How to use Supermetrics Data Activation with LinkedIn Conversions API integration

To send conversion data to LinkedIn, you need a LinkedIn account with access to an ad account. Learn how to grant access to LinkedIn accounts.

You also need to set up conversion tracking on LinkedIn. When setting up a new conversion, make sure to choose the Conversions API option.

Ensure that you follow these key steps to successfully activate conversion data to LinkedIn with Supermetrics:

• Select Conversions API as the source of conversions
• Select the conversion type according to the conversion data you will be activating. You will need to create multiple conversions if you have multiple types of conversions. 
• Select Supermetrics as the integration partner
• Assign each conversion to all relevant campaigns during the conversion setup process. We recommend you to assign each conversion to all your LinkedIn campaigns.

Before activating conversion data to LinkedIn, you will need to make the data available in Google Sheets. Depending on your use case, there are multiple ways to achieve this. We recommend you to use Supermetrics for Google Sheets to synchronise data to Google Sheets.

Conversion data and format

To successfully activate conversion data to LinkedIn, you will need the following information of your conversions:

Required:

• Event timestamp, in epoch time (milliseconds)(milliseconds)
  • Follow the instructions below to convert timestamp to epoch time
• User identifier, at least one of the following:
  • User email
  • LinkedIn tracking UUID
  • Acxiom ID

Recommended:

• Including user information in your conversion data increases the match rate of your conversions against LinkedIn profiles.
• Event ID - any unique identifier of the event
• User information:
  • First name (text)
  • Last name (text)
  • Company name (text)
  • Title (text)
  • Country (three-letter country code)
• Conversion value:
  • Value (number)
  • Currency (three letter currency code)

LinkedIn requires each activated conversion event to be at most 90 days old. The system will automatically ignore any event where the timestamp is more than 90 days from present time. 

Converting timestamp to epoch time

If you don’t have epoch time in milliseconds available in your conversion data, you can use the following formula in Google Sheets to convert a regular Google Sheets datetime value

=INT(([Target cell]-DATE(1970,1,1))*24*60*60*1000). 

Use Supermetrics for Google Sheets to synchronise conversion data to Google Sheets

You can easily pull data and schedule data updates using Supermetrics for Google Sheets, which allows you to access all supported Supermetrics data sources. Follow these instructions to pull data into Google Sheets and schedule data refreshes.

Depending on how you collect and store conversion data for your business, you need to select the appropriate data source accordingly. Supermetrics also allows you to pull data from data warehouses (Google Big Query and Snowflake) as well as import flat files (Custom Data Import) to Google Sheets to access conversion data. 

Ensure that you are synchronising new conversion data from your source through scheduled refreshes, so that you are activating the latest conversion data in LinkedIn.

Use custom solutions to get data into Google Sheets

You may use any other method of getting your conversion data into Google Sheets, if you wish. Ensure that you have the correct data and synchronise the latest conversions continuously to Google Sheets.

Data Activation is completed using data streams, a one-to-one mapping between your data source and data destination. In this case, your data source is your data on the Google Sheets file and your data destination is LinkedIn Ads. You manage your data streams on the Supermetrics Hub. 

To activate conversion data from Google Sheets to LinkedIn, you will need to set up one or more data streams.

To get started, on the Supermetrics Hub, go to Destinations → LinkedIn Conversion API and click Create new data stream.

Step 1: Set up data

In this step, you configure the data source and destination for your data stream. 

Set up data source:

1. Select a data source.
2. Select Google Sheets and click Select.
3. Click Connect to Google Sheets and follow the instructions in the new tab that opens. You can skip this step, if you already have a connection to your source data on Google Sheet.
4. Select the connection you want to use.
5. Select the Google Sheets spreadsheet and the sheet to use. You can also use a named range which contains the relevant data.

Set up data destination:

1. Click Select data destination.
2. Click LinkedIn Conversions, and click Select.
3. Click Connect to LinkedIn.
4. Select the connection you want to use.
5. Select the appropriate ad account and conversion into which you want to send your conversion data. Note that you will need to create the conversion and assign it to campaigns in LinkedIn Ads campaign manager.

Once you have configured both the source and the destination, click Next.

Step 2: Set up data mapping

In this step, you define which data you want to stream from your configured data source to the destination.

1. Using the dropdown menus, select the appropriate columns from your data source to map them with the destination fields. For example, select the column that contains the event timestamp to map it with the destination timestamp field.
   
2. Add optional columns by clicking the available optional field groups. Proceed to map individual fields similarly as in step 1.
   It's recommended to include Event ID as an optional field to avoid duplicates. User info (First name and last name) are also recommended fields that help matching the data.
   
3. Preview the data using the arrows at the top. You will see a preview from the source data in the interface. Check for any validation errors. You can browse up to ten rows of the preview data to check for discrepancies.
    
4. Once you have mapped all the data fields you wish to send to the destination, click Next.

Step 3: Review and save the stream

1. Give the stream a name and an optional description.
2. Set the Stream scheduling toggle to enabled or disabled. If enabled, the data stream runs automatically on a daily basis, ensuring the latest conversion data gets activated in the destination.
3. Save the data stream.

Tips for successful data activation

• For Google Sheets and LinkedIn, each data stream is associated with a single Google Sheets worksheet or named range and a single LinkedIn ad account and conversion. If you have multiple Google Sheets with different conversions or multiple ad accounts, or conversions, you will need to create separate data streams for each. 
• After you have saved your data stream, you can't edit the data source or destination configuration or the field mapping. Instead, you can delete any unneeded streams and create new ones.
• Configure a separate Google Sheets tab or named range for each type of conversion (such as leads and purchases) so that you can easily create a data stream for each type of conversion separately. 

Once you have created one or more data streams, you can start running them to activate data in LinkedIn.

Run a data stream manually

To immediately run the data stream, click the 3-dot menu and click Run stream now. We recommend you to run every new data stream manually for the first time to test your configuration works, before you enable the data stream to be run automatically.

Enable a data stream to run on a daily basis

You can enable and disable daily data streams using the toggle switch. This schedules the data stream to be run automatically on a daily basis. We recommend you to always enable your data streams to be run automatically, so that your conversion data is activated in a timely manner.

Monitor data stream status and executions

The status tag on each data stream gives you an overview of the latest stream execution success. Click on the data stream to view details and the list of recent data stream executions to keep track of any issues. You can further inspect any individual execution to access detailed logs to troubleshoot. You can copy the log message and attach it to support communications if needed.

Statuses:

• Successful: Data stream has been run successfully and data has been uploaded to LinkedIn.
• Errors: The stream run and data has been uploaded to LinkedIn, but some part of the stream contains errors.
• Failed: Data stream failed to run.

Monitor data stream results in LinkedIn and in your reports

We recommend you also monitor the data activation results in LinkedIn campaign manager. Go to the conversion tracking section in the LinkedIn campaign manager to see the status of each of your conversions integrated using Supermetrics. Click the status to view recent activity and the match rate of your conversions. 

After you’ve successfully started to activate your conversion data in LinkedIn ads, you can continue using Supermetrics or another system for reporting, and the activated conversions will be visible in the reported numbers (number of conversions, and derived metrics such as CPA and ROAS). 

You can also use the activated conversions as targeting criteria in your LinkedIn ads campaigns, to further personalise and enhance your campaign performance.