Pulling data from one data source (say Google Ads) into Google Data Studio is a relatively easy process. The trouble is that you usually don’t run campaigns just in one network so you likely need to pull data from multiple data sources to get a consolidated view of your marketing performance.
Google Data Studio finally offers something called “data blending” which may not be trivial to set up but you can actually get the job done with this long awaited feature and aggregate multiple data sources into one visual (e.g. a table). There are a few “problems” with this approach:
- You’d still need to pull marketing data from all your networks into Google Data Studio somehow.
- If you have your data available, the configuration process is not easy for general marketing population. It’s more for data analysts who understand terms such as “join keys”.
- If your metrics with the same meaning have a different name (e.g. spend vs cost), they will not blend into one metric and they will still be bound only to their original data source.
There is a simpler (but a paid) option, though. You can use Supermetrics for Google Data Studio and their “Ad data & Google Analytics” connector which:
- Aggregates data from Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, Pinterest, and Google Analytics – the entire marketing “mainstream”.
- Maps important metrics and dimensions with the same meaning together so “spend” and “cost” will show up in “one column” across all data sources same as “campaign” and “campaign name”.
- Makes the configuration process much simpler for average marketing population.
In this article, I will show up how to work with this connector and guide you through the configuration process.
The good news is that you don’t have to pay for the connector right away because you first enter a trial period after which you can decide whether it’s worth it or not.
The Problem
I run campaigns in Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Facebook Ads. I want to create a blended data table in Google Data Studio which will show all important metrics by network in one table.
The Setup Process
Click the button below:
Then the start the trial:
After you click the button, you will be taken to Google Data Studio, you might be asked to log into your Google account.
Once in Google Data Studio, you need to authenticate with the networks you’ll be pulling the marketing data from. Click the highlighted link. Don’t get discouraged by the ugly looking site – Google probably does not allow to show anything fancier.
After clicking the link, you’ll be taken to a page where you need to authenticate with each network one by one. In my case, I will be authenticating with Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Facebook ads. Just click the “+Add new account” buttons and follow the instructions of each network. When you are done with everything, click the blue Done button at the bottom of the page.
If you did everything correctly, you will see this confirmation message. You can close the current tab and go back to the original Google Data Studio tab.
When back in Google Data Studio, RELOAD THE PAGE to refresh the newly acquired authentication details. In my case, it looks like this for Facebook Ads:
Like this for Google Ads:
And like this for Microsoft Advertising:
Now it’s worth the share a few words about all the configuration options you have. Be careful and think what you want to allow and what you don’t want to allow, which accounts you need in your reports etc. For example, if you are an agency and you are creating the report for a client who will have edit rights, you don’t want to allow to select different accounts from your MCC/Business manager. Hence the parameters Allow “Select account” to be modified in reports should be left blank.
On the other hand, if you are an agency which uses exactly the same report for each client and whose client don’t actively look into Google Data Studio reports, you probably want to allow the accounts to be changed, so you can generate PDF reports for all the clients just from one report.
Also, notice that each network gives different configuration options. Compare Microsoft with Facebook. While Microsoft gives almost no options, Facebook lets you choose conversion windows, report time of action stats, reporting timezone… Again think what options best fit your business needs.
When you are done with configuring individual ad networks, you can also change advanced settings for UTMs.
You can also tick “Use report template for new reports” so you immediately get a nicely looking preformatted report. This is helpful if you are a Google Data Studio beginner. I will use this option so I have something nice to show you 🙂
When you are done with all the configurations, click the CONNECT button at the top of the screen.
Since my configuration allows parameters (e.g. accounts) to be changed, there is one more security prompt to confirm what you just set up a few minutes ago. Click ALLOW:
You will be taken to a page where you change configurations of your metrics and dimensions but I suggest you leave everything as is unless you are really sure what you are doing. Click the CREATE REPORT button.
Just confirm by clicking CREATE REPORT again:
A report from the template (remember, I went with the template option) will get created – it will be blank for a few moments as the data loads in the background:
The Result
Finally, the report will load (in my case, it took around 30 seconds) with all the blended stats across all networks:
What if you want to create a new visual within the report? Absolutely no problem, I just added a new page and added the table below with campaigns, accounts and a few basic stats columns.
Notice the table confirms what I claimed in the intro. Dimensions and metrics with the same meaning (campaign + campaign name = campaign, cost + spend = cost, clicks + link clicks = clicks) all get automatically grouped into one column so you can create nicely blended tables with your marketing data. At the same time, you are always able to split everything by data source, so you know which campaign runs in which network. Quite elegant, isn’t it?
Conclusion
You can see that building a nicely looking report does not really take ages if you use Supermetrics for Google Data Studio and their “Ad data & Google Analytics” connector which does all the heavy lifting for you. You no longer need an analyst to build blended reports across multiple data sources. The connector solves the 2 main pain points:
- Handles data ingestion from all the mainstream marketing networks.
- Handles mapping of the same metrics and dimensions together.
As of today (2021-09-18), the connector costs 199 USD. Is it cheap or expensive? Hard to tell, depends how you value your time and how often you build new reports. It’s definitely cheaper then employing a full time analyst 🙂