported a cost of $123.54

Looking at the transaction history in the mcc, I counted up invalid click credit, which totaled $0.56 (the number displayed in green under the budget amount). There was also one $3.00 Overdelivery credit (which is not part of the green number).

So, from BudgetOrderService perspective, the spending limit is budget amount ($120) + invalid click credit ($0.56) = $120.56

But from ACCOUNT_PERFORMANCE_REPORT's perspective, the spending limit is budget amount ($120) + invalid click credit ($0.56) + Overdelivery credit ($3.00) = $123.56

Unless I'm total wrong in my assessment, it looks like Overdelivery Credits are not reported in BudgetOrder spendingLimit, which creates an inconsistency between the budget order and cost reports.

This means, in the presence of an overdelivery credit, I will off by several dollars when I check to see if the amount spent is equal to the spending limit.

Is there any way, through the API, to factor Overdelivery credits into the spending limit of a budget order?

Thanks!

-Evan

[Vishal Vinayak (Adwords API Team)]

Hi Evan,

As of the latest release of the AdWords API v201609, you can now retrieve adjustments via the totalAdjustments field in the BudgetOrderService. You can add the adjustments to your budget to get an accurate limit for your budget.  

Please revert in case you have additional questions.

Regards,

Vishal, AdWords API Team

[Evan Giesel]

Thanks for pointing out the totalAdjustments field. I have been wanting a field like that for months!

Unfortunately, even with totalAdjustments, the inconsistency is still occurring.

Let me run through my logic real quick:

from the docs, under spendingLimit:

Note, that for get requests the spending limit includes any adjustments that have been applied to the budget order

So the spendingLimit of a BudgetOrder should include the totalAdjustment:

spendingLimit = monthly budget + totalAdjustments

which, in turn, should mean:

spendingLimit = monthly budget + invalid click credits + overcharge credits + any other kind of credits/adjustments

For reference, I looked through the transaction history page in the mcc, and summed up all the different credits for this budget: $0.56 in invalid click credits, and $3.00 in overcharge credits.

I requested the BudgetOrder again to double check, and got this:

spendingLimit: $120.56 = monthly budget ($120.00) + invalid click credit ($0.56)

totalAdjustments: $0.56 = invalid click credit ($0.56)

which is missing the $3.00 overcharge credit listed in the transaction history page (I can provide a screenshot of the transaction history page in question, if needed)

From the docs ("the spending limit includes any adjustments that have been applied to the budget order") I expect this response:

spendingLimit: $123.56 = monthly budget ($120.00) + invalid click credit ($0.56) + overcharge credit ($3.00)

totalAdjustments: $3.56 = invalid click credit ($0.56) + overcharge credit ($3.00)

My problem is that, at least by default, the adwords api does not report overcharge credit in either spendingLimit or totalAdjustments

Thanks!

-Evan

[Michael Cloonan (AdWords API Team)]

Hello,

Since neither the spendingLimit nor the totalAdjustments is including the overcharge credit, I'm tempted to say that it's working as intended. You may want to change the check you make vs. the reporting data to see if you've spent at least as much as your spending limit indicates, rather than exactly as much, which may get around the issue.

I don't think we should start including overcharge credits in the spendingLimit either, since people have been using the spendingLimit as is for quite some time, and having the numbers increase across the board (potentially) would be alarming for users.

Maybe the best compromise might be to add a field explicitly to indicate overcharge credits. Would that help you? Note that this is not a promise that we may ever actually build such a thing, but I could file a feature request if you provide a strong use case.

Regards,

Mike, AdWords API Team

[Evan Giesel]

Thank you for your response!

Unfortunately, I don't have a very strong use case, so please accept this probably-insufficiently-thought-through rant.

I would argue that if overcharge credits represent a big enough number to confuse people if it were suddenly introduced, then it is probably important enough to be available somewhere in the api.

I guess my main concern is that this discrepancy, however small, introduces an amount of potential error into every single budget order related calculation that I do. 

That I've seen, overcharge credits aren't ever a large percentage of a budget, but it is a percentage that I have no way of knowing whether it exists or how much it is. It means that if I have a budget that lasts for a month, I don't know whether it's exhausted or only close to being exhausted. It means that if a budgetorder last for many months, I don't know if my numbers are off by a dollar, or tens of dollars.

Having a field like you suggest that contains this mystery amount would free me up from a load of guess work.

Side note / additional (probably stupid) thought:

In the mcc, I have noticed that the overcharge credit isn't displayed in the account budgets page at all, but only the transaction history page. Budget amount and credit amounts do not contain the overcharge credit. The amount spent seems to be the true amount spent minus any overcharge amounts.

It would be equally useful  to me If there was a field that gave me the current amount spent minus the overcharge amount, to correspond to the overcharge-credit-free spending limit.

Thanks!

-Evan

[Michael Cloonan (AdWords API Team)]

Hello,

Thank you for your thoughts. I don't think there are any plans to reveal spend information through the API directly, except in reports, unfortunately.

That said, when I was investigating this issue yesterday after my post, I did find that there were other users who had the same concern as you regarding overcharge credits previously. The team is taking a look to see what the best change might be to help with this problem. Again, this is no guarantee of actual API changes in the future, but if you watch our blog for new release announcements, any new features that are included will be shown there.

Regards,

Mike, AdWords API Team

[Evan Giesel]

Thanks for your response, I'll be watching for future developments!

-Evan