How to Load Data from Marketing Cloud to Looker Studio

Do you want to visualise your Salesforce Marketing Cloud data in Looker Studio?

Are you finding it challenging to load your data from Salesforce Marketing Cloud to Data Studio? If yes, then you’ve landed on the right page!

This article aims at providing you with a step-by-step guide to help you integrate Salesforce Marketing Cloud with Data Studio for a fruitful analysis of your marketing campaign performance, strategies and customer behaviour!

Why Connect Salesforce Marketing Cloud to Looker Studio

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a tool in the Salesforce ecosystem that provides digital marketing automation services to help businesses understand their customers better. Using the Marketing Cloud, marketers can have two-way, real-time interactions with customers in the form of ads, emails, etc. 

By connecting Marketing Cloud to Google Data Studio, you can leverage all the visualization features that Data Studio offers. Data Studio is an easy-to-use and free tool that makes it very attractive to many marketers.

Method 1: Using Tracking Extract Activity to Load Data from Marketing Cloud to Looker Studio

• Step 1: Create a Tracking Extract Activity
• Step 2: Create a File Transfer Activity
• Step 3: Schedule an Automation
• Step 4: Use an FTP Tool to Extract your Data
• Step 5: Upload CSV Files to Google Data Studio

Step 1: Create a Tracking Extract Activity

• First of all, log into your Salesforce Marketing Cloud account and navigate to the automation studio.
• Click on the “Activities” tab and select “Create Activity” on the top-right corner. 
• Select the Data Extract option and start configuring your data extract.
• From the Extract Type drop-down, select Tracking Extract in the Marketing Cloud Automation Studio. 
• There is a list of tracking extract fields, such as AccountIDs, Attributes, Email Send Definition External Key, etc. that have to be configured.

Description of the Tracking Extract Fields

Field	Description
Rolling Range vs Specific Range	Represents the range of time to include in the tracking extract. For a Rolling Range, choose from 1,7,30,60, or 90 days. For a Specific Range, the start and end dates are selected in the calendar fields.
AccountIDs	These are the accounts used to extract tracking data.
Attributes	To get this section, first, enable ExtractAttributes for your account. It is the accounts for which you include the Attributes file.
Email Send Definition External Key	Used to filter data from a specific send.
Output Checkboxes	Select one or more from outputs like Attributes, Bounces, Clicks, Conversions, Subscribers, Lists, etc.
Extract Range	It is the date range to create the tracking extract
Format	Choose from CSV, TSV, or XML formats to create the tracking extract.

• In the file format field, select CSV.
• Once you are done with the configuration, you can check out the summary of your data extract.

Step 2: Create a File Transfer Activity 

• Click on Create Activity in the Activity tab and select File Transfer. 

• Enter the Name and Description.
• Now you will see two options: ‘Manage File’ and ‘Move a File From Safehouse’ in the file action option. Select ‘Move a File From Safehouse’.

• Click Next and move on to the Configurations tab. Now, name your file transfer activity with the same pattern as your data extract. Set the destination as “ExactTarget Enhanced FTP”.

Step 3: Schedule an Automation

• Next, you need to build automation in Automation Studio to schedule the export activity.
• Navigate to Automation Studio, the Overview tab, and click New Automation. Click Choose to select objects for this activity.

• You can now see the Workflow on the screen. Drag the schedule, file transfer, and data extract activities on to the workflow canvas. 

• You can check the success rate of your workflow once you are done with this.

Step 4: Use an FTP Tool to Extract your Data

SFTP stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol. Your Marketing Cloud account comes with an SFTP.  In your SFTP folder, Marketing Cloud creates Import, Export, and Reports folders. Any file that stays on Marketing Cloud SFTP for more than 21 days is eligible for removal. It is used to move files around securely. Here is how you set it up:

• Go to Setup -> Data Management.
• Click FTP Accounts.
• Click Add FTP User.
• Enter a  new password and save.

The above process will allow you to access your FTP site. If you already have your SFTP set up, just copy your FTP credentials, and URL. Use a third-party FTP tool to access your SFTP server. 

• Finally, use your FTP tool and log in using your credentials.

• Now you can extract your data to your computer from the Import folder.

Step 5: Upload CSV Files to Google Looker Studio

Here is how you can connect your CSV files extracted from Marketing Cloud to your Google Data Studio Account.

• Log into your Data Studio account.
• Click on the “+ Create” button on the top-left corner.

• You will see a pop-up with 3 options. Select “Data Source”.

• In the list of Connectors, you will see an option called File Upload.

• Click it and you will have the option of uploading your CSV file.

• Once you upload your CSV file, it will be shown in the Data Sets column on the left.  You can use the “ADD FILES” option to select more CSV files. Click “CONNECT” on the top right corner.

• Click on “CREATE REPORT” on the top-right to load the dataset into your new report.

• You can now create visualizations using Data Studio! Check out this blog to learn more about making awesome reports on Data Studio.

The above method can lead to many complications especially if you want to extract data from multiple sources. So here is the second method.

Method 2: Using Hevo Data

1. Connect: Connect Hevo with Salesforce Marketing Cloud and various other sales & marketing data sources by simply logging in with your credentials.
2. Integrate: Consolidate your marketing data from 100+ sources in Hevo’s Managed Data Integration Platform and automatically transform it into an analysis-ready form.
3. Visualize: Connect Hevo with your desired BI tool such as Google Data Studio and visualize your unified marketing data easily to gain better insights.

Conclusion

• You have seen how to connect Marketing Cloud data to Looker Studio to visualize it. This will help you gain more insights out of your Marketing Cloud data.
• But in reality, that is not enough. To gain a better understanding of your customers, you need a more unified view using data from a diverse set of sources. 

Tell us about your experience of loading data from Marketing Cloud to Data Studio. Share your thoughts in the comments section below!