How to integrate Metabase with Twitter Ads Data

Metabase is an open source data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, users can easily create visualizations and dashboards linked to live Twitter Ads data. This article describes how to connect to Twitter Ads and build a simple visualization using Twitter Ads data.

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Twitter Ads, allowing you to easily integrate with live Twitter Ads data in Metabase — without replicating the data. Connect looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Metabase and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Twitter Ads, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Twitter Ads data.

Configure Twitter Ads Connectivity for Metabase

Connectivity to Twitter Ads from Metabase is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Twitter Ads data from Metabase, we start by creating and configuring a Twitter Ads connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Twitter Ads" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Twitter Ads.

   All tables require authentication. You must use OAuth to authenticate with Twitter. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Twitter using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the Help documentation.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Twitter Ads Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Twitter Ads data from Metabase.

Connect to CData Connect from Metabase

After creating the virtual database, navigate to your Metabase instance. Use the SQL Server interface to connect to Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the administration screen (Settings -> Admin) and click "Add Database" from the "Databases" tab
2. Configure the connection to Connect Cloud and click "Save"
   • Database type: Select "SQL Server"
   • Name: Name the connection (e.g. "Twitter Ads (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. TwitterAds1)
   • Username: A Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Password: The PAT for the above Connect Cloud user
   • Click to Use a secure connection (SSL)

Execute Twitter Ads Data with Metabase

Once you configure the connection to Connect Cloud, you can query Twitter Ads and build visualizations.

1. Use the "Write SQL" tool to retrieve the Twitter Ads data
2. Write a SQL query based on the Twitter Ads connection in CData Connect Cloud, e.g.
   
   

   SELECT EntityId, Entity FROM AdStats WHERE Entity = 'ORGANIC_TWEET'

3. Navigate to the "Visualization" screen, choose a visualization, and configure the visualization

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have built a simple visualization from Twitter Ads data in Metabase. You can continue to work with live Twitter Ads data in Metabase just like you would any SQL Server database. For more information on creating a live connection to Twitter Ads (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Twitter Ads data in Metabase today.