Introduction

When it comes to syncing changes from Marin to the publishers, there are a few noteworthy details to keep in mind.

In this article, we'll walk through how (and when) Marin sends changes you've made to the publisher, how to send changes manually, and the order in which Marin sends changes. 

How Changes Are Made

There are a lot of different ways that you can trigger changes to be sent from Marin to the publisher, including the following:

• Bulk uploads
• Manual edits in Marin
• Bidding
• Nightly cost report downloads

To make the process as clear as possible, below is a step-by-step explanation of exactly how Marin manages changes being sent to the publishers.

1. When changes are made, they are sent to Marin's Activity Log, where they'll be assigned a particular status. Changes can be Held (meaning they're paused until further notice), To be sent (meaning they're pending submission to the publisher), or Queued (meaning the change has already been submitted to the publisher but is still being processed by Marin behind the scenes). 
2. When you use the Post button in Marin or when Marin does this automatically once per day as part of the automatic nightly sync, it updates all To be sent items to Queued status and starts to process all of the Activity Log entries that are Queued.

How To Manually Push Changes

You can manually push changes to the publisher at any time via Marin's Activity Log. To do so, just follow these steps:

1. Click on Activity Log in the top-right corner from anywhere in Marin.
2. Use the checkboxes on the left-hand side to select a specific change, select the change you'd like to sync, then click Post.

Important Notes

There are a few factors to consider when pushing changes from Marin, which we'll explain below. 

• Marin can only process one task at a time per publisher client account (PCA), and it can process jobs for up to four PCAs simultaneously. Note: This doesn't mean you can't push more than one task at once, simply that Marin can only process one at a time. 
• Bear in mind that while Marin does prioritize tasks, it doesn't necessarily consider the size of these jobs when processing. For example, if you queue up a number of large multi-hour syncs for all campaigns in four PCAs, then try to push one small edit, Marin won't process the latter until the former is complete. This scenario is rare, but worthy of note. 
• You can choose the order in which tasks are processed by setting them to Held status and pushing them one at a time. Note that once you have posted an operation — i.e. moving it from Held to To be sent — it's not possible to re-order the processing of these tasks. However, if you encounter a large-scale problem like this, please reach out to your Marin account representative, who will be able to speak with our tech teams for assistance.

How Marin Prioritizes Changes

When Marin pushes changes to the publisher, it does so in a specific order. Below we'll explain how it prioritizes changes. Let's imagine that there are ten outstanding Activity Log entries that are all Queued for a single PCA.

The following is the logic behind how Marin chooses the order in which it processes tasks:

1. First, Marin will sort by username (i.e. where the task originated):
   1. At the top of the list are any scheduled operations, such as pausing or resuming tasks.
   2. Next, any action that was created by a Marin user. 
   3. Finally, anything created automatically by the Marin 'system' user (i.e. bidding, nightly sync, etc.).
      
      If Marin has to choose between two operations that tie on username (both user uploads, for example), it will move to the next form of prioritization:
       
2. Next, Marin will sort by the specific object that's being edited, in the following order of priority:
   1. Entries to edit campaigns
   2. Entries to edit groups
   3. Entries to edit creatives
   4. Entries to edit keywords
   5. Edits to other publisher objects (shared budget, remarketing lists, etc.)
      
      If a tie still exists at this point (i.e. two user uploads to edit creatives, for example), Marin will move to the next form of prioritization:
       
3. Marin will sort by operation Status (i.e. what is actually being done to the objects) in the following order of priority:
   1. Entries to sync objects (either hard sync or sync from report) are handled first.
   2. Entries to create new objects are handled next.
   3. Entries to edit objects, edit their bids, edit their geo targets, modify their status, or delete them, are all handled with the same priority level.
      
      If we still have a tie (i.e. two user uploads to edit creatives: one editing bids, the other deleting them):
       
   4. Marin sorts from lowest to highest Activity Log ID, which, because of the way these are created, means that Marin handles the earliest received task first.

If a user sends us a bulk file to delete 100,000 Google ads at 5 a.m., and then a bulk file to edit bids for a single Google ad at 6 a.m. and the user has chosen to 'Send Immediately' instead of holding and pushing as needed, then Marin will choose to handle all these items in oldest-to-newest order, meaning that it won't be able to handle the bid edit until all of the delete operations are completed. 

A Note About Pausing Creatives