Create Reports from Facebook Ads Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to Facebook Ads data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for Facebook Ads and generating reports from Facebook Ads data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect Cloud offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for Facebook Ads, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live Facebook Ads data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to Facebook Ads. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested Facebook Ads data.

Configure Facebook Ads Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to Facebook Ads from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Facebook Ads data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a Facebook Ads connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Facebook Ads" from the Add Connection panel
3. Facebook Ads uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with Facebook Ads.
4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Facebook Ads Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Facebook Ads data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live Facebook Ads Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Looker Studio to create a new Facebook Ads data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect Cloud Connector.
2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account.
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
4. In the CData Connect Cloud Connector in Looker Studio select a Connection (e.g. FacebookAds1) and click Next
5. Select a Table (e.g. AdAccounts) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue
6. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
7. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
8. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.

Live Access to Facebook Ads Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Facebook Ads data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Facebook Ads data.

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.