Connector, platform account and data source

Funnel uses a 3-tier hierarchy to manage your marketing data effectively. Understanding how these work together helps you set up your data in your workspace and manage your usage effectively.

A connector is Funnel’s built-in integration that links your workspace to an external platform, such as Facebook Ads, Shopify or Google Analytics 4. When you add a connector to your workspace, you establish the necessary API integration that allows you to pull data from that platform as long as you have access.

Each connector is platform-specific. For example, if you want to pull data from Google Ads and Facebook Ads, you need to use 2 connectors accordingly. The connector itself doesn’t contain any data. It’s only a gateway that allows Funnel to access your accounts on that platform. You cannot delete a connector, and the number of connectors you get vary based on your plan. If you need a custom connector that we don’t support, submit a data request.

In Funnel, a platform account refers to the specific account, property, store or view that you own or manage within a data source platform. It’s the entity that holds your marketing data. You connect a platform account using a connector to bring its specific data into Funnel.

Each data source platform uses different names for an account, but they are called as platform account in Funnel. For example, Google Ads calls it an ad account, Shopify calls it a store, and Google Analytics calls it a property, but they all represent the same concept: the individual account where your data lives. For the complete list of what each platform calls its accounts, check the Reference: Platform account terminology help article.

You can connect multiple platform accounts through a single connector. Let’s assume you manage marketing for three retail brands, each with its own Shopify store. Using the Shopify connector, you can link all three stores as separate platform accounts. Each store contains its own sales data, customer information, and product catalog.

You add or remove platform accounts when:

A data source is a specific configuration you create from a platform account in Funnel. It defines which metrics and dimensions you want to pull, how you want it structured, and any filters you apply.

You can create multiple data sources from a single platform account, each configured to pull different information. For example, within a Google Ads account, you can create one data source that pulls campaign performance data and another that pulls conversion data segmented by device type. Each configuration is a separate data source, even though they both pull from the same platform account.

Data source gives you flexibility in how you structure your data in Funnel. You can pull broad datasets for general reporting or create highly specific configurations for targeted analysis, all from the same underlying platform account.

You create, modify, or delete data sources when:

These three elements form a hierarchy, with each level containing the next:

When you connect data to Funnel, you use a connector, link one or more platform accounts through it, and create data sources that define exactly what data you want to pull from each account.

Let's assume you use the Google Ads connector in Funnel. Through this connector, you authenticate and link 2 platform accounts: your main brand’s ad account and your subsidiary brand’s ad account. For the main brand, you create 3 data sources pulling campaign data, conversion data, and keyword performance. For the subsidiary brand, you create 2 data sources tracking campaign performance and geographic data.

The structure looks like this:

Connectors and platform accounts consume flexpoints. See the Understanding flexpoints help article for more information.