Facebook Ads Setup Guide

Follow our setup guide to connect Facebook Ads to Fivetran.

Prerequisites

To connect Facebook Ads to Fivetran, you need:

• An active Meta Ads Manager account with the following permissions for the accounts you'd like to sync:

  • An ads_read permission to sync Ads report information for any Ad accounts that you own or have been granted access to through this permission.
  • An ads_management permission to sync Ads accounts' metadata. This permission also requests the id and account_timezone fields of Ad accounts. The account_timezone field is required to save the correct report date in the destination.
  • A business_management permission is mandatory to ensure a successful setup. Without this permission, setup tests will fail.

• The breakdowns and fields you'd like to sync.

Setup instructions

Begin Fivetran configuration

1. In the connector setup form, enter the Destination schema name of your choice.

2. Select the Authentication Method you want to use:

   • Select Grant User Access to authorize through OAuth. Click Authorize to allow Fivetran access to your Facebook Ads account using OAuth. We recommend this authentication method to most users because it bases the API's rate limit on the Fivetran application instead of a user's advertising account. The Fivetran application has a higher rate limit than a system user token. See our Facebook's Ads troubleshooting article on rate limits for more information.

     IMPORTANT: We recommend logging in while in Incognito mode to ensure authorization of the correct account.

   • Select Use System User Token to authorize through a System User Token. We recommend this authentication method to organizations that don't want to ask their end-users to grant user access. Such organizations may include digital marketing agencies or Powered by Fivetran users.

     1. You must grant the ads_read, ads_management, and business_management permissions while generating the system user token.
     2. In the Access Token field, enter your System User Token.
     3. Click Validate system user access token to validate the token permissions.

   IMPORTANT: The app for which you generated the system token must have the Standard or Advanced access level. If the app has the default No Access level, the system user tokens generated for these apps can not query the Ads API. Note that requirements for each access level are managed by a third party and can be changed at any time. If you see sudden access level errors after the connector setup, check your App review status and make sure the requirements for the specified access level are met.

3. Select your sync mode:

   • Select Sync All Accounts to sync all accounts you have access to.
   • Select Sync Specific Accounts to sync specific accounts only. Use the Accounts list to add accounts you'd like to sync.

(Optional) Set up custom report

TIP: Before setting up a custom report, verify whether the data is available through the Facebook API. To do this, build the custom reports you require using the Facebook Graph API Explorer and then replicate it in Fivetran. The explorer indicates fields compatibility, any potential errors, and if the data you require is available.

Also, see our Facebook Ads custom reports documentation to learn about their limitations and view sample custom reports.

1. Click + Custom report if you want to sync a custom report.

2. Enter the Report name. It must be unique within this connector.

3. Select the type of time Aggregation for the report.

4. (optional) Set the Show Advanced Options toggle to ON if you want to sync the optional fields.

5. (optional) Select an Action Report Time for the report.

6. (optional) Set the Click Attribution Window.

7. (optional) Set the View Attribution Window.

8. (optional) Set the Engaged-view Attribution Window.

9. (optional) Set the Show Advanced Options toggle to ON if you want the Facebook API to return your ads results using the unified attribution settings defined at the ad set level.

10. Click Next.

11. (optional) Select Breakdowns you want to include in the report.

12. (optional) Select Action Breakdowns you want to include in the report.

13. Add at least one field to finalize your report.

    IMPORTANT: To sync conversions and actions data, include the action_type field from the Action Breakdowns selection as well as the following fields:

    • For conversions: conversions and actions from the Fields selection.
    • For conversion values: conversion_values and action_values from the Fields selection. To avoid discrepancies, we recommend using a union of the two resulting child tables (e.g., <table_name>_conversions and <table_name>_actions).

    For more information on this configuration and the output of this data, see our Conversions and actions documentation.

14. Click Save to add your Custom report.

    TIP: Repeat the 14 steps above if you want to add another Custom report.

Finish Fivetran configuration

1. In the Historical Sync Time Frame drop-down, select how many months' worth of reporting data you'd like to include in your initial sync.

   NOTE: Fivetran can only retrieve up to 37 months` worth of data from Facebook Ads. This limitation is from the source side.

2. (Optional) Set the Sync all metadata toggle to OFF if you want to sync only report data without any metadata.

3. Click Save & Test. Fivetran will take it from here and sync metadata and insights from your Facebook account.

TIP: Most API requests sent by Facebook Ads connectors are sent between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. (UTC). We recommend that you set the start time of your connector outside this high-load period. This action mitigates possible rate limit issues and optimizes sync time.

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