Facebook Ads Data Connector User Guide

Facebook Ads Data Connector User Guide

Facebook Ads is a powerful advertising platform that allows businesses to reach their target audience on Facebook, Instagram, and across the web. This guide will walk you through how to connect your Facebook Ads account to Power My Analytics, create reports in Looker Studio, and understand key metrics and considerations when working with Facebook Ads data.



Prerequisites

Before connecting Facebook Ads to Power My Analytics, ensure you have:
  1. Ad Account Analyst access to the Facebook account you want to connect

Adding Facebook Ads as a Data Source

To add Facebook Ads as a data source in Power My Analytics:
  1. To add the correct Facebook account, you must be logged in to that account in your browser. Open an Incognito window in your browser to log into the correct Facebook account before connecting with Power My Analytics.
  2. Navigate to your Hub and select Sources from the menu.
  3. Click + Add new source and choose Facebook Ads from the gallery.
  4. Sign in to your Facebook account to authenticate.
  5. Grant Facebook business access: Select "Opt in to all current and future Businesses". Click Continue.
  6. Grant Facebook page access: Choose "Opt in to all current and future Pages". Click Continue.
  7. Grant Instagram account access: Select "Opt in to all current and future Instagram accounts". Click Continue.
  8. Finalize permissions: Click Save, then click Got it.
Notes
Power My Analytics' former Instagram Ads data connector has now been merged into the Facebook Ads data connector, and Instagram advertising data is provided through the Facebook Ads connector.

Creating a Looker Studio Report

To create a Looker Studio report using your Facebook Ads data:
  1. After adding Facebook Ads as a data source in the PMA hub, navigate to Reports > Looker Studio
  2. Select Facebook Ads under Create Looker Studio Report (opens official Looker Studio application in new window)
  3. Google Looker Studio Configuration:
    1. Step 1:
      1. Name your data source (e.g. "Facebook Ads - Organization Name")
      2. Choose your Power My Analytics hub from the dropdown
      3. Optional: Leave "Use report template for new reports" checked for PMA demo template
      4. Click Next
    2. Step 2:
      1. User Account: Select Facebook Ads account (real data) or "Sample Account" (sample data)
      2. Click Next
    3. Step 3: 
      1. Choose "Ad Accounts" and "Currency" for reports
      2. Optional: Allow "Ad Accounts" modification in reports
      3. Click Connect (top right) to complete the data source configuration
    4. Step 4: 
      1. Click Create Report (top right)
Note: If you need to configure the setting "Is Campaign using SKAdNetwork?" to "true" when creating a report, please submit a support ticket to PMA and we will assist you.
For a quick start, you can use our pre-built Facebook Ads demo template.

Key Reports and Fields

Popular metrics and reports for Facebook Ads include:
  • Performance Overview Metrics: Reach, Impressions, Frequency, CPM, Amount Spent
  • Campaigns (Performance) Metrics: Reach, Impressions, Amount Spent
  • Ad Sets (Delivery) Metrics: Reach, Frequency, Cost per 1,000 People Reached, Impressions, CPM
  • Ads (Engagement) Metrics: Post Reactions, Post Comments, Post Saves, Link Clicks, Page Likes, CPC
  • Video Engagement Metrics: Video Plays, ThruPlays, DMA, 25%, 50%, 75%, 95%, 100%, Average Play Time
  • App Engagement Metrics: Mobile App Installs, Cost Per App Installs, App Installs, Cost Per App Installs, Post Reactions, Post Comments, Post Saves, Post Shares
  • Offline Conversions Metrics: Offline Purchases, Offline Purchases Conversion Value, Cost per Purchases, Offline Leads, Cost per Leads, Offline Other Conversions, Cost per Offline Other Conversions
  • Locations Metrics: Reach
  • Designated Market Area Metrics: Impressions, Link Clicks
  • E-Commerce Pixel Events Metrics: Website Content Views, Website Adds to Wishlist, Website Adds to Cart, Website Checkouts Initiated, Website Adds of Payment Info, Website Purchases, Website Purchases Conversion Value
  • Lead Generation Pixel Events Metrics: Landing Page Views, Website Content Views, Website Registrations Completed, Website Searches, Website Leads, Website Leads Conversion Value
  • Hourly Breakdown Metrics: Reach, Impressions, Amount Spent
  • Device Breakdown Metrics: Reach, Impressions, Amount Spent
  • Live Pixel Events Metrics: Live Landing Page Views (hourly), Live Content Views (hourly), Live Leads (hourly), Live Adds to Cart (hourly), Live Purchases (hourly)
  • Actions Metrics: On-Facebook Purchases, Website Purchases, Offline Leads, Website Leads
  • Boosted Posts: The boosted posts associated with the campaign
  • Custom Conversions
  • Custom Events
For a complete list of available Facebook Ads fields, refer to the Schema Explorer.

Limitations and Important Considerations

  1. Backfilling: Limited to 2 years, with an initial backfill of 13 months when you first connect your account.
  2. Data Span: Lifetime metrics cover 37 months of data.
  3. Live Metrics: Reach and metrics starting with "unique" are live metrics and cannot be used in daily sums.
  4. Cached Data Requests with Unique Metrics and Date Dimension: When a unique metric is paired with the date dimension, this will result in a request for cached data instead of a request for live data. For this reason, only cached data will appear in a report or chart that pairs a unique field with the date dimension. For information, see Cached Data Requests in Facebook Ads with Unique Metrics and Date Dimension.
  5. Campaign Daily Budget: Only current values for Campaign Daily Budget are available; historical data is not available for this field.
  6. New Account Delay: Wait 24 hours after adding a new account in Facebook before using it in PMA reports.
  7. Time Zone: All data is reported in time zone UTC-8:00 (UTC-7:00 during Daylight Saving Time).
  8. API and Authentication: Facebook and Instagram use the same underlying API. PMA's Facebook Ads, Facebook Insights, and Instagram Insights data connectors use the same authentication process.

The following configuration options have been removed from the Facebook Ads connector due to changes in Meta's API:

  • action_attribution_windows: This configuration option is no longer available. Attribution is now managed at the ad set level within Facebook Ads Manager.

Historical Data Limitations for Specific Fields

Due to changes in Meta's Facebook Ads API, the following fields have limitations on how far back historical data can be retrieved via API requests:

FieldHistorical Data Limitation
Fields starting with unique_actions13 months
Fields starting with cost_per_unique_action_type13 months
Hour of Day - Advertiser Time Zone13 months
Frequency Value6 months

Notes
Note: These limitations apply to new API calls only. If the data has already been cached in Power My Analytics' database through previous data syncs, PMA can provide historical data beyond these limitations.

Reach Reporting Limitations

As of June 10, 2025, reports that combine the Reach metric with breakdowns will have this report data limited to the last 13 months (394 days). This is due to a change in Meta’s API. Reach data will only be available for the most recent 13 months when used with the following breakdowns:

  • Action Target ID
  • Action types/Action type with custom labels
  • Age
  • Applink Treatment
  • Carousel Card ID
  • Carousel Card Name
  • Conversion Device
  • Country
  • Device Platform
  • DMA
  • DMA Code
  • Gender
  • Hour of Day - Advertiser Time Zone
  • Hour of Day - Audience Time Zone
  • Impression Device
  • Place Page ID
  • Placement
  • Platform Position
  • Publisher Platform
  • Region
  • Template URL

For more information, please see Meta’s 2025 API Changelog.

Unavailable Data

  • Purchase breakouts by device and publisher platform
  • Offsite metrics
  • Conversions by country
  • Breakdowns by Objective

Report Custom Events

The Facebook Ads connector automatically includes any custom events you’ve configured in Facebook Ads. In Looker Studio, if your custom events have not appeared as available fields in your report, reconnect the Facebook Ads data source from within Looker Studio. The custom events fields should appear after reconnecting.

Replicating Custom Metrics

Custom metrics can be replicated with formulas in your report:

Create Breakdowns by Objective

Breakdowns by objective are available in Facebook Ads Manager but not in the API. You can use the following workaround:
  1. Create a filter on your table.
  2. Choose Include > Campaign ID (ad sets, campaign insights, campaigns, insights) > RegExp Match.

     

Report Result Rate

The Result Rate field is unavailable through Meta's Facebook API, so Power My Analytics cannot report total result rate for all KPIs. However, to report result rates for individual KPIs, please see our instructions at How to Report Result Rate in Facebook Ads.

Working with Ad Image Fields

Info
Power My Analytics offers multiple image-related fields for Facebook Ads. Understanding their differences will help you choose the right field for your reports.

The Ad Creative Image field is recommended for most use cases. This field automatically displays the highest-quality image available:

  • Uses the high-resolution Ad Image URL when available
  • Falls back to the Thumbnail URL when Ad Image URL is not available
  • Ensures your reports always display an image for each ad
Notes
To access this field, you may need to reconnect your Facebook Ads data source in Looker Studio.

Individual Image Fields

FieldQualityAvailabilityNotes
Ad Image URLHighNot always availableBest quality; may not render for all ad types
Thumbnail URLLowAlways availableLower resolution; works for all ads
Image Asset URLMediumDynamic Creative onlyLive data; can only be used with Impressions, Clicks, Amount Spent, and Reach

Video Ad Thumbnail Fields

For video advertisements, the following thumbnail-related fields are available:

  • Video Asset Thumbnail URL — Direct URL to the video thumbnail (Dynamic Creative breakdown)
  • Video Asset Thumbnail Hash — Internal identifier for the thumbnail image

Limitations:

  • Video thumbnail fields are part of the Dynamic Creative asset breakdowns and can only be used with the metrics Impressions, Clicks (All), Amount Spent, and Reach
  • An image will only be returned for ads that include image or video creatives; non-visual ad types will not return images
  • Meta's API does not provide a dedicated field to identify specific ad formats (Reels, Standard, Videos, etc.)

Troubleshooting

Follow the instructions in Troubleshooting Facebook Ads for information on issues that may affect the Facebook Ads connector.

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