LinkedIn Ad Analytics Transformation dbt Package (docs)

What does this dbt package do?

• Produces modeled tables that leverage Linkedin Ad Analytics data from Fivetran's connector in the format described by this ERD and builds off the output of our Linkedin Ads source package.
• Enables you to better understand the performance of your ads across varying grains:
  • Providing an account, campaign (ad groups in other ad platforms), campaign group (campaigns in other ad platforms), creative, and utm/url level reports.
• Materializes output models designed to work simultaneously with our multi-platform Ad Reporting package.
• Generates a comprehensive data dictionary of your source and modeled Linkedin Ad Analytics data through the dbt docs site.

The following table provides a detailed list of all tables materialized within this package by default.

TIP: See more details about these tables in the package's dbt docs site.

How do I use the dbt package?

Step 1: Prerequisites

To use this dbt package, you must have the following:

• At least one Fivetran Linkedin Ad Analytics onnector syncing data into your destination.
• A BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, PostgreSQL, or Databricks destination.

Databricks Dispatch Configuration

If you are using a Databricks destination with this package you will need to add the below (or a variation of the below) dispatch configuration within your dbt_project.yml. This is required in order for the package to accurately search for macros within the dbt-labs/spark_utils then the dbt-labs/dbt_utils packages respectively.

dispatch:
  - macro_namespace: dbt_utils
    search_order: ['spark_utils', 'dbt_utils']

Step 2: Install the package (skip if also using the ad_reporting combination package)

Include the following Linkedin Ads package version in your packages.yml file:

TIP: Check dbt Hub for the latest installation instructions or read the dbt docs for more information on installing packages

# packages.yml
packages:
  - package: fivetran/linkedin
    version: [">=0.9.0", "<0.10.0"]

Do NOT include the linkedin_source package in this file. The transformation package itself has a dependency on it and will install the source package as well.

Step 3: Define database and schema variables

By default, this package runs using your destination and the linkedin_ads schema. If this is not where your Linkedin Ad Analytics data is (for example, if your Linkedin schema is named linkedin_ads_fivetran), add the following configuration to your root dbt_project.yml file:

# dbt_project.yml
vars:
    linkedin_ads_schema: your_schema_name
    linkedin_ads_database: your_destination_name 

(Optional) Step 4: Additional configurations

Union multiple connectors

If you have multiple linkedin connectors in Fivetran and would like to use this package on all of them simultaneously, we have provided functionality to do so. The package will union all of the data together and pass the unioned table into the transformations. You will be able to see which source it came from in the source_relation column of each model. To use this functionality, you will need to set either the linkedin_ads_union_schemas OR linkedin_ads_union_databases variables (cannot do both) in your root dbt_project.yml file:

vars:
    linkedin_ads_union_schemas: ['linkedin_usa','linkedin_canada'] # use this if the data is in different schemas/datasets of the same database/project
    linkedin_ads_union_databases: ['linkedin_usa','linkedin_canada'] # use this if the data is in different databases/projects but uses the same schema name

NOTE: The native source.yml connection set up in the package will not function when the union schema/database feature is utilized. Although the data will be correctly combined, you will not observe the sources linked to the package models in the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). This happens because the package includes only one defined source.yml.

To connect your multiple schema/database sources to the package models, follow the steps outlined in the Union Data Defined Sources Configuration section of the Fivetran Utils documentation for the union_data macro. This will ensure a proper configuration and correct visualization of connections in the DAG.

Switching to Local Currency

Additionally, the package allows you to select whether you want to add in costs in USD or the local currency of the ad. By default, the package uses USD. If you would like to have costs in the local currency, add the following variable to your dbt_project.yml file:

# dbt_project.yml
vars:
    linkedin_ads__use_local_currency: True # false by default -- uses USD

Note: Unlike cost, conversion values are only available in the local currency. The package will only use the conversion_value_in_local_currency field for conversion values, while it may draw from the cost_in_local_currency and cost_in_usd source fields for cost.

Passing Through Additional Metrics

By default, this package will select clicks, impressions, cost, conversion_value_in_local_currency, and total_conversions (as well as fields set via linkedin_ads__conversion_fields in the next section) from the source reporting tables to store into the staging models. If you would like to pass through additional metrics to the staging models, add the below configurations to your dbt_project.yml file. These variables allow for the pass-through fields to be aliased (alias) if desired, but not required. Use the below format for declaring the respective pass-through variables:

# dbt_project.yml
vars:
    linkedin_ads__campaign_passthrough_metrics: # pulls from ad_analytics_by_campaign
        - name: "new_custom_field"
          alias: "custom_field_alias"
          transform_sql: "coalesce(custom_field_alias, 0)" # reference the `alias` here if you are using one
        - name: "unique_int_field"
          alias: "field_id"
        - name: "another_one"
          transform_sql: "coalesce(another_one, 0)" # reference the `name` here if you're not using an alias
        - name: "that_field"
    linkedin_ads__creative_passthrough_metrics: # pulls from ad_analytics_by_creative
        - name: "new_custom_field"
          alias: "custom_field"
        - name: "unique_int_field"

Note Please ensure you exercised due diligence when adding metrics to these models. The metrics added by default (clicks, impressions, and spend) have been vetted by the Fivetran team maintaining this package for accuracy. There are metrics included within the source reports, for example metric averages, which may be inaccurately represented at the grain for reports created in this package. You will want to ensure whichever metrics you pass through are indeed appropriate to aggregate at the respective reporting levels provided in this package. (Important: You do not need to add conversions in this way. See the following section for an alternative implementation.)

Adding in Conversion Fields Variable

Separate from the above passthrough metrics, the package will also include conversion metrics based on the linkedin_ads__conversion_fields variable, in addition to the conversion_value_in_local_currency field.

By default, the data models consider external_website_conversions and one_click_leads to be conversions. These should cover most use cases, but if you wanted to adjust this to your business case, you would apply the following configuration with the original source names of the conversion fields (not aliases you provided in the section above):

# dbt_project.yml
vars:
    linkedin_ads__conversion_fields: ['external_website_pre_click_conversions', 'one_click_leads', 'external_website_post_click_conversions', 'landing_page_clicks']

Make sure to follow best practices in configuring fields in the conversion field variables! See the DECISIONLOG for more details.

We introduced support for conversion fields in our report data models in the v0.9.0 release of the package, but customers might have been bringing in these conversion fields earlier using the passthrough fields variables. The data models will avoid "duplicate column" errors automatically if this is the case.

Changing the Build Schema

By default this package will build the LinkedIn Ad Analytics staging models within a schema titled (<target_schema> + _linkedin_ads_source) and the LinkedIn Ad Analytics final models within a schema titled (<target_schema> + _linkedin_ads) in your target database. If this is not where you would like your modeled LinkedIn data to be written to, add the following configuration to your dbt_project.yml file:

# dbt_project.yml
models:
    linkedin:
      +schema: my_new_schema_name # leave blank for just the target_schema
    linkedin_source:
      +schema: my_new_schema_name # leave blank for just the target_schema

Change the source table references

If an individual source table has a different name than the package expects, add the table name as it appears in your destination to the respective variable. This is not available when running the package on multiple unioned connectors.

IMPORTANT: See this project's dbt_project.yml variable declarations to see the expected names.

# dbt_project.yml
vars:
    linkedin_ads_<default_source_table_name>_identifier: your_table_name 

(Optional) Step 5: Orchestrate your models with Fivetran Transformations for dbt Core™

Does this package have dependencies?

This dbt package is dependent on the following dbt packages. These dependencies are installed by default within this package. For more information on the following packages, refer to the dbt hub site.

IMPORTANT: If you have any of these dependent packages in your own packages.yml file, we highly recommend that you remove them from your root packages.yml to avoid package version conflicts.

packages:
    - package: fivetran/linkedin_source
      version: [">=0.9.0", "<0.10.0"]
    - package: fivetran/fivetran_utils
      version: [">=0.4.0", "<0.5.0"]
    - package: dbt-labs/dbt_utils
      version: [">=1.0.0", "<2.0.0"]
    - package: dbt-labs/spark_utils
      version: [">=0.3.0", "<0.4.0"]

How is this package maintained and can I contribute?

Package Maintenance

The Fivetran team maintaining this package only maintains the latest version of the package. We highly recommend you stay consistent with the latest version of the package and refer to the CHANGELOG and release notes for more information on changes across versions.

Contributions

A small team of analytics engineers at Fivetran develops these dbt packages. However, the packages are made better by community contributions.

We highly encourage and welcome contributions to this package. Check out this dbt Discourse article on the best workflow for contributing to a package.

Contributors

We thank everyone who has taken the time to contribute. Each PR, bug report, and feature request has made this package better and is truly appreciated.

A special thank you to Seer Interactive, who we closely collaborated with to introduce native conversion support to our Ad packages.

Are there any resources available?

• If you have questions or want to reach out for help, see the GitHub Issue section to find the right avenue of support for you.
• If you would like to provide feedback to the dbt package team at Fivetran or would like to request a new dbt package, fill out our Feedback Form.