Issue with Customer Match Upload – Low Match Rate and No Users Available

[Swat Google App]

I’m experiencing issues with uploading data to a Customer Match list in Google Ads via API. The OfflineUserDataJob process runs without apparent errors, but users are not available for display or search.

Technical details:

• The upload is performed using the CONTACT_INFO key type.
• I’m including email and phone, both properly hashed with SHA-256.
• The job is created using OfflineUserDataJobServiceClient.createOfflineUserDataJob(), and the response returns a valid resourceName.
• The request addOfflineUserDataJobOperations() executes and returns without partial failures (hasPartialFailureError() returns false).
• The job is then executed with runOfflineUserDataJob(), and it completes without errors.
• However, when querying the list:
  • getMatchRatePercentage() returns 6%,
  • getEligibleForDisplay() returns false,
  • getEligibleForSearch() returns true,
  • select on users available for display and search returns 0.

Tests performed:
1️⃣ I tested a manual upload via CSV, including email, phone, country, and ZIP code, and the match rate was 99%.
2️⃣ When using the API upload, sending only email and phone, the match rate was 6%, but no users are available for display or search.
3️⃣ I tested different field combinations, but the results didn’t change significantly.
4️⃣ I waited 48 hours after the job execution to check if the match rate changed, but the numbers remained the same.

Can you help understand why this is happening with the match rate?

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to the Google Ads API support team.

Regarding ‘low match rate’, there might be various reasons (normalization issues, matching process time delay, etc). Ensure that your upload job has completed before attempting to validate match rate.

Please refer to the below troubleshooting steps to deal with the match rate issue.

• The data was not hashed before it was uploaded.
• The data was not correctly formatted before it was hashed.
• You are comparing against match rates in a different system.

Also, please be aware that starting on March 6, 2024, if consent is missing for EEA users, then the consent value is determined as not consented. Data from unconsented EEA users won't be processed and cannot be used for ad personalization using Customer Match. See FAQs and updates to consent mode for more details. This might also be one of the reasons for the low match rate for the uploaded customer match list. I would recommend you to refer to this  Help Center for a more detailed guide on troubleshooting low match rates. Additionally, you can refer to the Troubleshoot customer list issues guide to help you troubleshoot low match rates and common errors that might come up in your Customer Match integration.

In order to assist you further,, kindly provide the complete API logs (request and response logs with request-id and request header) generated at your end when uploading the customer match list via the API.

If you are using a client library and haven't enabled the logging yet, I would request that you enable logging for the specific client library that you are using. You can refer to the guides Java, .Net, PHP, Python, Ruby or Perl to enable logging at your end. For REST interface requests, you can enable logging via the curl command by using the -i flag. 

You can send the details via Reply privately to the author option, or direct private reply to this email.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-02-25 06:45:58Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vH3j8:ref" (ADR-00289654)

[Swat Google App]

Hi,

I hope you're doing well.

I wanted to follow up on the issue regarding the low match rate. Have there been any updates on this? Please let me know if any further details are needed from my side.

Looking forward to your response.

Best regards,
Carlos Vicente

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

It appears that you might have missed our previous response. Please refer to the below response.

"I would request that you to provide the Excel sheet with the same addresses that were uploaded through the UI with identical data for user list ID '8970132068' which are uploaded same through the Google Ads API.

Also, verify that you are correctly hashing the email values, as you haven't shared your code for performing the SHA256 hash. I would recommend you to double-check your hashing mechanism to ensure it is equivalent to the 'normalize_and_hash' method from our code samples."

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-02-28 20:32:59Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vH3j8:ref" (ADR-00289654)

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

I have raised your concern with the rest of our team and one of my teammates will reach out to you once we have an update. Meanwhile, your patience is appreciated.

 

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-03-03 16:24:19Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!5004Q02vH3j8:ref" (ADR-00289654)