How to Sync Facebook (Meta) ads to Looker Studio

Many marketers want to visualise their Facebook Ads performance in Looker Studio, but manually exporting data can be time-consuming and leaves your dashboard lacking fresh data.

SyncRange automates this by providing a direct Looker Studio connector, or by letting you export your Facebook Ads data to Google Sheets or BigQuery, which Looker Studio can then use as live data sources. The result is up-to-date, interactive dashboards without any coding. In this guide, I'll explain how to set up SyncRange with Facebook Ads and then build reports in Looker Studio that always have fresh data.

Setting Up the Meta (Facebook) Ads Looker Studio Connector

The SyncRange Meta Ads Looker Studio connector provides direct access to your Facebook and Instagram advertising data. Setting it up is straightforward and takes just a few minutes.

Before you begin, make sure you've already connected your Meta (Facebook) account to SyncRange. If you haven't done this yet, you'll need to navigate to Connections → Meta in your SyncRange dashboard, click "Connect Meta Account," and authorize the integration. You'll be asked to grant permissions and select which ad accounts you want to connect. Once that's complete, you can proceed with setting up the Looker Studio connector.

The first step is to generate an API key from your SyncRange account. This key authenticates your connector and allows it to access your Meta Ads data. Here's how to create one:

• Log into your SyncRange account
• Navigate to Account → Profile
• Click "New API Key"
• Copy the generated API key and keep it secure

Keep your API key secure and don't share it publicly. You can regenerate it at any time from your account settings if needed.

Next, navigate to the Looker Studio section in your SyncRange dashboard where you'll find the Meta Ads connector installation link. Clicking this link will take you directly to Looker Studio's connector gallery. When you arrive, click "Authorize" to grant Looker Studio access to the connector, and it will be added to your account.

To create a new data source, go to Looker Studio and follow these steps:

• Click Create → Data Source
• Search for "Meta Ads" or find it in your list of authorized connectors
• Select the SyncRange Meta Ads Connector
• When prompted, enter the API key you generated earlier

This authenticates the connection and allows the connector to access your Meta Ads data through SyncRange's API.

After authentication, you'll see a list of your Meta Ads accounts that are connected to SyncRange. Select the account containing the campaigns you want to analyze. If you have multiple accounts, choose the one with the data you need for your dashboard.

Now you can configure your data source. The connector offers several data types to choose from, including Campaigns, Ad Sets, Ads, Insights, Account, Audience, Conversions, and Creative. Each data type is optimized for specific analysis needs, Campaigns for performance analysis and budget tracking, Ad Sets for targeting analysis, Ads for creative performance, and so on. Select the data type that matches your analysis goals.

The connector handles all the complexity of accessing Meta's API, managing authentication, and formatting the data for Looker Studio. This means you can focus on building powerful visualizations and insights from your Facebook and Instagram advertising performance without worrying about the technical details of data synchronization.

Exporting Facebook Ads Data to Sheets or BigQuery

First, connect your Facebook (Meta) ad account to SyncRange. In SyncRange head to the Connections → Meta page, authorise your Facebook account and grant read-only access to your ad accounts. This lets SyncRange pull your campaign data (impressions, clicks, costs, conversions) via the Facebook Ads API.

Next, connect Google: in Connections → Google, authorise the Google account that has access to your Google Sheets and BigQuery projects.

Now, configure where SyncRange will send the data:

• Google Sheets: In Google Integrations → Google Sheets, click “Add Sheet”. You can create a new spreadsheet or select an existing one.
• Alternatively, click Select existing Sheet to open the Google Drive picker. Pick your desired spreadsheet. (Tip: Google Sheets has a 10 million cell limit, so for very large exports, you may prefer BigQuery.)
• Google BigQuery: In Google Integrations → BigQuery, click “Add BigQuery Destination”. Select your Google Cloud project and either choose an existing dataset or create a new one. This sets up a BigQuery dataset for your Facebook Ads data.

With a destination set up, you can now create the export. In SyncRange's Export Builder, click “New Export”. Name it something like 'Facebook Ads to Looker' and select Meta as the data source. Then choose the Google Sheet or BigQuery dataset you connected. Configure which data to export: select tabs like Campaigns, Ad Sets, Ads, and Insights, and pick the fields you need.

Set the date range you want and whether to append or replace data. Finally, set a schedule (daily, weekly, etc.) for automatic refresh and save the export.

SyncRange will now run the export on the schedule you set. Each run will pull the latest Facebook Ads metrics and add them to the sheet or BigQuery tables. Now your ad data is flowing automatically into Google, without any manual work.

Connecting to Looker Studio

Next, set up Looker Studio to use this data. In Looker Studio, click Create → Data Source and select:

• Google Sheets Connector: Choose Google Sheets and pick the spreadsheet and worksheet where SyncRange is writing the Facebook Ads data.
• BigQuery Connector: Choose BigQuery and select your Google Cloud project, then the dataset and the tables (each table corresponds to one SyncRange export tab, like campaigns, ads, etc.).

Once added, Looker Studio treats your Facebook Ads data as a data source. You can adjust field names, data types, or create calculated fields here. For example, you might format date fields or add metrics like CTR = Clicks/Impressions.

Now you can build dashboards in Looker Studio’s drag-and-drop editor. Add charts, tables, and filter controls.

Here are some useful charts and reports you may want to create.

• Campaign Performance: A time-series chart of Impressions and Ad Spend over time, with a date-range selector and campaign dropdown filter.
• Audience Breakdown: Pie or bar charts showing Clicks or Cost by demographic segment (age, gender, country) if those fields were included.
• Spend vs Conversions: A combo chart comparing Ad Spend (line) versus Conversions (bars) for each campaign or period.
• Key Metrics Scorecards: Scorecards displaying totals like Total Spend, Total Clicks, Total Conversions, and computed metrics like CPC (Cost per Click) or CPA (Cost per Acquisition).
• ROAS & CPA: Use calculated fields to show Return on Ad Spend (ROAS = Revenue/Spend) or Cost per Acquisition (CPA = Spend/Conversions) by campaign.
• Geographic Map: A Geo map chart is ideal if you have country or region data, and would like to visualise where your ads performed best.
• Time-of-Day Heatmap: A heatmap showing performance (e.g. spend or conversions) by hour of day or day of week.
• Cross-Channel Comparison: If you connect other sources (like Google Ads or Analytics), you can show Facebook metrics side-by-side with other channels in the same report.
• Interactive Filters: Add dropdowns or sliders (by campaign, date range, etc.) so viewers can drill down on demand.

Once your report is built, it will refresh automatically whenever SyncRange updates the data. You can easily share the dashboard link with colleagues or clients and even generate PDF reports.

Benefits: This workflow gives you live, automated Facebook Ads reporting. SyncRange eliminates manual CSV exports, keeping your Google data source current. Looker Studio’s visual tools let you explore trends and KPIs without writing any code. This setup is cost-effective as SyncRange offers a free plan, and Looker Studio is free for creators and viewers. You get powerful dashboards on autopilot with no coding needed.