MetaAds

The MetaAds connector lets you connect to Meta / Facebook Ads data, and perform create, read, update, and delete operations on the data.

Before you begin

Before using the MetaAds connector, do the following tasks:

• In your Google Cloud project:
  • Ensure that network connectivity is set up. For information about network patterns, see Network connectivity.
  • Grant the roles/connectors.admin IAM role to the user configuring the connector.
  • Grant the following IAM roles to the service account that you want to use for the connector:
    • roles/secretmanager.viewer
    • roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor

    A service account is a special type of Google account intended to represent a non-human user that needs to authenticate and be authorized to access data in Google APIs. If you don't have a service account, you must create a service account. For more information, see Creating a service account.

  • Enable the following services:
    • secretmanager.googleapis.com (Secret Manager API)
    • connectors.googleapis.com (Connectors API)

    To understand how to enable services, see Enabling services.

  If these services or permissions have not been enabled for your project previously, you are prompted to enable them when configuring the connector.

Configure the connector

Configuring the connector requires you to create a connection to your data source (backend system). A connection is specific to a data source. It means that if you have many data sources, you must create a separate connection for each data source. To create a connection, do the following steps:

1. In the Cloud console, go to the Integration Connectors > Connections page and then select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to the Connections page

2. Click + Create new to open the Create Connection page.
3. In the Location section, choose the location for the connection.
   1. Region: Select a location from the drop-down list.

      Supported regions for connectors include:

      For the list of all the supported regions, see Locations.

   2. Click Next.
4. In the Connection Details section, complete the following:
   1. Connector: Select MetaAds from the drop down list of available Connectors.
   2. Connector version: Select the Connector version from the drop down list of available versions.
   3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the Connection instance.

      Connection names must meet the following criteria:

      • Connection names can use letters, numbers, or hyphens.
      • Letters must be lower-case.
      • Connection names must begin with a letter and end with a letter or number.
      • Connection names cannot exceed 49 characters.
   4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
   5. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
   6. Optionally, configure the Connection node settings:
      • Minimum number of nodes: Enter the minimum number of connection nodes.
      • Maximum number of nodes: Enter the maximum number of connection nodes.

      A node is a unit (or replica) of a connection that processes transactions. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection and conversely, fewer nodes are required to process fewer transactions. To understand how the nodes affect your connector pricing, see Pricing for connection nodes. If you don't enter any values, by default the minimum nodes are set to 2 (for better availability) and the maximum nodes are set to 50.

   Note: You can customize the connection node values only if you are a Pay-as-you-go customer.
   7. Account Id: The ID of your ad account. If none is specified, we use the first ad account id returned from Facebook Ads.
   8. Aggregate Format: The format aggregate or collection columns should return in.
   9. Authenticate As Page: The name or Id of a page to authenticate as when making requests to Facebook.
   10. Retry Level: The most granular ad object level at which the driver will try to retrieve results on retry.
   11. Target: A default target if none is specified. Used for some tables, such as Comments, where a target may be specified.
   12. Optionally, click + Add label to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
   13. Click Next.
5. In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details.
   1. Select an Authentication type and enter the relevant details.

      The following authentication types are supported by the MetaAds connection:

      • OAuth 2.0 Auth Code Grant

   To understand how to configure these authentication types, see Configure authentication.

   2. Click Next.
6. Review: Review your connection and authentication details.
7. Click Create.

Configure authentication

Enter the details based on the authentication you want to use.

• OAuth 2.0 Auth Code Grant
  • Access token: The access token used for authenticating requests with auth-code-flow-based connections.
  • Client ID: The client id provided by connector for the app you created.
  • Client Secret: Secret Manager Secret containing the client secret for the connected app you created.

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

Note: You can view the entities, operations, and actions of a connector in the Connectors task.

• Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

  However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

• Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

• Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Note: All entities and actions will have a schema associated with them. For example, an action schema will have the parameter details such as; the parameter names, and its corresponding data type. The schema (metadata) for entities and actions is fetched by the connection at runtime from your backend. If there are any updates to the schema, such updates won't be automatically reflected in your existing connections; you must manually refresh the schema. To refresh the schema for a connection, open the Connection details page of the connection, and then click Refresh connection schema.

System limitations

The MetaAds connector can process 6 transactions per second, per node, and throttles any transactions beyond this limit. By default, Integration Connectors allocates 2 nodes (for better availability) for a connection.

For information on the limits applicable to Integration Connectors, see Limits.

Note: The number of Integration Connectors nodes will autoscale dynamically based on your usage. However, if you want to reserve capacity for large volumes without waiting for autoscaling, you can adjust the minimum node value for a connection. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection. Conversely, fewer nodes are required if a connection processes fewer transactions. To configure the node values, do the following:

• If you are a pay-as-you-go customer, configure the minimum and maximum node value in the edit connection page.
• If you are a subscription based customer, contact support.

The maximum transactions that a node can handle depends on various factors. So, before adjusting the minimum nodes for better throughput, it is recommended you check if your backend systems are set up optimally to handle the required traffic.

Actions

This section lists the actions supported by the connector. To understand how to configure the actions, see Action examples.

Note: The results of all the actions will be available as a JSON response in the Connectors task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter after you run your integration.

CreateAdPreview action

Creates a schema file for an app insight.

Input parameters of the CreateAdPreview action

Parameter Name	Data Type	Required	Description
AdFormat	String	True	The format of the ad to use.The allowed values are AUDIENCE_NETWORK_INSTREAM_VIDEO, AUDIENCE_NETWORK_INSTREAM_VIDEO_MOBILE, AUDIENCE_NETWORK_OUTSTREAM_VIDEO, AUDIENCE_NETWORK_REWARDED_VIDEO, DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD, FACEBOOK_STORY_MOBILE, INSTAGRAM_STANDARD, INSTAGRAM_STORY, INSTANT_ARTICLE_STANDARD, INSTREAM_VIDEO_DESKTOP, INSTREAM_VIDEO_MOBILE, MARKETPLACE_MOBILE, MESSENGER_MOBILE_INBOX_MEDIA, MOBILE_BANNER, MOBILE_FEED_BASIC, MOBILE_FEED_STANDARD, MOBILE_FULLWIDTH, MOBILE_INTERSTITIAL, MOBILE_MEDIUM_RECTANGLE, MOBILE_NATIVE, RIGHT_COLUMN_STANDARD, SUGGESTED_VIDEO_DESKTOP, SUGGESTED_VIDEO_MOBILE, WATCH_FEED_MOBILE.
AdCreativeId	String	True	An Id of the ad creative to use for creating the preview from.

For example on how to configure the CreateAdPreview action, see Action examples.

Action examples

This section describes how to perform some of the actions in this connector.

Example - Create an Ad preview

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Actions.
2. Select the CreateAdPreview action, and then click Done.
3. In the Data Mapping section Open Data Mapping Editor and then enter a value similar to the following in the Input field:

   {
   "AdCreativeId": "120208552947120478",
   "AdFormat": "AUDIENCE_NETWORK_INSTREAM_VIDEO"
   }

If the action is successful, the CreateAdPreview task's connectorOutputPayload response parameter will have a value similar to the following:

[{
  "Url": "https://business.facebook.com/ads/api/preview_iframe.php?d=AQL_quk8kLm_6z2oZ14q9A0led9llzr981NPv-zUHhwZ5IXjO07s7ngrI2y0qI0VZCRH2w9hgCwy5xrbFQlWCy0g-uRpRHvFS0dS0erj2Lg4HI7ZfIRm8h3nZLhJygM",
  "@affectedrows": null
}, {
  "Url": null,
  "@affectedrows": null
}]

Entity operation examples

This section shows how to perform some of the entity operations in this connector.

Example - List all Ad accounts

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select AdAccounts from the Entity list.
3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.

Example - List all campaigns

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Campaigns from the Entity list.
3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.
4. Optionally, in Task Input section of the Connectors task, you can filter your result set by specifying a filter clause. Specify the filter clause value always within the single quotes (').

Example - Get an Adset

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Adsets from the Entity list.
3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click EntityId and then enter 120206747969710053 in the Default Value field.

   Here, 120206747969710053 is a unique record ID in the User entity.

Note: If your entity has a composite primary key, you can specify a filter clause.

Use the MetaAds connection in an integration

After you create the connection, it becomes available in both Apigee Integration and Application Integration. You can use the connection in an integration through the Connectors task.

• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Apigee Integration, see Connectors task.
• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Application Integration, see Connectors task.

Get help from the Google Cloud community

You can post your questions and discuss this connector in the Google Cloud community at Cloud Forums.

What's next

• Understand how to suspend and resume a connection.
• Understand how to monitor connector usage.
• Understand how to view connector logs.