Simplified Data Migration: Snapchat to Redshift Made Easy

Snapchat users are presented with non-intrusive, full-screen advertisements in between the content that they have specifically requested to view. Snapchat advertisements can be either still images or videos.

Businesses all over the world are being forced to spend money on hardware resources in order to simply keep up with the massive amounts of data they have. Hence they are rapidly shifting their focus toward cloud-based data warehouses like Amazon Redshift, which provide an alternative method of data storage that is not only more affordable but also secure and scalable.

This article talks about how to Connect Snapchat to Redshift in a few simple steps. In addition to that, it also describes Snapchat and Amazon Redshift briefly.

Introduction to Snapchat

Snap Inc., is the company that originated Snapchat, a multi-media instant messaging service and app. Snapchat was formerly known as Snapchat Inc. When using Snapchat, images, and messages are typically only viewable for a limited amount of time before they disappear forever from the devices of the people who received them. This is one of the app’s most distinguishing features.

You will have access to information regarding the advertisements, ad squads, and campaigns that are currently active on Snapchat if you make use of the Snapchat advertising platform known as Snapchat Ads.

• Starting at just $5 per day: Take responsibility for the budget you create and make adjustments as necessary.
• Obtain a Highly Interested Audience: Enlist the 332 Million People Who Are Active Daily As Your Audience.
• Simple Campaign Optimization: Using the Snap Pixel and goal-based bidding, you can easily optimize your advertising campaigns in real time.

Key Features of Snapchat

Here are a few key features of Snapchat:

• Drives Traffic: Snaps are designed to only last for a short amount of time. In spite of the fact that it seems to be somewhat ineffective, it can result in an increase in traffic. Adding a sense of urgency to your photographs by designing them to be deleted gives your audience a reason not to miss out on seeing them.
• Boost Engagement: This is ideal for marketers who are organizing events, who want to highlight the culture of their business, or who want to use them in an integrated marketing effort. Those who want to use them in an integrated marketing effort can also benefit from this. You have the ability to create one-of-a-kind geofilters with Snapchat’s on-demand geofilters, which other users can then use.
• Build Brand Awareness: Companies use Snapchat as an advertising medium of choice because the app is effective. Snapchat has more than 265 million daily active users, which means that the platform can help you reach a sizeable audience through entertaining advertisements, eye-catching filters, or compelling stories.

Introduction to Redshift

• Amazon Redshift is a cloud-based and fully managed petabyte-scale Data Warehousing service. It enables you to begin with a few gigabytes of data and scale up to a petabyte or more. 
• Amazon Redshift organizes data into clusters that can be examined simultaneously. As a result, Amazon Redshift data may be retrieved quickly and easily. Users and apps can access each node independently.
• Amazon Redshift can be utilized with a variety of SQL-based clients, as well as a variety of Data Sources and Data Analytics tools. It has a solid architecture that makes interacting with a variety of business intelligence tools a breeze.

Key Features of Amazon Redshift

• Secure End-to-end Data Encryption: Amazon Redshift uses SSL encryption for data in transit and hardware-accelerated AES-256 encryption for data at rest. All data saved to the disc is encrypted, as are any backup files. You won’t need to worry about key management because Amazon will take care of it for you.
• Cost-effective: Amazon Redshift is the most cost-effective cloud data warehousing alternative. The cost is estimated to be a tenth of the cost of traditional on-premise warehousing. Consumers simply pay for the services they use; there are no hidden costs. You may discover more about pricing on the Redshift official website.
• Scalable: Amazon Redshift, a petabyte-scale data warehousing technology from Amazon, is scalable. Redshift from Amazon is simple to use and scales to match your needs. With a few clicks or a simple API call, you can instantly change the number or kind of nodes in your Data Warehouse, and scale up or down as needed.

Why Connect Snapchat to Redshift?

• You will be able to make the most of your time and focus on the things that are most important to you if you operationalize your data using the Snapchat to Redshift Integration. 
• The connection between Snapchat and Redshift makes it possible to generate operational reports, boosts performance by offloading queries, bolsters data governance initiatives, archives data for disaster recovery, and more.
• In addition, the Snapchat to Redshift Integration enables data movement that is dependable, secure, and robust.

Also Check Out:

• Connect Snapchat to Snowflake
• Snapchat to BigQuery Integration

Method 1: Connect Snapchat to Redshift using Hevo

Step 1.1: Configure Snapchat as Your Source

Step 1.2: Configure Redshift as Your Destination

Key Features of Hevo Data

• Data Transformation: Hevo Data provides you the ability to transform your data for analysis with a simple Python-based drag-and-drop data transformation technique.
• Automated Schema Mapping: Hevo Data automatically arranges the destination schema to match the incoming data. It also lets you choose between Full and Incremental Mapping.
• Incremental Data Load: It ensures proper utilization of bandwidth both on the source and the destination by allowing real-time data transfer of the modified data.

With a versatile set of features, Hevo Data is one of the best tools for exporting data from Snapchat to Redshift.

Method 2: Connect Snapchat to Redshift using CSV Files

To set up Snapchat Redshift Integration, you first need to Connect Snapchat to CSV and CSV to Redshift.

• Snapchat to CSV
• CSV to Redshift

Step 2.1: Snapchat to CSV

The first step in Snapchat to Redshift Migration is transferring Snapchat data to CSV. All of your metrics and insights for a specific ad account are available for export in two different types of reports in the form of a CSV. CSV also acts as a Snapchat Redshift connector here. You could export:

• Custom Reports
• Delivery Insight Reports

Step 2.1.1: Custom Reports

For a specific period within that ad account, a custom report includes all of your reporting metrics. All of your campaigns, ad sets, and ads can be included in a custom report that you can pull. To export a personalized report in Snapchat to Redshift Integration:

• Step A: Access Ads Manager by logging in.
• Step B: From the dropdown menu in the top corner, choose an Advertising Account.
• Step C: Choose “Manage Ads” from the menu by clicking the menu button in the top corner.
• Step D: Choose “Campaigns,” “Ad Sets,” or “Ads.”
• Step E: To edit the data that will be included in your CSV export, click “Columns.”

• Step F: To select a configuration and export your CSV file, click “Download.”
• Step G: Select “Export” to connect Snapchat to Redshift. A document in Excel format will be created using the current selection of columns, dates, and times.

Step 2.1.2: Delivery Insight Reports

Delivery Insights is a report on ad performance that can assist you in determining who saw, engaged with, and responded to your advertisements. The effectiveness of your campaign can be improved by using audience insights from their demographics, locations, and interests to guide optimization. There are several ways to view Delivery Insights in Snapchat to Redshift Connection:

Importing your insights in Snapchat to Redshift Integration:

• Step A: Enter Ads Manager.
• Step B: In the top right corner’s dropdown menu, choose an advertising account.
• Step C: ‘Manage Ads’ can be chosen by clicking the icon in the top corner.
• Step D: Opt for “Campaigns,” “Ad Sets,” or “Ads.”
• Step E: You can view Delivery Insights for specific campaigns, ad sets, or ads by selecting them.
• Step F: To export in bulk, click on Export.
• Step G: From the dropdown, choose the desired metric breakdown.
  • There are the following first-party choices:
    • Age 
    • Gender 
    • Age and Gender
    • Country
    • OS 
  • Only accessible to iOS 14 Opt-In users:
    • Snapchat Lifestyle Category 
    • Region (US Only)
    • DMA (US Only) 
    • Device Make
    • Product

Step 2.2: CSV to Redshift

Utilizing an S3 bucket is among the most straightforward methods available for loading CSV files into Amazon Redshift. It is accomplished in two stages: first, the CSV files are loaded into S3, and then, after that, the data are loaded from S3 into Amazon Redshift.

• Step 2.2.1: Create a manifest file that contains the CSV data to be loaded. Upload this to S3 and preferably gzip the files.

• Step 2.2.2:  Once loaded onto S3, run the COPY command to pull the file from S3 and load it to the desired table. If you have used gzip, your code will be of the following structure:

COPY <schema-name>.<table-name> (<ordered-list-of-columns>) FROM '<manifest-file-s3-url>' 

CREDENTIALS'aws_access_key_id=<key>;aws_secret_access_key=<secret-key>' GZIP MANIFEST;

In this scenario, utilizing the CSV keyword is important in order to assist Amazon Redshift in identifying the file format. In addition to this, you will need to specify any column arrangements or row headers that will be ignored, as shown below:

COPY table_name (col1, col2, col3, col4)
FROM 's3://<your-bucket-name>/load/file_name.csv'
credentials 'aws_access_key_id=<Your-Access-Key-ID>;aws_secret_access_key=<Your-Secret-Access-Key>'
CSV;

-- Ignore the first line
COPY table_name (col1, col2, col3, col4)
FROM 's3://<your-bucket-name>/load/file_name.csv'
credentials 'aws_access_key_id=<Your-Access-Key-ID>;aws_secret_access_key=<Your-Secret-Access-Key>'
CSV
INGOREHEADER 1;

This process will successfully load your desired CSV datasets to Amazon Redshift in a pretty straightforward way.

Common Challenges Faced

• It’s not a good idea to duplicate all of your data every time your records are updated. This would be painfully slow and resource-intensive.
• Instead, identify key fields that your script can use to bookmark its progress through the data and return to as it searches for updated data. It’s best to use auto-incrementing fields like updated at or created at for this

As with any code, you must maintain it once you’ve written it. You may need to change the script if Snapchat changes its API or if the API sends a field with a datatype, your code doesn’t recognize. You must undoubtedly do so if your users require slightly different information.

Final Thoughts

• In this article, you understood the main features of Snapchat and Amazon Redshift. You also learned two methods to integrate Snapchat into Redshift. 
• Amazon Redshift allows you to analyze Snapchat data to find meaningful insights to improve user experience.
• However, as a Developer, extracting complex data from a diverse set of data sources like Databases, CRMs, Project management Tools, Streaming Services, and Marketing Platforms to your Database can seem to be quite challenging. 
• If you are from a non-technical background or are new in the game of data warehouse and analytics, Hevo Data can help!

Sign up for a 14-day free trial and simplify your data integration process. Check out the pricing details to understand which plan fulfills all your business needs.

Frequently Asked Questions