Is field expansion syntax costly (in terms of rate limiting) compared to level queries?

Question

I need to query targeting and insights information for all AdSets of a campaign. I have figured out 2 ways of doing it:

Field-expansion: {CAMPAIGN_ID}/AdSets?fields=insights{impressions},targeting
Execute 2 queries (ordinary and leveled): {CAMPAIGN_ID}/AdSets?fields=targeting, {CAMPAIGN_ID}/Insights?fields=impressions&level=ad

There is a similar question here, where the answer states that the first expansion will efficiently execute multiple queries for each adset insight and will cost a lot compared to a level query. So my question: Is that really so and is it better to run 2 queries instead (which logically is more expensive)?

P.S. Is it possible to get the "cost" of the query in the result perhaps? Then I can just test. Created a separate question here for this.

It's not about what takes longer, it's about what's more expensive for rate-limiting. I don't think it has 1 to 1 mapping to time it takes to execute. — Ilya Chernomordik, Oct 13 '16 at 13:54

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 13 '16 at 13:56

1

It is 1 API call, as long as you don´t use batch requests. In that case, each call in the batch counts as one separate call.

answered Oct 13 '16 at 13:56

andyrandy

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So expansion does not add anything special towards rate limiting? Even though documentation says that it works like many subrequests (kind of) – Ilya Chernomordik Oct 13 '16 at 14:22
exactly, not that i know of. but honestly, if you really hit api limits, you are doing something wrong anyway. – andyrandy Oct 13 '16 at 14:44
That's not quite true, since I am manipulating thousands of ads for multiple customers, so it's rather possible to hit the limit – Ilya Chernomordik Oct 13 '16 at 14:46
you are using different tokens for those, it should be no big deal. – andyrandy Oct 13 '16 at 15:12

Is field expansion syntax costly (in terms of rate limiting) compared to level queries?

1 Answers1