Delays in the schedule of Google Ads Script runs

[Rez GodarzvandChegini]

Hello there,

We have scheduled our Google Ads Script with a daily frequency, but our script doesn't actually start running at the exact scheduled time. It's always delayed about an hour later than what's specified (58 minutes and 44 seconds to be precise). I was wondering if you could provide some visibility how to understand such delay and if there are measures to resolve that.

Thanks,

Rez

[Google Ads Scripts Forum Advisor]

Hi Rez,

Thanks for reaching out. Harry here, from the Google Ads Scripts Team.

Can you kindly provide your CID and script's name so that I can check on the issue thoroughly? You may send them here or privately via the reply to author option. Note that you may need to join the Google Group for you to use this option.
 
If this option is not available at your end still, you may send it through our email (googleadsscr...@google.com) instead. 

Thanks,

Harry Cliford Rivera Google Ads Scripts Team

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[Google Ads Scripts Forum Advisor]

Hi Rez,

Thank you for providing the requested details. Would you be able to provide the time you have initially scheduled the script to? Can you also provide a screenshot of the script history of your view so I can compare those with mine? For your information, date and time in the Google Ads UI will be based on the account timezone that is set.

On the other hand, I would recommend that you make a new copy of the script to refresh authorization and scheduling.

[Michael Ramsey]

This is working as intended. The scheduling system runs at some point within an hour of the schedule. It's kind of a pain if you need something to change at an exact specific time. You either need to repeatedly reschedule until you luck out and it gets very close to the time you want it to run. Alternatively, drop scripts and go the API route so you can use a third-party system for exact scheduling. 

(Unless this has changed since this came up for me years ago. Maybe they fixed it and it is now possible to schedule for an exact time. See what the support says but I bet you'll get the same answer I got ~5 years ago.)

[Rez GodarzvandChegini]

Hi Harry,

I sent you the screenshot that you requested.

> On the other hand, I would recommend that you make a new copy of the script to refresh authorization and scheduling.

I see the schedule updated fine on my end just not running at the time I think it should, but please let me know if that recommendation helps you with your diagnosis.

Thanks for your help,

Rez

[Rez GodarzvandChegini]

Appreciate your input, Michael!

Ah, interesting! That sounds reasonable! I just hope it's clearly documented how to expect this behaviour at some point. Can you the link to your support inquiry here? I'm interested to see the response you received earlier for my reference.

Thanks again!

Rez

[Michael Ramsey]

It was 2 different jobs ago now and I honestly can't remember if I got the answer via these forums or when I was speaking directly with the engineering team guy that I was working with on some national automotive and pharma campaigns. 

That being said, I did a quick search and tracked down an instance of a similar response: https://groups.google.com/g/adwords-scripts/c/vC8yZ2XAIrI 

From that thread via Tyler Sidell in 2015 regarding hourly timing but the same thing applies to daily as far as I know.

The AdWords Scripts HOURLY frequency is set to run within the hour and not exactly on the hour.  So the script could run, if set to HOURLY, at 2:30 then 3:30 then 4:30, etc.  I would suggest factoring that in and adjust the bids and the spreadsheet accordingly.

[Rez GodarzvandChegini]

Interesting! Thanks for the quick research!

[Rez GodarzvandChegini]

Through this experience, I had the feeling like there's a for loop that triggers all customers' Ads Script, and the time it runs depends on the order that the system gets to our call.  But if the option is given to the user to choose their own preferred time, we might choose other times than ones on the hour.

[Google Ads Scripts Forum Advisor]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for providing your inputs on this. However, Rez's script is scheduled daily with a specified time so behavior should differ compared to scheduling the script at an hourly basis considering that the Hourly option does not let you specify an exact time.

@Rez: Thanks for sharing more details. Allow me to reach out to the rest of the team to get further insights and clarifications on what should be the expected behavior when scheduling scripts or whether this is an issue.

Rest assured that I will be providing updates in this thread accordingly.

[Google Ads Scripts Forum Advisor]

Hi Rez/Michael,

Thank you for your patience on this. I have a got an update from the team and it seems that this is all expected behavior. When you schedule a script for a specific hour, the scheduler essentially randomly picks a time within that hour, but will consistently run at this time. This is done so that we can spread out the execution of scripts across various accounts and avoid having too many scripts starting simultaneously.

Hope this clarifies things. If you have other issues or question on this, please let me know.

[Rez GodarzvandChegini]

Roger that! This makes sense to me, and it is consistent with my observations as well.

Harry, if the team finds it agreeable, it'd be awesome to point it out on the scheduling page and the Google Ads Script's documentations. Even if not, I'm still glad that we got it documented here.

Thanks for your quick update on this, and have a great week ;)

Rez

[Google Ads Scripts Forum Advisor]

Hi Rez,

Absolutely. Allow me to file this as a feature request instead on your behalf for the team to consider and see next viable actions. In the meantime, please follow our blog for updates and new releases.

[Michael Ramsey]

I laughed so hard. Made my day. Yesterday: "This is not scheduled hourly so it should run at the specified time." Today: "Nevermind, it actually doesn't run at the specified time." 

Anyway, good to know this is still officially how it functions. 

On Tuesday, July 13, 2021 at 12:48:43 AM UTC-4 adsscripts wrote: