TargetingIdeaService RateLimit Constantly Getting Hit

[Charles Michael]

Hi,

It's been nearly two years since I've worked with the Google API, but I wanted to ask two questions: 

1) Is it possible to verify if I still have standard access (we haven't actively used our API access in over 2 years and I'm unsure if our account still has Standard Access, especially after resetting our API Keys). 

2) Any suggestions on how to accurately space out requests for TargetingIdeaService (v201806)? I seem to be always hitting a rate limit error [RateExceededError <rateName=RATE_LIMIT, rateKey=null, rateScope=ACCOUNT, retryAfterSeconds=30>] even with a large wait time between requests (240 seconds). I have only been able to do 2 successful requests in the past hour. I don't mind putting a very large sleep time between requests, but I'd like an accurate number so I don't keep getting rate limited between requests. 

Thank you in advance.

[Dannison Yao (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Charles,

You should be able to determine if you still have standard access by logging in to your MCC account in AdWords UI and navigate to Settings > AdWords API Center. You should be able to see your access level from there. 

For your other issue, since you are using the TargetingIdeaService, you may note that this is a more expensive service to call as compared to the other services of the AdWords API. The rate limits for this service are significantly more strict than for other services that can be used for managing campaigns. The rate limits can vary based on time of day, overall volume of API usage by all users, and other factors. Our team does not publish specific allowable QPS numbers to allow for this variance, and instead use rate limit errors and require that integrations against the API adhere to the timeouts as they encounter rate limit errors.

Regards,

Dannison

AdWords API Team

[Charles Michael]

Thanks, I see I still have Standard Access, that's a good sign. 

As for the rate limits, I have no issue adhering to the timeout level given, I just wish it was more accurate. I always get returned 30 seconds, but its clearly much much higher (I've tried values as high as 600 and still get ratelimited). Is there a specific time of day that is better to run these scrips when your servers aren't being used as much? Perhaps I can schedule these requests to when your server load is the least busy. 

Thank you

[Dannison Yao (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Charles,

Unfortunately, I cannot give a comment whether there is a specific time of the day that would have less traffic. The only recommendation I can provide is to follow our guide on how to handle errors based on our rate limits documentation.

Regards,

Dannison

AdWords API Team

[Charles Michael]

Hi,

From the rate limits documentation, I was able to see code suggestions on how to catch/handle RateExceededError's for C# but not for perl. Is there a code sample to show how to try/catch RateExceededError's for Perl? 

Thank you

[Dannison Yao (AdWords API Team)]

Hi Charles,

Unfortunately, the team could not provide you an example for Perl. However, you may pattern your code to the sample codes to fit the Perl syntax.

Regards,

Dannison

AdWords API Team