How to integrate Metabase with Yahoo! 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 Yahoo! Ads data. This article describes how to connect to Yahoo! Ads and build a simple visualization using Yahoo! Ads data.

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Yahoo! Ads, allowing you to easily integrate with live Yahoo! 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 Yahoo! Ads, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Yahoo! Ads data.

Configure Yahoo! Ads Connectivity for Metabase

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

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

   Authenticating with Yahoo! Ads

   Yahoo! Ads supports OAuth authentication. To authenticate with Yahoo! Ads, set the following connection properties:

   • (Optional) Enter the Search Ads Account Id. If left blank, this defaults to the Authenticated user's primary account.
   • (Optional) Enter the Display Ads Account Id. If left blank, this defaults to the Authenticated user's primary account.

   Click Sign in to connect securely through OAuth. This action opens the Yahoo! Ads sign-in page in a new tab.

   Log in to your Yahoo! Ads account and provide the requested permissions (if applicable).

   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Yahoo! 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 Yahoo! 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. "Yahoo! Ads (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. YahooAds1)
   • 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 Yahoo! Ads Data with Metabase

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

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

   SELECT Device, Clicks FROM CampaignPerformance WHERE Device = 'Mobile devices with full browsers'

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