Understanding Data Delays

Understanding Data Delays

Info
Some data sources report data with a built-in delay imposed by their platform APIs. This article explains which Power My Analytics connectors are affected, how long each delay lasts, and what it means for your reports.

What Is a Data Delay?

A data delay is an API-imposed gap between when activity occurs on a platform and when that data becomes available for reporting. Unlike a sync timing issue or a data gap caused by an API outage, a data delay is a permanent, by-design behavior of the source platform's API. Power My Analytics retrieves and warehouses your data as soon as the platform makes it available, but cannot retrieve it any earlier than the platform allows.

Connectors with Data Delays

The following connectors are subject to data delays imposed by their source platform APIs. For each connector, the most recent data available in your reports will be older than the current date by the amount shown.

Connector
Delay
Affected Data
3 to 4 days
Sales, Traffic, Inventory, and Forecasting reports
48 hours
All data*
48 hours
All fields
Up to 48 hours
Demographic data only
48 hours
All data

* See the Facebook Insights section below for additional delay nuances specific to this connector.

Amazon Vendor Central

Amazon publishes Vendor Central reporting data on a delay, so the most recent dates in your report will normally sit 3 to 4 days behind today. This is a property of Amazon's Selling Partner API, not of your connection.

Amazon's published availability targets for the reports PMA collects:
  • Vendor Sales and Vendor Traffic (daily periods): available 72 hours after the reporting period closes.
  • Vendor Sales and Vendor Traffic (weekly periods ending Saturday): available by the end of the day Monday, 48 hours after the period closes.
  • Vendor Forecasting: refreshed within 72 hours after the week ends. Only the most recent forecast is available; Amazon does not supply historical forecast data.
  • Vendor Inventory: Amazon does not publish an availability target for this report. In practice, expect it to follow the same 3 to 4 day pattern.
In practice, a Vendor Central report opened on a Thursday will often end on the previous Sunday or Monday. Some periods take longer than Amazon's stated targets, and delays of up to a week are occasionally reported.
Alert
No setting in Power My Analytics can retrieve data that Amazon has not yet published. Changing your data sync range, widening the date range in your report, or running a manual backfill will not pull days that Amazon has not released. Those days will appear on their own once Amazon publishes them.
If you add the PMA Maximum Cached Data Date field to a Vendor Central report, expect it to read newer than your most recent row of data. That field describes the cached data behind your report rather than the row it sits next to, so a gap of a few days is normal here. See What Fields Are Available In PMA's Connectors? for more on metadata fields.

Facebook Insights

Facebook's API does not report data for the most recent 48 hours. This delay applies to all Facebook Insights fields.

Notes
Additional delays for Facebook Insights: Fields in the Pages Lifetime table are subject to an additional 48-hour delay on top of the standard 48-hour API lag. Demographic data (age, gender, and location) does not include the most recent 3 days; reports that include today or either of the two preceding days will return no data for demographic fields.

These delays are limitations of Facebook's API and are not specific to PMA. For more information, see the Facebook Insights Data Connector User Guide.

Instagram Insights

Meta's Instagram Insights API reports all fields with a delay of 48 hours. This means your reports will not include activity from the most recent two days. This is a limitation of Meta's API and is not specific to PMA.

For more information, see:

LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn's API delays demographic data by up to 48 hours. This delay applies only to demographic reporting fields, including Job Function, Job Title, Company, Industry, Seniority, and Company Size. Non-demographic performance data is not affected by this delay. Additionally, demographic data is not available for paused campaigns.

For more information, see the LinkedIn Ads Data Connector User Guide.

YouTube Analytics

Google's YouTube Analytics API imposes a 48-hour delay before data becomes available for retrieval. This delay applies to all YouTube Analytics fields. PMA collects and warehouses your YouTube data as soon as Google makes it available; the 48-hour window is set by YouTube's API and cannot be reduced.

For more information, see:

Additional Notes

Facebook Ads: Data Settling Behavior

Notes
Facebook Ads data does not have a hard data delay in the same way as the connectors listed above. Data from the previous day is available in your PMA reports after the nightly sync. However, Facebook Ads data continues to settle (be refined by Meta) for up to 15–18 hours after midnight in the ad account’s time zone.

Approximate accuracy at each point after midnight in the ad account's time zone:

  • At midnight: approximately 90% of final values
  • 1 hour after midnight: approximately 92% of final values
  • 3 hours after midnight: approximately 99% of final values
  • Up to 15–18 hours after midnight: minor adjustments may continue

For the most accurate Facebook Ads data, PMA recommends scheduling report refreshes at least 3 hours after midnight in the ad account's time zone (for approximately 99% accuracy), or 6 or more hours after midnight for maximum accuracy.

For more information, see Understanding Sync Time and Data Settling with Facebook Ads.

Shopify: Initial Connection Delay

Notes
When you first connect a Shopify account as a data source, there is approximately a 2-hour delay before data becomes available. This is a one-time initialization delay that occurs during the initial data sync; it does not affect ongoing daily data refreshes after the first sync is complete.

Other Possible Causes of Data Not Appearing

If your data appears delayed beyond what is described above, or if a connector not listed here is showing missing or outdated data, the following common causes may apply:

  • Sync timing: PMA syncs data once daily, at midnight in the time zone configured for each data source. If your reports appear to be missing today's data, the daily sync may not have run yet. See What Time Does My Data Refresh?
  • Data gaps: Temporary interruptions in a source platform's API can cause specific date ranges to be missing from your data. Data gaps can be resolved by manually backfilling the affected date range. See Backfill Connection Data.
  • Late-credited conversions: If spend matches your ad platform but conversions or revenue on older dates are lower, your ad platform has most likely credited those conversions after the dates were last synced. This isn't a delay, and a backfill brings them in. See Why Conversions and Revenue Can Be Lower in Your Report Than in Your Ad Platform.
  • Backfill in progress: Newly connected data sources begin with an initial backfill that may take minutes to several hours to complete, depending on the source and the volume of historical data. During this time, some date ranges may not yet be available.
  • Source platform API outage: Occasional outages on the source platform's side can delay or prevent data from being retrieved. If the delay is unexpected and not explained by the factors above, check whether the platform is experiencing a known outage.

If none of these causes explain the issue, please submit a support ticket and our team will be happy to investigate.

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