This article explains how to set up Sprout Social data sources in Funnel and why we recommend one data source per Sprout Social profile.
How do you get Sprout Social data in your workspace? | What do you need? |
Submit a data request. See Request new data in Funnel. | A Business or Enterprise plan in Funnel, and a Sprout Social plan that includes API access. |
The short version
Create one Funnel data source per Sprout Social profile (one Facebook Page, one Instagram account, one LinkedIn Page and so on).
This is how Funnel's other social media connectors work too, so Sprout data lines up with the rest of your social data.
If one profile loses access, only that profile's source is affected. Every other profile keeps its data and history.
How Sprout Social data sources are organized
Data source | What it contains | How many you'll have |
Profile Analytics | Daily profile metrics, e.g. followers, impressions, reach, engagement | One per profile |
Post Analytics | One row per post with its lifetime metrics, e.g. impressions, likes, video views | One per profile |
Messages | Messages in your Sprout Smart Inbox, e.g. comments, DMs, mentions, response times | One per Sprout account |
Listening Topic Messages | Messages that match your Sprout Listening Topics (needs Sprout Listening) | One per Sprout account |
Tags | Lookup table of your Sprout tags | One per Sprout account |
When we set up your sources, you'll see a list of every profile in your Sprout account. Profiles on networks that aren't supported are shown, but you can't enable them.
Supported networks
Network | Profile Analytics | Post Analytics |
✅ | ✅ | |
Instagram (Business) | ✅ | ✅ |
LinkedIn Page (company) | ✅ | ✅ |
LinkedIn personal profile | ❌ | ✅ |
X (Twitter)* | ✅ | ✅ |
TikTok | ✅ | ✅ |
YouTube | ✅ | ✅ |
✅ | ✅ | |
Google Business Profile, Threads, Bluesky | ❌ | ❌ |
* X data is only available after X has approved your Sprout account for API access. You request this through Sprout.
For the fields in each source, see Sprout Social: Dimensions and metrics.
Why one data source per profile?
Option 1: One data source with several profiles (not recommended)
All profiles are fetched together in a single data source.
Pros
Fewer data sources to look at.
Cons
Everything depends on every profile. If you lose access to one profile in Sprout (for example, a client revokes access), the whole data source can fail or return incomplete data.
History can be lost. To fix the error, the profile has to be removed from the source. The next time Funnel refreshes the data, that profile's history is no longer included, and it can't be fetched again without access in Sprout.
Different from other social connectors. Combined sources use Sprout's API field names and don't match how Funnel's Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn connectors are set up. That makes cross-channel reporting harder.
Option 2: One data source per profile (recommended)
Each profile is its own data source in Funnel.
Pros
Problems stay isolated. Losing access to one profile doesn't affect the others.
History stays put. Each profile's data is stored separately. Changing another profile never removes it.
Easier to maintain. You can pause, reconnect or remove one profile without touching the rest.
Clearer field names. Metrics are grouped by network with familiar names like Reach and Engaged Users.
Cons
More data sources in your workspace. Each one counts towards your data source usage.
Example: what happens when you lose access to a profile
You have one combined data source with three profiles:
Facebook – Brand A
LinkedIn – Brand B
Instagram – Brand C
Step | What happens |
1. Everything works | Funnel fetches data for all three profiles. |
2. Access is lost | The client behind Brand C removes it from Sprout. The data source starts failing because it can't fetch Brand C. |
3. The fix | Brand C is removed from the data source, and data for Brand A and Brand B starts flowing again. |
4. The consequence | When Funnel refreshes the data, Brand C is no longer included, so its history disappears from Funnel. It can't be backfilled, because Sprout no longer has access. |
With one source per profile, only the Brand C source would stop updating. Its existing history stays in Funnel, and Brand A and Brand B are never interrupted.
Moving from a combined source to one source per profile
If you have an older combined Sprout Social source, contact support and we'll set up per-profile sources for you.
Do it while you still have access. New sources fetch history from Sprout, so they can only get data for profiles that Sprout can still access.
Keep the old source until you've checked the new ones. Compare a few weeks of data first.
Update your reports. Field names are different in per-profile sources (e.g. Impressions Unique becomes Reach). See the field name mapping in Sprout Social: Dimensions and metrics.
Then disable the old source so the same data isn't counted twice.
Summary
Setup | Isolation between profiles | Risk of errors | History if access changes | Maintenance |
One data source (all profiles) | ❌ None | ⚠️ High | ❌ Can be lost | ⚠️ Risky |
One per profile (recommended) | ✅ Full | ✅ Low | ✅ Kept | ✅ Easy |
Related articles
Sprout Social: Dimensions and metrics: every field and what it means
Working with Sprout Social data in Funnel: how to report on the data correctly and why numbers can differ from Sprout