Timing of changes that impact ad serving

Changes that don't affect ad serving are reflected immediately. For example, if you edit a campaign name or user profile, the change goes live at once.

However, changes that do affect ad serving take longer. This includes changes to ad activation status, the addition of a new creative to an ad, changes to the HTML of a custom creative, and targeting changes. Your wait time for changes that affect ad serving depends on the level of your changes:

• Changes at the placement level or below (placements, ads, or creatives) are usually reflected in about 20 minutes.

• Changes at the site level (or to Floodlight pixels) are usually reflected in about an hour, or sometimes longer.

Note that the wait may increase when you make a high volume of changes.

After you make a change that affects ad serving, you should wait at least 20 minutes before you (a) test ad tags or (b) send them to publishers.

How Campaign Manager 360 accounts for DST

Quick summary: A very narrow period of time (usually an hour) is invalid in Campaign Manager 360 if it conflicts with the beginning of DST. If you set your time zone in Campaign Manager 360 to a region that applies DST, Campaign Manager 360 will not let you enter times that the region skips over on the day DST begins. This only happens one day per year. If a time repeats in a region due to the end of DST, Campaign Manager 360 picks the first occurence of that time.

How does DST affect local time?

DST affects local time differently depending on the region. In regions that apply DST, time shifts forward when DST beings and back when it ends, usually by around a half hour or an hour.

In U.S. time zones that apply DST, the clock skips forward one hour at 2:00 am the morning DST begins, and the clock falls back one hour at 2:00 am the morning DST ends. In 2013, DST in New York City begins March 10th, at 2:00 am, and ends November 3rd, at 2:00 am. That means local time in New York City skips from 2:00 am to 3:00 am on March 10th of 2013, because DST springs the clock forward; and the clock skips back from 2:00 am to 1:00 am on November 3rd of 2013, because DST sets local time an hour backward.

Campaign Manager 360 logs time in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). GMT is the common reference point between time zones: it’s world time. Campaign Manager 360 keeps track of how time zones correspond to GMT. This includes taking into account how time zones are affected by Daylight Saving Time (DST).

Daylight Saving Time (DST) complicates scheduling in Campaign Manager 360 for two windows: the morning when time shifts forward (when DST starts), and the morning when time shifts back (when DST ends). When time shifts forward, a window of time is skipped. When time shifts back, a window of time repeats.

For example, the local time in New York City skips from 2:00 am to 3:00 am on March 10th of 2013, because DST springs the clock forward; and the clock skips back from 2:00 am to 1:00 am on November 3rd of 2013, because DST sets local time an hour backward.

To avoid scheduling issues, Campaign Manager 360 accounts for DST in two ways:

1. When you enter a time that is skipped over, Campaign Manager 360 informs you that the date-time is invalid. You can pick a valid time or change your time zone.

2. When you enter a time that repeats, Campaign Manager 360 automatically picks the first instance. This happens if you enter a time in the window at the end of DST.

Specific examples

Let's look at two specific examples in New York.

When DST begins:

• Problem: The morning DST begins in New York, local time skips over the period from 2:00 am to 2:59 am, right to 3:00 am. That means 1:59 am skips directly to 3:00 am. In New York, all times in between are invalid for Campaign Manager 360 on that date. So what happens if you enter 2:15 am as a start date-time for that morning?

• Campaign Manager 360 informs you that the date-time is invalid.

When DST ends:

• Problem: The morning DST ends in New York City, 1:00 am occurs twice: the time reaches 1:00 am, and then at 2:00 am the clocks falls back an hour (to 1:00 am again) for DST. That means the entire hour repeats in local time. So if you enter 1:15 am, which end time should Campaign Manager 360 pick, the first occurence or the second?

• Solution: Campaign Manager 360 automatically picks the first occurrence of the time.