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.

DataFlowed automates this by exporting 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 DataFlowed with Facebook Ads and then build reports in Looker Studio that always have fresh data.

Exporting Facebook Ads Data with DataFlowed

First, connect your Facebook (Meta) ad account to DataFlowed. In DataFlowed’s Connections → Meta page, authorise your Facebook account and grant read-only access to your ad accounts. This lets DataFlowed 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 DataFlowed 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 DataFlowed’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.

DataFlowed 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 DataFlowed 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 DataFlowed 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 DataFlowed 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. DataFlowed 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 DataFlowed offers a free plan, and Looker Studio is free for creators and viewers. You get powerful dashboards on autopilot with no coding needed.