Did you know that you can create detailed and interactive Facebook ad campaign reports with Google Data Studio? Yup. Here’s how!
Analysing your Facebook campaign performance is essential, and reports allow you to see all important information in one place, as well as use graphs, tables, and other elements to make them visually appealing.
Google Data Studio is a great free tool that allows you to create detailed reports on all the campaigns you are running – regardless of whether they are on Facebook, Google Ads, LinkedIn, etc.
Understanding Google Data Studio
Google Data Studio is available to anyone with a Google account. Two of its main advantages are:
1. You can create visually-appealing reports in a matter of seconds with a range of templates
2. Your reports are automatically updated
Despite the advantages, there are some limitations.
1. You can only have one data source in one chart – you can, however, blend data from different data sources.
2. You need third-party connectors to be able to pull in non-Google platform data to your reports. From your Facebook or LinkedIn ad accounts, for example.
If you are new to Google Data Studio, you need to understand two things that will help you build your reports: data sources and connectors.
Data sources feed your reports with information. A source can be your Google Analytics account, Facebook Ads Manager, Google Adword, LInkedIn, spreadsheet etc.
Connectors act as mediators between your reports and sources. For all Google products, there are native connectors that you can use, but for others, you need to use third-party connectors (aka partner connectors) like Supermetics to help you bring in the information from, say, Facebook, to your report.
If you don’t want to use third-party connectors for non-Google platforms, you can use a Google Sheets connector to connect to a spreadsheet. The disadvantage is that your report won’t be automatically updated unless the spreadsheet itself updates automatically.
Creating a Google Data Studio Report
Head over to Google Data Studio and log in with your Google account.
You can choose any of the free report-templates or start with a blank one.
Importing data with a Google Sheets connector
The first thing you need to do is import your Facebook campaign data through a Google Sheets connector or a partner connector – I will be using the first option.
Head over to Ads Manager and export your campaigns in an excel format and upload it to your Google Drive. Once that is done, head over to Google Data Studio and click on the “Create a new Data Source button.”
Choose Google Sheets from the left-hand panel and choose whichever option applies, depending on whether the file is owned by you, has been shared with you, or if it’s stored in a folder in your Google Drive.
Choose the file, specify the spreadsheet with all the data, and choose the options that apply. When done, click on the “Connect” button.
Now you can see all the fields available in your data sheet. Here you can:
1. Correct the “Type” and “Aggregation” of your data, if it’s incorrect
2. Give your fields more descriptive names, if you have not done so in your source file.
3. Create a calculated field, for important metrics that aren’t in your sheet but which you may want to add to your report.
4. Disable any fields that you don’t plan on using in your report
To add the newly created source to your report, click on the “Add to Report” button.
Creating a Google Data Studio report
Now that the data source is connected you just need to use the right visualisation tools to help create your report. It is a good idea to create a mock-up containing all the information you want it to contain.
These are the tools that I used to create the report:
Date Picker: Use this to provide report-viewers with the ability to choose date ranges to check on the campaigns. Be sure to modify this so the offered date range makes sense when examining your campaign’s performance.
To do so, click on the date range element on your report and on the right-side panel click on the “Data” tab and select the date range in the “Default Date Range” field.
Filter Control: Use the Filter Control to allow the user to filter campaigns (or any other report element where a filter could be applied – such as the objective, campaign status etc.). Click on the appropriate button and customise the dimension used on the “Data” tab in the “Dimension” field.
This could be ideal for filtering through campaigns, ad sets or different countries/regions you advertise across. When used, the whole report will be filtered based on the chosen campaign.
Bullet Chart: Use this option to create a progress bar for your KPIs and secondary goals. Click on the bullet chart and then head over to the Metric Picker and choose your ad spend, ROI and revenue. In the range limits section set up range 1 as the minimum spend/ ROI / Revenue and for range 3 use a value higher than that of each of your KPIs.
In the target section, enter your target value. This is a visual progress bar that helps you see where you are in achieving your goals.
Rectangle Tool: For separating sections of your report you can use the “Rectangle” tool. Draw a line across your report and make sure to style it as you please.
Time series: This is ideal for CPA, CPC, spend values, transactions etc. as it helps show how a metric has changed over time. In order to change the type of the diagram, you can access the time series properties panel on the right-hand side. Click on the “Data” tab and choose the chart type that will help you to better illustrate your desired metrics.
Move on to the “Dimension” and “Metric” sections and choose “Date” for dimension, and “Conversion Rate” and “CPA” as chart metrics.
Scorecard: For the key metrics section of the report you’ll be utilising the scorecard tool. Choose the metrics you want to appear. On the “Style” tab you can check the “Compact Numbers” checkbox if numbers are too long and you want them to be readable.
If you want to show if there was an increase or decrease for that metric, you should choose any of the “previous period” or “previous year” options in the “Default Date Range” section.
Be sure that your data in the source file goes that far in time or else you will be getting a “no data” error.
Table: A table could be great to show breakdowns for dimensions such as campaigns, Ad Sets, Ads etc. in order to see which are the best-performing ones and which ones you should consider pausing.
Click on the table tool, and in the “Data” tab choose Campaign Name as the dimension and choose the metrics you want to be shown for the campaigns (inline clicks, inline CTR, revenues. and transactions).
In order to help with analysis and provide more context to the data, you can format it as a heat map. Scroll until you find the “Columns” section and for the desired column of your table, instead of “number” – the default value, choose heatmap or bar/pub (for the revenue column).
And there you have it! Your report is now ready to be shared with your client, team or colleagues. You can do so by clicking on the “Share this report” icon.
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