Ads Data Hub enables customized analysis that aligns with your specific
business objectives, while protecting user privacy and upholding Google's high
standards of data security. Combining your data with event-level data from your
Google ad campaigns can unlock insights, improve advertising efficiency, help
you achieve data-driven business goals, and yield more effective campaign
optimization.

Results from the queries you run using Ads Data Hub are written to
BigQuery datasets in a Google Cloud project that you own ("your Google Cloud
project"). You can combine your data within your Google Cloud project with
Google's data for a number of use cases, such as evaluating the efficacy of your
ads.

Ads Data Hub ensures end-user privacy by enforcing privacy checks and
aggregating Google data before it leaves the Google-owned Google Cloud project.

[Learn more about privacy checks in Ads Data Hub](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/marketers/guides/privacy-checks)

## How Ads Data Hub works

Ads Data Hub reads data from a Google-owned Google Cloud project, and
writes aggregated Google campaign data to your Google Cloud project:

- **Read** : The Google-owned Google Cloud project, which contains Google ad data from your campaigns across multiple buying platforms, such as Display \& Video 360, Google Ads, Campaign Manager 360, and YouTube.
  - Ads Data Hub can read data from your Google Cloud project when you grant it explicit permission to. This is what enables linking Google's data with your data.
- **Write**: Your Google Cloud project. The results of the queries you run in Ads Data Hub are exported as aggregated Google campaign datasets into your Google Cloud project, and stored there.

Privacy is maintained through the separation of Google-owned Google Cloud
project and your Google Cloud project---both for end-user data, and your data.
Google's raw data set is not accessible to Ads Data Hub users, and
Ads Data Hub only accesses data within your Google Cloud project---with your
permission---for the purposes of joining your data.

The ecosystem surrounding Ads Data Hub is shown in the following diagram.
Each component is explained below:

![Image placing Ads Data Hub within the larger ecosystem of BigQuery and
Ads.](https://developers.google.com/static/ads-data-hub/images/adh-intro.svg)

### Google Ad Platforms

Upstream Google ad platforms input event-level ad data into the Google-owned
Cloud project. These data sources consist of the ad links which you authorize in
your Ads Data Hub account.

[Learn more about linking accounts in Ads Data Hub](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/marketers/guides/link-accounts)

### Google-owned Google Cloud project

This Google Cloud project is owned and managed by Google, and it contains Google
campaign data.

> [!NOTE]
> **Note:** During the first 7 days following Ads Data Hub account creation, linked customer IDs (CIDs) automatically receive up to 21 days of historical data backfilled.

### Ads Data Hub

This is the product itself. Using either the Ads Data Hub UI or API, you
can write queries to access aggregated Google ad data, manage account settings,
and more. Ads Data Hub doesn't require you to download any software, or
install and run any code locally.

The Ads Data Hub UI and API act as an intermediary between both the
Google-owned Google Cloud project and your Google Cloud project, ensuring that
your query results pass privacy checks.

### Your Google Cloud project

Results from the queries you write in Ads Data Hub are written to BigQuery
datasets in your Google Cloud project. Additionally, if you work with CRM or
offline data in Ads Data Hub, this is where you upload that data.

### Linking your data

You can configure Ads Data Hub to key event-level data to unique user
identifiers. These identifiers are sent to Google when users interact with your
ads. You can write queries that join data in the Google-owned Google Cloud
project with the data that you store in your Google Cloud project.

Your data remains in your Google Cloud project throughout the entire
process---Google only operates on the data that you explicitly reference in your
SQL queries. Joins are privacy-centric and are keyed to a unique user identifier
of your choosing. This ensures that end-user data remains secure.

[Learn more about linking data in Ads Data Hub](https://developers.google.com/ads-data-hub/marketers/guides/join-your-data)