FAQs & Support

Why are some numbers different in pmax script compared to Google's own reports?

In 2025 Google finally created their own pmax channel report (did my script inspire them - who knows!) and the data doesn't always match what the script (or 8020agent) shows.

This is because Google has access to different data and they DO NOT make that extra data available via scripts, at least not yet.

The way the script (& 8020) works is to look at the type of asset being used. If it's marked as a ‘marketing image’ then the assumption is that it's used for Display.

It's not perfect, but until Google actually get ‘transparent’ with their data there's no other way to do this via scripts.

My script is timing out - what can I do?

Google Ads scripts have a time limit of 30mins in which to run. Usually this is more than enough time, but sometimes accounts with tens of thousands of products or dozens of campaigns fall foul of this limit.

Don't worry, I have a solution for you. There's a setting on the Advanced tab.

By default (0) this will fetch all the product data that Google allows.

• To reduce the data a bit, set this to =1. This will only fetch products that have a cost>0, ie it will NOT fetch zombies
• For REALLY big accounts, set this variable to =2. This only gets products with conversions>0

Hotels, Maps, Gmail etc

You would probably love to see more detail about where your ads actually show. Are they on gmail? What about hotel ads?

Sadly Google doesn't allow this level of detail. It's just not possible with the current API. But rest assured, I will test every future version of the API to see if this changes and if it does, I'll let you know AND build a new version of the script.

Can I change the Currency of the Sheet?

Absolutely!! By default the sheet is probably set to dollars and Australian date format - because that's how my sheets are set. But if you change the ‘locale’ of the sheet, you change the currency symbol it uses. Just go to File > Settings and pick your country from the list.

More details here: Change Google Sheets Currency

Can I enter more than one ‘brand term’?

Yes, just use a comma to separate the various phrases/strings (eg mike rhodes, MRI, websavvy)

This will cause multiple search categories to get put in the bucket of ‘brand’ rather than just falling into ‘close brand’. So it gives you slightly more useful info, particularly if your different brand terms are very different words.

What are ‘blank’ search categories?

Think of these as being like the ‘other’ search terms in a search campaign. Essentially the ones Google knows about but isn't going to share with us for ‘privacy reasons’. There's nothing I can do about this, again yell at Google not me.

More info: Blank Search Categories Explained

I've just updated the script, what do I need to do?

Because we're working with Google Sheets here (not a fully fledged stand alone app) when I add new features to the script/sheet, you'll usually have to create a new sheet for each client account.

If you don't, your sheet won't have the things needed by the script and may cause an error. Yes it's slightly painful to have to update every account with a new script, that's why I created the MCC version - install the code once and create sheets for all accounts in one go.