Facebook Marketing API - Python to get Insights - User Request Limit Reached

Question

So I am trying my best to navigate my way through the Facebook API. I need to crate a script that will download my business' campaign information daily as a csv file so I can use another script to upload the information to our database easily.

I finally have code that works to print the information to the log, but I am reaching the user request limit because I have to call get_insights() for every single campaign individually. I am wondering if anyone knows how to help me make it so I don't have to call the facebook API as often.

What I would like to do if find a field where I can get the daily spend so I don't have to call the API in every iteration of my for campaign loop, but I cannot for the life of me find a way to do so.

#Import all the facebook mumbo jumbo
from facebookads.api import FacebookAdsApi
from facebookads.adobjects.adset import AdSet
from facebookads.adobjects.campaign import Campaign
from facebookads.adobjects.adsinsights import AdsInsights
from facebookads.adobjects.adreportrun import AdReportRun
from facebookads.adobjects.adaccount import AdAccount
from facebookads.adobjects.business import Business
import time

#Set the login info
my_app_id = '****'
my_app_secret = '****'
my_access_token = '****'

#Start the connection to the facebook API
FacebookAdsApi.init(my_app_id, my_app_secret, my_access_token)

business = Business('****')

#Get all ad accounts on the business account 
accounts = business.get_owned_ad_accounts(fields=[AdAccount.Field.id])

#iterate through all accounts in the business account
for account in accounts:
    tempaccount = AdAccount(account[AdAccount.Field.id])
    #get all campaigns in the adaccount
    campaigns = tempaccount.get_campaigns(fields=[Campaign.Field.name,Campaign.Field])
    #iterate trough all the campaigns in the adaccount
    for campaign in campaigns:
        print(campaign[Campaign.Field.name])
        #get the insight info (spend) from each campaign
        campaignsights = campaign.get_insights(params={'date_preset':'yesterday'},fields=[AdsInsights.Field.spend])
        print (campaignsights)

Answer 1

It took a while of digging through the API and guessing but I got it! Here is my final script:

# This program downloads all relevent Facebook traffic info as a csv file
# This program requires info from the Facebook Ads API: https://github.com/facebook/facebook-python-ads-sdk

# Import all the facebook mumbo jumbo
from facebookads.api import FacebookAdsApi
from facebookads.adobjects.adsinsights import AdsInsights
from facebookads.adobjects.adaccount import AdAccount
from facebookads.adobjects.business import Business

# Import th csv writer and the date/time function
import datetime
import csv

# Set the info to get connected to the API. Do NOT share this info
my_app_id = '****'
my_app_secret = '****'
my_access_token = '****'

# Start the connection to the facebook API
FacebookAdsApi.init(my_app_id, my_app_secret, my_access_token)

# Create a business object for the business account
business = Business('****')

# Get yesterday's date for the filename, and the csv data
yesterdaybad = datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(days=1)
yesterdayslash = yesterdaybad.strftime('%m/%d/%Y')
yesterdayhyphen = yesterdaybad.strftime('%m-%d-%Y')

# Define the destination filename
filename = yesterdayhyphen + '_fb.csv'
filelocation = "/cron/downloads/"+ filename

# Get all ad accounts on the business account
accounts = business.get_owned_ad_accounts(fields=[AdAccount.Field.id])

# Open or create new file 
try:
    csvfile = open(filelocation , 'w+', 0777)
except:
    print ("Cannot open file.")


# To keep track of rows added to file
rows = 0

try:
    # Create file writer
    filewriter = csv.writer(csvfile, delimiter=',')
except Exception as err:
    print(err)

# Iterate through the adaccounts
for account in accounts:
    # Create an addaccount object from the adaccount id to make it possible to get insights
    tempaccount = AdAccount(account[AdAccount.Field.id])

    # Grab insight info for all ads in the adaccount
    ads = tempaccount.get_insights(params={'date_preset':'yesterday',
                                           'level':'ad'
                                          },
                                   fields=[AdsInsights.Field.account_id,
                       AdsInsights.Field.account_name,
                                           AdsInsights.Field.ad_id,
                                           AdsInsights.Field.ad_name,
                                           AdsInsights.Field.adset_id,
                                           AdsInsights.Field.adset_name,
                                           AdsInsights.Field.campaign_id,
                                           AdsInsights.Field.campaign_name,
                                           AdsInsights.Field.cost_per_outbound_click,
                                           AdsInsights.Field.outbound_clicks,
                                           AdsInsights.Field.spend
                                          ]
    );

    # Iterate through all accounts in the business account
    for ad in ads:
        # Set default values in case the insight info is empty
        date = yesterdayslash
        accountid = ad[AdsInsights.Field.account_id]
        accountname = ""
        adid = ""
        adname = ""
        adsetid = ""
        adsetname = ""
        campaignid = ""
        campaignname = ""
        costperoutboundclick = ""
        outboundclicks = ""
        spend = ""

        # Set values from insight data
        if ('account_id' in ad) :
            accountid = ad[AdsInsights.Field.account_id]
        if ('account_name' in ad) :
            accountname = ad[AdsInsights.Field.account_name]
        if ('ad_id' in ad) :
            adid = ad[AdsInsights.Field.ad_id]
        if ('ad_name' in ad) :
            adname = ad[AdsInsights.Field.ad_name]
        if ('adset_id' in ad) :
            adsetid = ad[AdsInsights.Field.adset_id]
        if ('adset_name' in ad) :
            adsetname = ad[AdsInsights.Field.adset_name]
        if ('campaign_id' in ad) :
            campaignid = ad[AdsInsights.Field.campaign_id]
        if ('campaign_name' in ad) :
            campaignname = ad[AdsInsights.Field.campaign_name]
        if ('cost_per_outbound_click' in ad) : # This is stored strangely, takes a few steps to break through the layers
            costperoutboundclicklist = ad[AdsInsights.Field.cost_per_outbound_click]
            costperoutboundclickdict = costperoutboundclicklist[0]
            costperoutboundclick = costperoutboundclickdict.get('value')
        if ('outbound_clicks' in ad) : # This is stored strangely, takes a few steps to break through the layers
            outboundclickslist = ad[AdsInsights.Field.outbound_clicks]
            outboundclicksdict = outboundclickslist[0]
            outboundclicks = outboundclicksdict.get('value')
        if ('spend' in ad) :
            spend = ad[AdsInsights.Field.spend]

        # Write all ad info to the file, and increment the number of rows that will display
        filewriter.writerow([date, accountid, accountname, adid, adname, adsetid, adsetname, campaignid, campaignname, costperoutboundclick, outboundclicks, spend])
        rows += 1


csvfile.close()

# Print report
print (str(rows) + " rows added to the file " + filename)

I then have a php script that takes the csv file and uploads it to my database. The key is pulling all the insight data in one big yank. You can then break it up however you want because each ad has information about its adset, adaccount, and campaign.