Before your marketing data flows into BigQuery, you need to authenticate each data source. This means connecting your Meta Ads account, your Google Ads account, your Google Analytics 4 property, and any other platform you want to include.
Porter Metrics uses OAuth for authentication. You click “Connect,” log in with your platform credentials, and grant Porter permission to read your data. No API keys, no developer tokens, no manual configuration.
Here is how the process works for each major platform.
The Authentication Flow in Porter Metrics
After you select your data sources and name your query, Porter shows you a list of the sources you have selected. For each source, you click “Connect Accounts.”
Porter opens an OAuth login window for that platform. You log in with the account that has access to your ad data. After you authenticate, Porter asks you to select which specific accounts to include. For example, if you manage 15 Meta Ads accounts, you select the ones you want to include in this particular query.
Once you select your accounts, Porter saves the connection. You do not repeat this process every time you run a sync. Porter stores the connection and uses it automatically on every scheduled run.
Connecting Meta Ads
Click “Connect Accounts” next to Meta Ads. Porter opens a Meta login window. Log in with the Facebook account that has admin or advertiser access to your Meta Business Manager.
After login, Meta asks you to confirm the permissions Porter is requesting. These permissions allow Porter to read your ad performance data. Click “Continue” to grant access.
Porter then shows you a list of ad accounts available under your Business Manager. Select the accounts you want to include. If you manage multiple clients through one Business Manager, you select each client’s account separately.
Connecting Google Analytics 4
Click “Connect Accounts” next to Google Analytics. Porter opens a Google login window. Log in with the Google account that has access to your GA4 properties.
After login, Porter shows you a list of GA4 properties available under that Google account. Select the property you want to include. If you manage multiple websites or clients, each with their own GA4 property, you select each one.
The same Google login works for Google Ads, Google Search Console, and other Google platforms. You authenticate once with your Google account, and Porter accesses all Google properties available under that account.
Connecting Multiple Accounts for the Same Platform
If you manage multiple clients, you often need to connect multiple accounts for the same platform. For example, you might have five different Meta Ads accounts, one per client.
In Porter, you connect all of them in a single step. After authenticating with Meta, Porter shows you all accounts available under your Business Manager. You select all the accounts you want to include in your query.
Porter loads data from all selected accounts into the same BigQuery table. Each row includes an account identifier so you can filter by client in your SQL queries or Looker Studio dashboards.
What Permissions Porter Requests
Porter requests read-only access to your ad data. It does not request permission to create, modify, or delete campaigns, ads, or budgets. The permissions are scoped to data reading only.
Specifically, Porter requests:
Read access to campaign performance data (spend, impressions, clicks, conversions).
Read access to account structure (campaigns, ad sets, ads).
No access to payment information, billing, or account settings.
You grant these permissions through the platform’s standard OAuth flow. You revoke them at any time from your platform’s connected apps settings.
After Connecting Your Accounts
Once all your accounts are connected, Porter moves to the next step: selecting your BigQuery destination. You choose your Google Cloud project, your dataset name, and your table name. Porter creates the dataset and table automatically if they do not exist.
From there, you select your metrics and dimensions, set your date range, configure your schedule, and click “Send.” Your marketing data starts flowing into BigQuery on the schedule you set.
Ready to connect your marketing data to BigQuery?
Porter Metrics makes it easy to sync all your sources — no code required.