Facebook Ads to Firebolt: 2 Easy Ways to Integrate Data

A comprehensive analysis of your marketing data will help you gain actionable insights and improve your campaign performance. Facebook Ads, one of the popular advertising platforms, offers impressive targeting capabilities for business growth. However, by moving data from Facebook Ads to Firebolt, you can further unlock the potential to optimize the marketing strategy.

When you integrate the two platforms, you can leverage Firebolt’s blazing-fast query performance. Centralizing your Facebook Ads data in a Firebolt database can help you obtain in-depth, real-time insights into your marketing efforts.

This article explains how you can connect Facebook Ads to Firebolt.

Methods to Connect Facebook Ads to Firebolt

Method 1: Move Data from Facebook Ads to Firebolt Using CSV Files

Prerequisites

• An active Facebook account.
• Access to the Facebook Ads console and related statistics.
• An active Firebolt account and its credentials (username and password).
• A Firebolt database for loading data.
• A General Purpose engine attached to the Firebolt database. A general-purpose engine offers better performance than other engine types.
• An S3 bucket in the same region as your Firebolt database.

CSV file format is a widely supported format and can be easily imported into different data analysis tools. To move your Facebook Ads data to Firebolt using CSV files, here are the steps to follow:

Step 1: Export Data from Facebook Ads

• Log in to your Facebook Ads Manager account.
• Click on Columns → Customize Columns to customize your data columns and include the most relevant metrics for analysis.
• Click on the Breakdown drop-down and select your preferred breakdowns, like placements, regions, dates, and others. This will add granularity to your data, which will help in effective analysis.
• Select the date range to specify the data you want to export.
• Click on Reports on the dashboard.
• Choose the Format as Export to .csv and click on Export.

The CSV file will be available in your system’s Downloads folder.

Step 2: Upload the Facebook Ads Data to an S3 Bucket

Upload the downloaded CSV file/s to an Amazon S3 bucket. Set up the Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions for the S3 bucket resources by using the AWS Management Console.

Step 3: Upload the Data to Firebolt

To move data from S3 to Firebolt:

• Create an external table: Firebolt uses an external table to communicate with the data source. Use the CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE command to create the external table that will establish a connection with the S3 resources.

Firebolt requires AWS IAM permissions to access the data in Amazon S3. When you create the external table, include the credentials that will allow Firebolt to read from S3. For credentials, you can either provide access key details or specify an IAM role.

• Create a fact table: The external table is merely a connector to the data source. To store the data in Firebolt for querying, you must create a fact table.

Here’s a sample script to create one:

CREATE FACT TABLE transactions
(
    transaction_id BIGINT,
    sale_date TIMESTAMP,
    store_id INTEGER,
    product_id INTEGER,
    units_sold INTEGER
)
PRIMARY INDEX store_id, product_id;

Running this script will create a fact table named transactions with the listed columns. The PRIMARY INDEX is optional and is used to sort, compress, and index the incoming data. The table will be stored in the Firebolt File Format (F3) in the Firebolt data warehouse.

• Import the data: Use INSERT INTO command with the general-purpose engine to load data from the external table into the fact table.

While using CSV files for data integration may be effort-intensive and time-consuming, there are some beneficial use cases:

• Complex Data Transformations: Exporting via CSV files allows you to perform any complex data transformations on your Facebook Ads data before loading it into Firebolt.
• One-Time Data Transfer: If you need to perform a one-time transfer of data from Facebook Ads to Firebolt, manually moving data from CSV files is an excellent choice.

Here are a few scenarios where using CSV Files might not be the best option for replicating data from Facebook Ads to Firebolt:

• Using CSV files isn’t the most efficient solution for migrating large-scale data. With increasing data volumes, managing and processing CSV files can be resource-intensive and impractical.
• This method lacks scheduling capabilities or automation. Since you must manually export and import the data, it’s an inefficient method for data updates between the two platforms. 

Method 2: Use a No-Code Tool to Automate the Facebook Ads Firebolt Migration

To overcome the limitations of the previous method, consider using a no-code tool for Facebook Ads to Firebolt migration. Such tools are associated with the following benefits:

• Real-Time Data Integration: Most no-code tools support real-time or near-real-time data integration, enabling you to maintain up-to-date data across systems. This will also help perform real-time data analysis for improved decision-making, thereby providing you with a competitive advantage.
• Easier Setup: No-code tools simplify the setup of data integration pipelines. The predefined connectors and intuitive interfaces make it easier to add new data sources or modify existing workflows. An added advantage is that you don’t have to worry about any workflow disruptions while making modifications to integrations.
• Cost-Effective: No-code tools reduce the need for coding, hence minimizing the development efforts. Since it eliminates the requirement for specialized technical resources, it results in cost savings for the organization. 

Hevo is one of the best no-code tools for your data integration needs. Setting up a Facebook Ads Firebolt ETL pipeline with Hevo will only take a few minutes. This fully-managed platform, with 150+ data connectors, will extract data from the desired source and load it to the destination.

Here are the steps you can follow to move Facebook Ads data to Firebolt using Hevo:

• Configure Source: Select Facebook Ads as the source from PIPELINES → +CREATE → Select Source Type. On the Configure your Facebook Ads Account page, click on ADD FACEBOOK ACCOUNT and then log in to your Facebook account. Click ALLOW to authorize Hevo to access your Facebook Ads data. On the Facebook Ads source configuration page, specify the Pipeline Name, Report Type, and Ads Action Report Time, among other details. Then, click on TEST & CONTINUE.

• Configure Destination: Select Firebolt as the destination from DESTINATIONS → +CREATE → Add Destination. On the Firebolt configuration page, specify a Destination Name, Engine Name, Firebolt Username and Password, and Database Name, among other things. Click on TEST CONNECTION, followed by SAVE DESTINATION.

By completing these two simple steps, your Facebook Ads data will be successfully loaded into Firebolt.

The default pipeline frequency of data replication of the Facebook Ads connector is one hour. While the minimum pipeline frequency is 15 minutes, the maximum is 24 hours. To set a custom frequency, you can select an integer value between 1-24.

Upon setting up the data pipeline, Hevo ingests historical data for the reports (default duration is one year). Thereafter, it operates on incremental data and uses data refresh (to resync data of the past 30 days by default).

Using Hevo Data for setting up your data integration pipelines offers several benefits, including:

• Auto Schema Mapping: Hevo detects the schema of the incoming data and performs auto-mapping to make it compatible with the destination schema.
• Built-in Integrations: Hevo offers ready-to-use built-in integrations to over 150+ data sources.
• Live Support: Hevo has 24/7 customer support through chat, email, and support calls.
• Transformation: Hevo has drag-and-drop transformation blocks for data transformations. Alternatively, you can use Python-based scripts to transform data effortlessly.

What Can You Achieve by Integrating Data from Facebook Ads to Firebolt?

A Facebook Ads to Firebolt integration provides the following use case benefits:

• Streamline Marketing Efforts: This integration will help you streamline your marketing efforts. You can analyze the ROI across different marketing channels to gain insights into the effectiveness of each channel. This is crucial to optimize and maximize the impact of your advertising campaigns.
• Increase Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): A Facebook Ads Firebolt integration assists in identifying the creatives (visual elements that improve the performance and success of an ad campaign) that yield high returns. You can then allocate more resources toward effective creatives to improve campaigns and achieve higher returns. This helps you increase ROAS and boost the profitability of your organization.
• Analyze Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) Across Campaigns: Customer LTV represents the net profit generated over the entire lifetime of a paying customer. With features like conversion tracking and multi-touch attribution, Facebook Ads provides data on customer LTV. Integrating Facebook Ads to Firebolt helps provide an in-depth analysis of customer LTV, helping you understand the patterns pertaining to creatives, targeting strategies, or products. This would enable you to focus your resources and marketing efforts on the more valuable customer segments.

Conclusion

Establishing a seamless connection between Facebook Ads and Firebolt will provide you with improved query performance and real-time insights. This will help to uncover the trends that drive your marketing campaign success.

Using CSV files and no-code tools are effective ways to move your Facebook Ads data to Firebolt. However, if you’re looking for a time-efficient solution that also reduces technical complexities, Hevo Data is an excellent choice.

While each method has its strengths and limitations, you must choose the approach that aligns with your requirements.

Hevo’s built-in integrations with 150+ data sources like Facebook Ads, near-real-time integration capabilities, and transformation options make it an attractive solution. All it takes are a few minutes to set up your data migration pipeline and start moving your data.

If you don’t want SaaS tools with unclear pricing that burn a hole in your pocket, opt for a tool that offers a simple, transparent pricing model. Hevo has 3 usage-based pricing plans starting with a free tier, where you can ingest up to 1 million records.

Schedule a demo to see if Hevo would be a good fit for you, today!