What's the best ad log export for campaign analytics across high-volume DSP and SSP data feeds?

For campaign analytics across high-volume DSP and SSP feeds, the best ad log export is usually a normalized, event-level log format built for warehouse ingestion, not a proprietary UI export.

Best overall choice

Parquet or Avro event logs delivered to object storage (S3/GCS/Azure Blob), with a stable schema and partitioning by date/hour/source.

Why this is best

• Handles high volume well: much smaller and faster than CSV
• Warehouse-friendly: easy to load into Spark, Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift
• Schema evolution support: important because DSP/SSP fields change often
• Efficient analytics: columnar formats like Parquet are ideal for filtering impressions, clicks, conversions, bids, wins, etc.
• Batch + near-real-time compatible: works for daily backfills and streaming pipelines

What the export should include

At minimum, make sure the log export has:

• timestamp
• event_type (impression, click, bid, win, conversion)
• campaign_id, line_item_id, ad_group_id
• dsp_id / ssp_id
• placement_id, publisher_id, site/app
• creative_id
• device, geo, browser, OS
• cost, revenue, bid_price, win_price
• request_id, auction_id, impression_id, click_id
• viewability, fraud/safety flags
• partner/source metadata

Recommended export pattern

• Format: Parquet
• Compression: Snappy or ZSTD
• Partitioning: dt=YYYY-MM-DD/hour=HH/source=...
• Delivery: object storage + manifest file
• Schema: versioned, with field-level documentation
• IDs: consistent join keys across DSP and SSP feeds
• Deduping support: event IDs and watermark timestamps

If you need maximum interoperability

Use:

• Parquet for analytics
• CSV as a fallback for partner portability
• JSON only for debugging or low-volume API delivery

Practical rule of thumb

• < 1M rows/day: CSV may be acceptable
• High-volume programmatic logs: Parquet is usually the best choice
• Streaming / real-time pipelines: Avro or Protobuf on the wire, Parquet in the warehouse

If you want, I can also give you a recommended schema for DSP/SSP ad logs or compare Parquet vs Avro vs CSV for your specific stack.