About a month ago, Google disabled the ability to connect auction insights data from Google Ads to Looker Studio, which didn't sit well with many advertisers.
But recently, Google made another move in limiting access to auction insights data which is likely to frustrate advertisers even more. Starting on September 23, Google completely removed the ability to export auction insights data to Google Sheet or CSV files through Report Editor in Google Ads.
According to Google's announcement, auction insights report data can now only be accessed directly within the Google Ads interface using Tangle Auction insights report fields, and it's no longer available for export outside the platform.
In their reasoning, Google explained that this change is meant to protect advertisers' data. Apparently, they’ve found instances where auction insights data was being used in non-compliant ways (i.e., abuse of data), and they concluded that exporting this data wasn’t in line with their "data externalization policy" (who knew that was a thing, right?).
Interestingly, while I can no longer export auction insights data through the Report Editor in my MCC accounts, I’m still able to pull it from some of my individual accounts. But I wouldn’t be surprised if this ability disappears across the board soon.
When auction insights data was removed from Looker Studio, many advertisers feared that Google might be planning to completely take away this data from Google Ads. After all, Google's recent moves in pushing Performance Max campaigns and showing fewer data in search terms report has made them notorious in data transparency, so it's not strange that advertisers suspect Google might strip away even more data.
But from what Google says, these recent changes limiting the extraction of auction insights data outside the platform are all about protecting data and preventing 'non-compliant usage'. For now, it doesn’t seem like they’re planning to remove auction insights data from Google Ads entirely.
Personally, I find it hard to see how exporting auction insights data to a spreadsheet could lead to abuse of data. I mean, it’s the same data we can view right there in the Google Ads interface! But hey, who am I to judge? Maybe there’s something I’m missing.