After Installing the Connector you can connect and create a Data Source for data in Google Ads.

Setting Up a Data Source

Complete the following steps to connect to the data:

1. Under Connect | To a Server, click More....
2. Select the data source called Google Ads by CData.
3. Enter the information required for the connection.
4. Click Sign In.
5. If necessary, select a Database and Schema to discover what tables and views are available.

Using the Connection Builder

The connector makes the most common connection properties available directly in Tableau. However, it can be difficult to use if you need to use more advanced settings or need to troubleshoot connection issues. The connector includes a separate connection builder that allows you to create and test connections outside of Tableau.

There are two ways to access the connection builder:

• On Windows, use a shortcut called Connection Builder in the Start menu, under the CData Tableau Connector for Google Ads folder.
• You can also start the connection builder by going to the driver install directory and running the .jar file in the lib directory.

In the connection builder, you can set values for connection properties and click Test Connection to validate that they work. You can also use the Copy to Clipboard button to save the connection string. This connection string can be given to the Connection String option included in the connector connection window in Tableau.

Connecting to Google Ads

Before you can add the properties needed to authenticate, you must provide the following connection properties:

• DeveloperToken: The account developer token.
• ClientCustomerId: Your Google Ads customer ID. To find your ClientCustomerId, click the Help icon at the upper right corner of the Google Ads UI, then look at the bottom of the help menu.

Retrieving Data from Multiple Accounts

A common use for the driver is retrieving data from multiple customer Ids. This is useful when you have a Google Ads MCC account that includes numerous accounts/ClientCustomerIds. You can query and get data from the accounts you want by specifying CustomerId in the WHERE clause. For example:

SELECT * FROM AdGroupAd WHERE CustomerId='3333333333'
SELECT * FROM AdGroupAd WHERE CustomerId IN ('1111111111', '2222222222')

When you specify the CustomerId in WHERE clauses, the driver ignores the ClientCustomerId connection property.

Authenticating to Google Ads

All connections to Google Ads are authenticated using OAuth. The connector supports using user accounts, service accounts and GCP instance accounts for authentication.

User Accounts (OAuth/OauthPKCE)

Google Ads provides embedded OAuth credentials that simplify connection from a Desktop application . To connect from a Web application, you must create a custom OAuth application, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

To connect via OAuth from all authentication flows, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to Google Ads from the available oauth flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, and why you might want to create one even for auth flows that already have embedded OAuth credentials, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

For a complete list of connection string properties available in Google Ads, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop; that is, in situations where the user is using a local server not connected to the internet.

You can also authenticate from the desktop via a custom OAuth application, which you configure and register at the Google Ads console. For further information, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

Before you connect, set these properties:

• InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
• Custom OAuth applications only:
  • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the connector opens Google Ads's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

After you grant permissions to the application, the connector completes the OAuth process:

1. Obtains an access token from Google Ads and uses it to request data.
2. Saves the OAuth values in the path specified in OAuthSettingsLocation. These values persist across connections.

When the access token expires, the connector refreshes it automatically.

Service Accounts (OAuthJWT)

To authenticate using a service account, you must create a new service account and have a copy of the account's certificate.

For a JSON file, set these properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuthJWT.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH.
• OAuthJWTCertType: Set this to GOOGLEJSON.
• OAuthJWTCert: Set this to the path to the .json file provided by Google.
• OAuthJWTSubject:The service account should be part of a GSuite domain, with delegation enabled. The value of this property should be the email address of the user whose data you want to access.

For a PFX file, set these properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to the email address of the service account. This address usually includes the domain iam.gserviceaccount.com.
• OAuthJWTSubject: The service account must part of a GSuite domain, with delegation enabled. The value of this property is the email address of the user whose data you want to access.

If you do not already have a service account, you can create one by following the procedure in Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

GCP Instance Accounts

When running on a GCP virtual machine, the connector can authenticate using a service account tied to the virtual machine. To use this mode, set AuthScheme to GCPInstanceAccount.

Next Step

See Using the Connector to create data visualizations.