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How to use Google Sheets integration in automated rules
How to use Google Sheets integration in automated rules

Use custom attribution data in conditions within automated rules by integrating Google Sheets with Bïrch

Aigul avatar
Written by Aigul
Updated over a month ago

As many marketers are struggling with the impact of the iOS 14.5 update, Bïrch is working on solutions to tackle attribution challenges.

If you are using an attribution tool to help you measure ad performance, our Google Sheets integration can help you use that attribution data to build automated rules within Bïrch.

We have a detailed video guide on how to use this integration, please check it out:

The principle is pretty simple: if you know how to populate a Google Sheet with your data, you can then build custom metrics based on it and use those in your automation rules for Meta, Google, Snapchat and TikTok Ads. We have also prepared some instructions on how to land your data from the most popular tracking services in Google Sheets.

Please note that Bïrch has direct integrations with Wicked Reports and Hyros, for which you do not need to use the Google Sheets bridge. For other attribution and tracking tools, let's go over the process step by step.

Step 1. Prepare your Google Sheets

There are two options when it comes to setting up a custom metric based on Google Sheets, so your data in a Google Sheet should look depending on the selected format:

  • Single value

If you pick a Single value, it will use one value from the designated cell for the custom metric. So the rule will pull the value from this very cell every time it runs checks and will use whatever value is in the cell at that given time to decide if the task should be performed or not.

Essentially, you just need one cell that contains the desired value in a Google Sheet, for example, cell B1 in the screenshot below:

Please feel free to check out our template for more details on how to structure your data in a sheet in this case.

  • Values associated with IDs

If you choose Values associated with IDs, it will sync the campaign/ ad set/ ad ID and corresponding values with values from your spreadsheet. In other words, the rule will look for the ID of the checked campaign, ad set or ad in the column marked by you and likewise will pick up the corresponding metric value from another marked column.

For this option, you need to make sure your Google Sheet contains 2 columns:

Column

Campaign/ ad set/ ad ID

Values

Meaning

Whichever items you would like the rule to check and affect. The IDs of the items selected in the Scope of the rule should be present in this column.

The corresponding value for each ID pulled from the attribution or tracking service of your choice

Example

Ad set ID

Purchases (Yesterday)

23844363942870310

200

23843472520430310

142

If you have different sets of values for the same IDs (for example, Purchases Yesterday and Purchases Last 3 days, or ROAS Yesterday and Add to cart Yesterday) you do not have to create a separate Google Sheet or tab each time, you can have it all in the same tab:

However, please note that you will need to create a separate custom metric in Bïrch for each case.

Please feel free to check out our template for more details on how to structure your data in a sheet in this case.

❗️Important note: Please make sure to select “Anyone with the link” in the Sheets sharing settings for Bïrch to read your spreadsheet.

Step 2. Create a custom metric

Once you have pulled the data from your favourite tracking or attribution service into the Google Sheets, you can create a custom metric based on these values in Bïrch.

Please go to Automate -> choose the platform from the dropdown - > Custom Metrics section and click + New custom metric button:

then click on the “Google Sheets” button in the custom metric toolbar:

Choose whether you want to use Values associated with IDs or just a Single Value without associating an ad id, ad set id, or campaign id with the value:

If you opted for Values associated with IDs, choose the tab that contains the data, the column containing the items IDs, and their corresponding values:

If you selected Single Value, please choose the tab that contains the data and the cell that contains the value you need:

❗️Important note: Please make sure you enter the columns or cells with capital letters (e.g. B2 not b2)

Click the “Create metric” button to save it as a custom metric that you can use in automated rules. Voila 🪄


Step 3. Create a rule

Now that you have created a custom metric, you can create an automation rule using the data pulled from your sources of truth.

Just go to the Rules, select the ad platform on the top left corner and hit "Create Rule".

When setting a condition, you can find your Google Sheets-based metrics in the “Custom metric” tab:

You can access your Custom metric from this dropdown to edit it on the fly by clicking the pencil icon ✏️

Set the condition, schedule and set the rule live, and that's it! Now you can bring your own data into Meta/ TikTok/ Google/ Snapchat Ads and create automations around it!

❗️Important note: The rules will use whatever data is present in the specified columns/cells at the time of the checks, and compare it to the condition you have for your task. The timeframe selected in the condition doesn't matter in this case, since it doesn't affect the data pulled from the Google Sheets.

Please make sure that your Google Sheet is updated with fresh data regularly so that the rules are sourced with relevant values during each check.

About Zero - Based Conditions

For the custom metrics using Values associated with IDs, the rule of thumb is that the Scope of the rule should match the IDs of the items you have in your Google Sheets.

For example, let's imagine you have set the scope of the rule to target all your active ad groups in the given ad account, and the Estimated Match currently shows that there are 4 ad groups that match this filter:

In this case, we recommend making sure that the specified columns in the Google Sheet contain the IDs and corresponding values for all 4 ad groups.

If the rule is checking an ad group and its ID or the value is missing in the sheet, the rule will report 0 values for the custom metric.

So if you are not sure that all the values and IDs are in the sheet, we would recommend that you don’t use zero based conditions (i.e. Metric < 3). Alternatively, you can add Metric > 0 or Metric != 0 (does not equal 0) to the conditions, so that the rule does not misfire due to a missing value.

❗️Please note that for Google Ads, Google Sheets based custom metrics work on all levels, except for:
Search campaigns - keywords, ads

Display campaigns - keywords, ads

Shopping campaigns - ads

Any questions? Please reach out to the team on the website by clicking a chat bubble in the bottom right corner 💬

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