A Detailed Guide on How to Connect LinkedIn Αds to Looker Studio (Google Data Studio)

Getting a comprehensive overview of the performance of your marketing efforts on different social media channels can be a daunting task. Thus, in this article, we will walk you through a couple of ways to connect LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio fast and seamlessly. By the time you reach the end of this article, you will have a clear idea about the best approach for your business.

Why should you connect LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio?

For your marketing efforts on LinkedIn to be successful, you need to measure their performance effectively. This can be achieved by collecting, managing and interpreting the data generated by the LinkedIn Ads that you are running. You can do that by connecting Linkedin Ads to Looker Studio. 

And this approach is a great way for you to have a comprehensive overview of your LinkedIn Ads so that you will be able to make more informed financial and business decisions. All the data gathered from LinkedIn Ads can directly improve your business’s profitability and have a great impact on it. 

Of course, you can use the LinkedIn Campaign Manager, which supports native analytical functionality on the platform. This is ideal when the needs of your business for data analysis are not too demanding. However, when the occasion arises, and you have multiple data streams, or you wish to derive specific insights, create powerful dashboards and useful reports, and even share those with the stakeholders, the need calls for a more versatile, robust, and powerful solution. Thus, connecting LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio becomes a great opportunity for data management and a powerful solution too. 

Is there a native way to connect LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio?

There is no native way to connect LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio directly. In order to get your LinkedIn data to Looker Studio or any other application, there are two ways to go about it:

• Manually export the data from LinkedIn Campaign Manager into a CSV file and then proceed to upload it to Looker Studio. This method is suitable for cases of infrequent exports or occasional on-demand reporting. 

• The other option is to use a Looker Studio LinkedIn Ads connector. This method is more suitable when you want to automate reporting and analytics. For example, there is a strong need to manage and handle multiple data streams, create multiple reporting dashboards, track and measure the data in real-time, automate data-related tasks and even automate the process to minimize the possibility of human errors. 

Coupler.io offers many Looker Studio connectors. This is a practical all-in-one data analytics and automation platform that not only allows for the automated gathering of various data streams from numerous apps but also enables the loading of the data to Google Sheets, BigQuery, Excel, and, of course, into Looker Studio.

What is more, Coupler.io offers data analytics consulting services where experienced data experts can build any custom LinkedIn reporting for you – for example, an extensive LinkedIn Ads channel overview report or a custom interactive dashboard for all your advertising channels. Learn more about the service and get in touch for a free consultation. 

What data you can gather from LinkedIn 

Much like any other social media platform, LinkedIn, too, allows you to make the most of its advertising options, and by using those options, you can collect loads of different types of insightful data. For example, some of the data you can collect include: 

• The number of clicks on the links you share. This can give you an idea of what works and what does not in terms of content and how to craft your message to make it more impactful.  
• The number of times LinkedIn users saw your ad. Similar to clicks, impressions are a valuable metric that can guide you toward creating the right type of content. 
• The engagement rate generated by your marketing efforts, both paid and free. Likes, shares and comments fall under this category.
• Conversion tracking includes metrics such as the Click-through rate (CTR), which is one of the most effective ways to monitor the performance of your ads and to check whether the content created resonates with your target audience. 
• Website demographics can also be acquired, providing a brand with valuable insights, including but not limited to company names, job titles, and, of course, industries. 

All these insights enable a brand to optimize its efforts and craft the right content that resonates with its ideal prospects. They also show why it is significant to manage all the data efficiently and to connect LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio. 

How to connect LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio

If you have not got a Coupler.io account, begin by creating one. Sign up easily, with a few steps. No credit card is needed, and you can have access to a free trial set-up, allowing you to test and see how the platform can help you. 

• Once signed in, the importers’ page will greet you, and since you are a brand-new user, this page will be mostly empty. You can embark on the journey by clicking the blue button +ADD NEW IMPORTER. 

• You will then need to select the apps you wish to connect by choosing what to import, the source of your incoming data and their destination too. In our case, this would be opting for LinkedIn Ads as the source of our data and for the Looker Studio as the destination of it. See the image below. 

• Tap on PROCEED, from where you will begin to configure all the parameters of your account. 
• Fill in the source account and choose from all the available data entities (in this case, we picked Campaigns). This feature enables you to group together all related campaigns. 

• Proceed to configure more details related to the time period you wish to focus on. 
• Before exporting your data, preview what will be moved from LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio. You can take your time, carefully go through the data you have selected, preview it, filter and transform it. You can sort it out according to your needs and even change its structure so that it will be exported in a way that would make your professional life easier. 

• Next, set up a destination for your data. Follow the instructions in the wizard to connect your LinkedIn Ads data to Looker Studio.

• Generate an access token in your profile with one click.

• Follow the link to Looker Studio and click AUTHORIZE.

• Insert the generated API token.

• And proceed to submit. When that is covered, you can click on CONNECT. In a few moments, depending on the volume of the data you’re exporting from LinkedIn Ads, you’ll see your newly created data source in Looker Studio.

• Click Create report to start using it right away. At the same time, you’ll always have it available among your data sources in Looker Studio. So, it makes sense to get back to Coupler.io and set up an automatic data refresh so that your data on Looker Studio will be refreshed and updated at regular intervals according to your needs.

• Press on SAVE AND RUN, and you will have your Looker Studio and LinkedIn Ads connected successfully using the Coupler.io platform. 

How to import LinkedIn Ads data to Looker Studio manually

Now, let’s talk about the manual way to import LinkedIn Ads data to Looker Studio. Start by getting on the LinkedIn platform, click on the top right Advertise option to be transferred to the LinkedIn Campaign Manager’s dashboard, where you can have an overview of all the running campaigns. 

From there, you can opt for the metrics you wish to export using the Filters option. Choose between the Columns of the data you wish to export, 

and you can proceed to export the insights you wish by clicking on the top right EXPORT button. This will export your data into a CSV file. 

You can then move to Looker Studio, pick the top left CREATE option, choose Data Source, and flip through the options until you reach File Upload. 

Upload the CSV file to Looker Studio – from there, you can proceed to customize, tweak and edit the way you wish your data to be presented. We cannot stress enough the fact that importing Looker Studio to LinkedIn Ads manually is an option you can choose, especially if your data needs are not too frequent or too demanding.

How to visualize LinkedIn Ads data in Looker Studio

Moving on, it is time for us to explore the ways we can visualize LinkedIn Ads data in Looker Studio and make the most of it. When your data reporting and data analysis needs are not too demanding, visualizing the data you have manually imported to Looker Studio can be completed using the options available on that platform. Using a variety of charts, tables and graphs, you can pick the parameters you wish to be part of the data visualization.

With the help of the platform, the LinkedIn Ads data streams can be translated into easy-to-read, comprehensible dashboards. Similar to the dashboard featured below showing an overview of the performance of LinkedIn Ads campaigns. 

This LinkedIn Ads dashboard created with the help of Coupler.io is easily reusable. 

It contains all the crucial metrics portrayed numerically and in detailed graphs to allow for better understanding and easier interpretation of the data. Depicting not only the performance of significant metrics such as impressions, clicks, leads generated and conversions but also graphically representing those numbers for a more spherical overview. 

You can manage all your campaigns from one spot, and you can oversee how they are performing easily and in real time, with all their metrics unfolding on your screen. Whether you opt to view their performance by the campaign or by top campaign per metric.

The LinkedIn Ads dashboard in Looker Studio can be a powerful tool showing you which campaigns worked and which did not. As a result, you can adjust your marketing strategy accordingly tweak your content to resonate better, and invest your marketing budget more wisely.  

What is more, using the Coupler.io platform is the ideal approach to creating dashboards for all your significant metrics and not just your LinkedIn Ads alone. These dashboards are invaluable data analysis tools that can assist you in making the right business decisions, interpreting the data collected into useful graphs, and valuable insights that can turn into actionable items for your business to thrive. 

And if visualization of your data is not something you wish to delve into on your own, then worry not, as there is a highly-competent team of data experts that can assist you with any data issue you deal with. Whether it is creating helpful graph illustrations with your data, easy-to-read data dashboards, or creating a robust infrastructure for handling your data securely, Coupler.io’s expert data team will cater to your data needs efficiently. You can find out more about the service and even opt for a free consultation.

Streamline your data analytics & reporting with Coupler.io!

Coupler.io is an all-in-one data analytics and automation platform designed to close the gap between getting data and using its full potential. Gather, transform, understand, and act on data to make better decisions and drive your business forward!

• Save hours of your time on data analytics by integrating business applications with data warehouses, data visualization tools, or spreadsheets. Enjoy 200+ available integrations!
• Preview, transform, and filter your data before sending it to the destination. Get excited about how easy data analytics can be.
• Access data that is always up to date by enabling refreshing data on a schedule as often as every 15 minutes.
• Visualize your data by loading it to BI tools or exporting it directly to Looker Studio. Making data-driven decisions has never been easier.
• Easily track and improve your business metrics by creating live dashboards on your own or with the help of our experts.

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Connect LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio-A recap 

Tracking and measuring the performance of your marketing efforts is essential for those efforts to be fruitful and for your business to boost its sales and thrive. If your data analysis needs are not too demanding, you can opt for connecting your LinkedIn Ads to Looker Studio manually. This is ideal for sporadic reporting and not too much of a data load. 
However, if you have high data analysis needs, then the direct Looker Studio LinkedIn Ads connection with the help of Coupler.io is the best option. This way you can manage greater amounts of data more effectively, and organize and automate your data streams easily and it only takes a few minutes to set up the process. Collecting the LinkedIn Ads data and visualizing it in the form of comprehensible dashboards provides one with an advantage. Furthermore, efficient data visualization in real-time populated dashboards enables better business decision-making, more efficient effort-optimizing, and faster mistake correction. This way, data analysis becomes a critical tool for your business and provides you with a deeper understanding of what works and what does not.