Build Google Ad Manager-Connected Dashboards in Redash

Redash lets you connect and query your data sources, build dashboards to visualize data and share them with your company. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Google Ad Manager data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Google Ad Manager and build visualizations from Google Ad Manager data in Redash.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Google Ad Manager, allowing you to easily build reports from live Google Ad Manager data in Redash — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Redash generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Google Ad Manager, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Google Ad Manager data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Google Ad Manager Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "Google Ad Manager" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Google Ad Manager.

   Google Ads Manager uses the OAuth authentication standard. You can authorize the data provider to access Google Ads Manager as an individual user or with a service account that you create in the Google APIs Console. See the Getting Started section in the data provider help documentation for an authentication guide.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to Google Ad Manager data from Redash.

Visualize Google Ad Manager Data in Redash

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Redash based on the virtual Google Ad Manager database in Connect Server and building a simple visualization from the data.

Create a New Data Source

1. Log into Redash, click on your profile and click "Data Sources"
2. Click the " New Data Source" button
3. Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the Data Source Type
4. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
   • Name: Name the data source (e.g. Google Ad Manager (CData Connect))
   • Host: The full URL to your CData Connect instance (e.g. https://connect_server_url)
   • Port: The port of the CData Connect SQL Server endpoint (e.g. 1433)
   • User: A CData Connect user
   • Password: The password for the above user
   • Database name: The name of the virtual database for Google Ad Manager (e.g. GoogleAdsManager1)
   • Click the checkbox to Use SSQL
5. Click Create
6. Click the "Test Connection" button to ensure you have configured the connection properly

With the new Data Source created, we are ready to visualize our Google Ad Manager data.

Create a Google Ad Manager Data Visualization

1. Click Create -> New Query
2. Select the newly created Data Source (you can explore the data structure in the New Query wizard)
3. Write a SQL statement to retrieve the data, for example:
   SELECT Id, Name FROM Orders
4. Click the "Execute" button to load Google Ad Manager data into Redash via CData Connect
5. Use the Visualization Editor to create and analyze graphs from Google Ad Manager data
6. You can schedule the query to refresh and update the visualization periodically

SQL Access to Google Ad Manager Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to Google Ad Manager data from Redash. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Redash, refer to our Connect Server page.