Google has announced a new data retention policy for Google Ads and related measurement APIs, starting on 1 June 2026. The short version is simple: granular performance data will become much harder to retrieve once it is more than 37 months old.
For many small and medium-sized advertisers, that will not sound urgent at first. Most day-to-day campaign decisions are made from recent data, not from reports going back several years. But for businesses in Bath, Somerset, Wiltshire, Bristol, Dorset and Gloucestershire that rely on seasonal demand, repeat campaign planning or long-running lead-generation history, this is worth checking before the deadline arrives.
The practical point is not panic. It is housekeeping. If older Google Ads or Google Analytics-linked advertising data still helps you compare performance, explain historic budgets, plan seasonal campaigns or report to directors, now is the time to decide what needs exporting and storing outside the live reporting interface.
What Google is changing
Google says Google Ads and related measurement APIs will move to a 37-month retention policy for granular performance statistics from 1 June 2026. Granular reporting means data split by smaller time segments such as day, hour or week. Higher-level monthly, quarterly and yearly data will continue to be available for longer.
The change affects technical access as well as reporting workflows. Google says Google Ads API and Google Ads scripts requests that ask for daily or weekly segments outside the new window will return errors. Queries for older data will need to use broader monthly, quarterly or yearly segments instead.
There are also measurement knock-ons. Google says some Google Analytics Data API reports that combine affected advertising metrics with date-level dimensions will be limited to the latest 36-month window. BigQuery transfer backfills for Google Ads, Search Ads 360 and Google Analytics 4 are also affected in specific ways. Businesses using automated reporting, dashboards or data warehouses should not assume those pipelines will carry on behaving exactly as they do now.
Why this matters for local advertisers
Plenty of local organisations never look back more than a year. If your reporting is simple and recent, the change may barely touch your everyday work. But there are common South West business scenarios where older data does matter.
A hotel, venue, school, training provider, retailer or tourism business may compare demand across several seasons. A professional services firm may want to understand how enquiry costs changed over a long period. A company that paused campaigns during a restructure may need older benchmarks before restarting. An ecommerce business may need historic product, shopping or campaign data to understand what changed in pricing, stock, margins or demand.
For anyone running Google Ads in Bath, the risk is not that every old report disappears overnight. The risk is that the specific level of detail you want later may no longer be available in the same way. If you need daily performance by campaign, ad group, keyword, product or conversion action from more than 37 months ago, it is safer to export it before the policy takes effect.
What to check before 1 June
Start with the obvious question: does old granular data genuinely help you make decisions? If the answer is no, do not create an archive for the sake of it. More data is not automatically better, especially if nobody will use it.
If the answer is yes, make a short list of the reports that matter. For many advertisers, that might include campaign performance by day, conversion action, keyword, search term, product, location, device or audience. For ecommerce advertisers, product-level history can be especially useful when planning seasonal stock and promotions.
Then check where those reports currently come from. Some businesses rely on Google Ads exports. Others use Looker Studio, Google Sheets, scripts, the Google Ads API, Google Analytics, BigQuery transfers or agency-built dashboards. The more automated your reporting is, the more important it is to test whether any queries ask for older daily, weekly or hourly segments.
This is a good moment to tidy naming as well. An archive is only useful if future you can understand it. Save files with clear dates, account names and report types. Keep a note of what the columns mean, which conversion actions were included, and whether tracking changed during the period.
Do not let old data overrule current reality
Historic advertising data can be useful, but it has limits. Search behaviour changes. Competitors change. Websites change. Consent settings, conversion tracking, campaign types and attribution models change too. A lead cost from 2022 may be a helpful benchmark, but it is not a promise about what will happen in 2026.
The best use of old data is usually context. It can show seasonality, long-term trend lines and the effect of major business changes. It can also help explain why a campaign that looks expensive in one month may still be normal for that time of year.
For search marketing, that context is useful only when it sits alongside current commercial goals. If the business has moved into new services, changed its locations, rebuilt its website or altered its sales process, old campaign reports should inform the conversation, not close it down.
The practical takeaway
Google’s data retention change is mainly a prompt to get your measurement house in order. Before 1 June 2026, decide whether older granular Google Ads data has real value to your business. If it does, export it, label it clearly and store it somewhere sensible.
For Bath and South West businesses, this is also a useful reminder that advertising data should not live only inside platform interfaces. A calm, well-kept reporting archive can make budget reviews, seasonal planning and agency handovers much easier. If you are already reviewing your digital marketing in Bath, add this to the checklist: save the history you will actually need, and ignore the rest.
Source:
Google Ads Developer Blog — New Data Retention Policy for Google Ads starting June 1, 2026
