When building reports to analyze ad-level data it can be powerful to show the images/video of those ads.
This can be easily achieved in Funnel in 3 steps:
1) Connect your data source (to obtain the thumbnail URL of your ad creatives)
2) Share the data to Data Studio
3) Show the images in Data Studio
Once everything has been connected and exported, the report can display the image of the ads alongside the data. It will look something like this:
1. Connect your data source to obtain the URL
You need the URL to the image/creative in order to display it in Data Studio. To do that you can connect and configure your data source in Funnel on a creative/Ad level.
The field we recommend to use to display images or video thumbnails from Facebook Ads is called: Ad Creative Image Permalink URL.
The image below shows how your Facebook data source needs to be configured in Funnel in order to access the creative link. The connection process will look similar for other platforms that contain public URLs.
Please note that not all platforms provide a public link to the Ad.
2. Export data from Funnel to Data Studio
The second step is to create a Data Studio Data share.
Navigate to 'Share' and choose Google Data Studio. Create a new data share and make sure to include the needed fields. For example:
Ad Creative Image Permalink URL
Impressions
Clicks
Cost per click
Simply select all the metrics and dimensions you need. Then connect to Data Studio and create a new Data Studio report.
3. Show images in Data Studio
Once the necessary fields are available in Data Studio, there are two ways to display images/creatives from an URL.
Option 1: Change the field type in Data Studio to URL Image
Data Studio allows you to change how a field is displayed in a widget. This is done by clicking on the edit / "show as" button.
1) Click on the "Show as" button and then click on the "type" dropdown.
2) Select "Image" as display type.
The links are now converted and display as images:
Option 2: Create a new "image type" field in Data Studio
The second option is to create a new field for your connection in Data Studio.
1) Go to your Data Studio connection - Your Data Studio connection can be accessed either through the report (Resouces -> Manage added data sources) or by following this link.
2) Click on "Add a Field".
3) Name your field and type the following into the formula section: IMAGE(<Dimension Name>)
Note: Replace "<Dimension Name>" with the relevant field.
4) Click save.
Your new field is now saved as an image and is ready to be used in your reports.