Google Ads is introducing a major change to how long advertisers can access historical reporting data, and it could have a significant impact on reporting, forecasting and long-term performance analysis for your brand. 

Beginning on Monday 1st June 2026, Google Ads will introduce new data retention limits across its reporting platform and APIs. 

Marketers who rely on historical performance data should start preparing now to avoid losing any valuable insights from their data.

What is Changing?

Under the new policy, Google Ads reporting data for periods shorter than one month will only remain available for 37 months (three years). 

This includes hourly, daily, and weekly reporting data.

Monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting data will continue to be available for up to 11 years.

Once these retention periods expire, the data will no longer be accessible through the Google Ads interface or the Google Ads API.

Google has also confirmed that it will begin deleting reporting data older than 37 months from June 2026 unless advertisers export it beforehand.

Reach and Frequency Metrics Have Shorter Limits

Some reporting metrics will have even shorter retention windows.

Reach and frequency data will only remain available for three years before being permanently removed from Google Ads and its APIs.

This includes metrics such as unique users, average impression frequency per user, 7-day and 30-day average impression frequency, and frequency distribution metrics including 1+, 2+, 3+, 4+, 5+ and 10+.

For advertisers running long-term brand awareness campaigns, this change may affect future reporting and historical benchmarking.

Why This Matters for Advertisers

Many advertisers and agencies rely heavily on historical Google Ads data for trend analysis, forecasting, reporting and media mix modelling.

Having access to several years of granular campaign data can help businesses identify seasonal trends, understand long-term performance patterns and make smarter budget decisions.

With these new limits coming into effect, businesses that do not proactively export and store their reporting data could lose access to valuable historical insights.

This is particularly important for organisations using external business intelligence tools, custom dashboards or internal reporting systems that depend on historical Google Ads data remaining accessible.

How to Export Your Google Ads Data

There are several ways advertisers can export and preserve their Google Ads reporting data before the new retention limits take effect.

Exporting Data Through the Google Ads Interface

The simplest method is to download reports directly from the Google Ads platform.

To export reporting data:

Step One – Go to the page containing the statistics table you want to download.

Step Two – Click the download icon above the table.

Step Three – Select Download.

Step Four – Choose Google Sheets or another preferred file format.

    Exporting data to Google Sheets can be particularly useful for ongoing analysis and reporting.

    Using the Google Ads API

    For businesses managing larger datasets or automated reporting systems, the Google Ads API offers a scalable way to retrieve historical campaign data programmatically.

    The API currently has two main access levels.

    Basic Access allows up to 15,000 operations and 1,000 report requests per day.

    Standard Access is designed for businesses and developers requiring higher usage volumes and includes unlimited daily operations and reporting requests.

    Google also applies request-per-second and request-per-minute limits to maintain platform stability.

    Advertisers using third-party reporting tools should also confirm whether their provider introduces reporting delays exceeding 24 hours.

    Google BigQuery and Data Warehousing

    For larger advertisers and agencies, Google BigQuery is becoming increasingly important for long-term data storage and analysis.

    BigQuery is Google’s cloud data warehouse platform and is designed to manage large-scale datasets efficiently.

    It can help businesses store large volumes of historical Google Ads data while supporting advanced reporting and analysis. It also allows organisations to centralise reporting across multiple marketing channels and support activities such as Customer Match lists and offline conversion imports. 

    As reporting retention windows shorten inside Google Ads itself, warehousing data externally is likely to become standard practice for many organisations.

    What is Google Ads Data Manager?

    Google Ads Data Manager is another useful tool for businesses preparing for these retention changes.

    It simplifies the process of connecting and managing first-party data sources within Google Ads.

    Benefits include consolidated data management controls, integration with third-party platforms and simplified workflows without the need for extensive technical setup. It also supports connections to Google Cloud Storage and BigQuery for long-term data storage and reporting. 

    For many businesses, Data Manager could become a practical solution for maintaining reporting continuity after Google’s new retention policy begins.

    What Advertisers Should Do Next

    The changes take effect next week (start of June 2026), so advertisers should start planning their data retention strategy now.

    Businesses should review how much historical data they currently rely on, identify whether important reporting could be lost, and consider implementing automated export processes before older data disappears.

    For agencies and marketing teams using external dashboards or BI platforms, ensuring historical Google Ads data is securely warehoused may become essential for maintaining accurate long-term reporting.

    As digital advertising platforms continue to evolve, owning and preserving your marketing data is becoming increasingly important.