How to Connect TikTok Ads to Looker Studio
Getting your TikTok Ads data into Looker Studio is a fantastic way to see how your campaigns stack up against all your other marketing channels. This guide will walk you through exactly how to connect them, what challenges to expect, and how to build a report that actually tells you what’s working.
Why Bother Connecting TikTok Ads to Looker Studio?
Dumping your TikTok performance data into Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) might seem like an extra step, but the payoff is huge. Instead of living in a dozen different platform-specific dashboards, you get one central command center for all your marketing efforts.
Here’s what you gain:
A Single View of Performance: Imagine a single dashboard showing your ad spend and return from TikTok, Facebook, Google Ads, and a sales pipeline from your CRM. That's the goal. You can finally compare apples-to-apples performance across channels without endless copy-pasting into a spreadsheet.
Fully Customizable Dashboards: Native dashboards on platforms like TikTok are rigid. They show you what they think is important. In Looker Studio, you decide. You can pull in the exact metrics you care about, brand your reports with your company’s logo and colors, and organize the information in a way that makes sense to your team or clients.
Deeper, Blended Insights: The real power move is blending your TikTok Ads data with other sources. You can combine TikTok campaign data with your Google Analytics 4 data to track the full user journey from a TikTok ad click to a website conversion. This unlocks a much clearer picture of your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Automated, Shareable Reporting: Stop manually pulling numbers every Monday morning. Once set up, your Looker Studio dashboard refreshes automatically. You can share a live-updating link with stakeholders, eliminating the need to email stale PDF reports.
The Problem: There's No Built-in TikTok Connector
Here's the first and most important thing to know: Looker Studio does not have a native, official connector for TikTok Ads. Google provides free connectors for its own products like Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Google Sheets, but for almost everything else - including major platforms like TikTok, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads - you need a different solution.
If you search for it in Looker Studio's connector gallery, you'll come up empty-handed for an official "made by Google" option. This means you can't just log in and start pulling data directly. To bridge the gap, you have to use a third-party tool.
The Solution: Using a Third-Party Partner Connector
Partner connectors are tools built by an entire ecosystem of companies that specialize in one thing: piping data from Point A (like TikTok Ads) to Point B (like Looker Studio). These tools handle the complex process of connecting to TikTok's API, pulling the data you request, and formatting it so Looker Studio can understand and use it.
Think of them as the universal adapters of the data world. You subscribe to their service, and they give you a seamless link between platforms that don't naturally talk to each other.
Some of the most popular and reliable partner connectors for this job include:
Windsor.ai
Funnel.io
Power My Analytics
Supermetrics
While they differ slightly in pricing and features, the core process for connecting them to Looker Studio is more or less the same. For this guide, we’ll walk through the specific steps using Supermetrics as an example, as it's one of the most widely used connectors for marketers.
Step-by-Step: Connecting TikTok Ads to Looker Studio
Ready to build the connection? Follow these steps carefully. The process involves authorizing the third-party tool, configuring the new data source inside Looker Studio, and creating your first report.
Step 1: Get Started with a Partner Connector
First, navigate to the website of your chosen connector (e.g., supermetrics.com). Most offer a free trial, so you can test drive the connection before committing to a paid plan. Look for their "Looker Studio" integration and select "TikTok Ads" as the data source you want to connect.
Step 2: Authenticate Your Accounts
This is the authorization handshake. You need to grant the connector permission to access both your Looker Studio account and your TikTok Ads account.
Log in with Google: The connector's website will prompt you to log in with your Google Account. It's crucial to use the one that is tied to your Looker Studio and Google Analytics access.
Authorize TikTok Ads: Next, you'll be redirected to a TikTok login screen. Enter the credentials for the TikTok For Business account that contains the ad accounts you need to report on. Here, you'll grant the connector permission to view your campaign data, ad groups, creatives, and performance metrics.
Once both accounts are authenticated, the connector's site will typically direct you straight into the Looker Studio data source configuration screen.
Step 3: Configure Your TikTok Ads Data Source in Looker Studio
You’re now inside Looker Studio, looking at a special configuration page powered by your partner connector. This is where you tell the tool exactly what data to pull from TikTok.
Don't be overwhelmed by the options. Here are the most important ones to configure:
Ad accounts: Select the specific TikTok ad accounts you'd like to include in this report. You can select one or several.
Reporting date range: Choose a default date range. You can always change this later within your Looker Studio report itself, but setting a default is helpful.
Reporting timezone: Set the timezone to match your TikTok Ads account to ensure your data aligns perfectly.
Conversion window: This is a key setting. Match the conversion window (e.g., 7-day click, 1-day view) to the one you use within the TikTok platform for accurate attribution.
After finalizing your settings, click the "Connect" button, usually located in the top-right corner.
Step 4: Add the Data Source to Your Report
Looker Studio will now present you with a list of every single field available from TikTok Ads - clicks, spend, impressions, campaign names, ad creative names, and dozens more. It’s organized into dimensions (the "what," "who," or "where," like campaign name) and metrics (the numbers, like clicks or spend).
Glance over it to see all the data you now have at your fingertips, then click "Create Report" in the top right. You’re in! You’ll be dropped into a blank Looker Studio report canvas with your shiny new TikTok Ads data source ready and waiting in the right-hand panel.
Building Your First TikTok Ads Dashboard
With the connection handled, the fun part begins: visualizing your data. Here are a few ideas for building a useful, insightful dashboard.
Track Your Core KPIs with Scorecards
Scorecards are great for showing top-level metrics at a glance. Add a few along the top of your report for essential KPIs:
Amount Spent: The total ad spend for your selected time period.
Reach & Impressions: How many unique people saw your ads vs. how many times your ads were shown.
Clicks & CTR (Click-Through Rate): The total clicks your ad received and the percentage of impressions that resulted in a click.
Conversions: The total number of desired actions taken (e.g., purchases, leads, sign-ups).
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): How much you paid, on average, for each conversion.
ROAS (Return On Ad Spend): Your total return for every dollar spent.
To create one, go to Add a chart > Scorecard, and then drag the appropriate metric from your data panel on the right into the "Metric" field.
Visualize Trends with Time-Series Charts
Are your results going up or down? A time-series chart is perfect for showing performance over time. A common and highly effective chart plots key metrics day-by-day.
Try creating a time-series chart with the date as the dimension. For the metrics, show both Amount Spent and Total Complete Payment (or whatever your primary conversion goal is). This quickly shows the relationship between spend and results.
Pro-Tip: Go into the chart's 'Style' tab and give each metric its own axis so you can easily compare trends even if the scales are wildly different (e.g., thousands in spending vs. dozens of conversions).
Break Down Performance with Tables
Tables let you get into the gritty details. Create a table to see how different campaigns, ad groups, or individual ads are performing.
Configure your table with these popular dimensions and metrics:
Rows (Dimensions): Campaign Name, Ad Group Name, Ad Name
Columns (Metrics): Spend, Clicks, CTR, Conversions, CPA
This view immediately highlights your winning and losing creative, letting you know where to shift your budget for better performance.
A Quick Word on Refreshing Your Data
Your Looker Studio report won't be instantaneously live. Partner connectors fetch your data from TikTok on a schedule - usually every few hours - depending on your subscription plan. This is more than sufficient for most reporting needs.
You can check your data freshness by right-clicking on your report canvas and looking for the "Data last refreshed" time, or you can go to Resource > Manage added data sources > Edit > Data freshness to see or adjust the schedule.
Final Thoughts
Connecting TikTok Ads to Looker Studio requires a third-party connector, but the setup is a straightforward process of authentication and configuration. Once complete, you unlock automated, customizable reporting that allows you to see your TikTok performance alongside all your other marketing channels in one powerful, centralized view.
Frankly, setting up and maintaining these kinds of connections is why we built Graphed. We wanted to skip the manual setup and extra subscription costs entirely. With our platform, you connect your TikTok Ads, Google Analytics, Shopify, and other marketing sources with one click. Then, instead of building dashboards piece by piece, you can just ask questions in plain English like, "show me a dashboard of my TikTok campaigns with spend, CPA, and ROAS for the last 30 days," and we build it for you instantly with live data.