What is cost_micros in Google Ads and how do you convert it?

Run a GAQL query for cost and the numbers look enormous: a campaign that spent 312.40 shows 312400000. That is not a bug. Google Ads returns money in micros.

What a micro is

One micro is one millionth of the account's currency unit.

• 1,000,000 micros = 1.00
• 312,400,000 micros = 312.40

The currency is the account's own; micros carry no currency information.

Converting

Divide by one million:

var rows = AdsApp.search(
  "SELECT campaign.name, metrics.cost_micros FROM campaign " +
  "WHERE segments.date DURING LAST_7_DAYS"
);
while (rows.hasNext()) {
  var row = rows.next();
  var cost = row.metrics.costMicros / 1000000;
  Logger.log(row.campaign.name + ": " + cost.toFixed(2));
}

Note the spelling: the query uses metrics.cost_micros, while the row object returned to a script uses row.metrics.costMicros.

Other fields in micros

Anything that is an amount of money: metrics.average_cpc, metrics.cost_per_conversion, campaign_budget.amount_micros, bid fields such as ad_group_criterion.cpc_bid_micros, and target CPA values.

Conversion value (metrics.conversions_value) is not in micros; it is already in currency units.

Going the other way

When a script sets a bid or a budget through a field that takes micros, multiply:

var bidMicros = Math.round(1.25 * 1000000);

Round the result. Fractions of a micro are not accepted.

Common mistakes

• Comparing cost in micros with a threshold written in currency (cost > 500), which is always true.
• Calculating ROAS as conversion value divided by cost without converting the cost first.
• Converting twice.

GAQL Lab converts micros in its results table, so the numbers you see there are already in currency.