Set up the Openflow Connector for LinkedIn Ads¶

Note

The connector is subject to the Connector Terms.

This topic describes the steps to set up the Openflow Connector for LinkedIn Ads.

Prerequisites¶

Ensure that you have reviewed About Openflow Connector for LinkedIn Ads.
Ensure that you have set up Openflow.

Get the credentials¶

As a LinkedIn Ads user, perform the following tasks:
1. Optional: If you don’t have an ad account to run and manage campaigns, create one (link removed).
2. Ensure that the user account (link removed) has at least a VIEWER role on the ad account.
3. Use the user account to apply for Advertising API access. For more information, see the Microsoft quick start (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/quick-start?view=li-lms-2025-02#step-1-apply-for-api-access).
4. Obtain a refresh token (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/programmatic-refresh-tokens#step-1-getting-a-refresh-token) using the authorization grant flow. Use 3-legged oAuth (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/shared/authentication/authorization-code-flow?context=linkedin%2Fcontext&tabs=HTTPS1#how-to-implement-3-legged-oauth) and the r_ads_reporting scope.
5. Obtain the client ID, client secret, and refresh token. These credentials are used to authenticate with the LinkedIn Ads API.

Set up Snowflake account¶

As a Snowflake account administrator, perform the following tasks:

Create a new role or use an existing role and grant the Database privileges.
Create a new Snowflake service user with the type as SERVICE.
Grant the Snowflake service user the role you created in the previous steps.
Configure with key-pair auth for the Snowflake SERVICE user from step 2.
Snowflake strongly recommends this step. Configure a secrets manager supported by Openflow, for example, AWS, Azure, and Hashicorp, and store the public and private keys in the secret store.

Note

If for any reason, you do not wish to use a secrets manager, then you are responsible for safeguarding the public key and private key files used for key-pair authentication according to the security policies of your organization.
Once the secrets manager is configured, determine how you will authenticate to it. On AWS, it’s recommended that you the EC2 instance role associated with Openflow as this way no other secrets have to be persisted.
In Openflow, configure a Parameter Provider associated with this Secrets Manager, from the hamburger menu in the upper right. Navigate to Controller Settings » Parameter Provider and then fetch your parameter values.
At this point all credentials can be referenced with the associated parameter paths and no sensitive values need to be persisted within Openflow.
If any other Snowflake users require access to the raw ingested documents and tables ingested by the connector (for example, for custom processing in Snowflake), then grant those users the role created in step 1.
Designate a warehouse for the connector to use. Start with the smallest warehouse size, then experiment with size depending on the number of tables being replicated, and the amount of data transferred. Large table numbers typically scale better with multi-cluster warehouses, rather than larger warehouse sizes.

Configure the connector¶

As a data engineer, perform the following tasks to configure a connector:

Create a database and schema in Snowflake for the connector to store ingested data.
Download the connector definition file.
Import the connector definition into Openflow:
1. Open the Snowflake Openflow canvas.
2. To add a process group, drag the Process Group icon from the tool palette onto the canvas.
3. In the Create Process Group dialog, select the connector definition file to import.
  
  Note
  
  Each process group is responsible for fetching data for a single report configuration. To use multiple configurations on a regular schedule, create a separate process group for each report configuration.
Right-click on the imported process group and select Parameters.
Populate the required parameter values as described in Flow parameters.

Flow parameters¶

This section decribes the flow parameters that you can configure based on the following parameter contexts:

Config Linkedin connection: Used to establish connection with LinkedIn Ads API.
Config Snowflake connection: Used to establish connection with Snowflake.
Flow LinkedIn to Snowflake: Contains all parameters from the other two parameter contexts and additional parameters specific to a given process group.
Because this parameter context contains ingestion-specific details, you must create new parameter contexts for each new report and process group.

Config Linkedin connection¶

Parameter	Description
Client ID	The client ID of an application registered on LinkedIn
Client Secret	The client secret related to the client ID
Refresh Token	A user obtains the refresh token after the app registration process. They use it together with the client ID and the client secret to get an access token.
Token Endpoint	The token endpoint is obtained by a user during the app registration process

Config Snowflake connection¶

Parameter	Description
Authentication Strategy	Defines how the connector will connect to Snowflake. Use the value `KEY_PAIR` to specify that a private key must be provided for authentication. When running on SPCS, use `SNOWFLAKE_SESSION_TOKEN`.
Snowflake Account Identifier	The Snowflake account identifier where data retrieved from the LinkedIn Ads API is stored
Snowflake User	Username used to connect to the Snowflake instance
Snowflake Private Key	The RSA private key used for authentication. The RSA key must be formatted according to PKCS8 standards and have standard PEM headers and footers. Note that either Snowflake Private Key File or Snowflake Private Key must be defined.
Snowflake Private Key File	The file that contains the RSA private key used for authentication to Snowflake, which is formatted according to PKCS8 standards and has standard PEM headers and footers. The header line starts with `-----BEGIN PRIVATE`. Select the Reference asset checkbox to upload the private key file.
Snowflake Private Key Password	The password associated with the Snowflake Private Key File.
Snowflake Role	The Snowflake role with appropriate privileges on the destination database and schema (USAGE and CREATE TABLE).

Flow LinkedIn to Snowflake¶

The following table lists parameters that are not inherited from the other parameter contexts:

Parameter	Description
Report Name	The unique name of the report. It is uppercased and used as the destination table name.
Start Date	Time granularity of results. Possible values: `ALL`: Results grouped into a single result across the entire time range of the report. `DAILY`: Results grouped by day. `MONTHLY`: Results grouped by month. `YEARLY`: Results grouped by year.
Conversion Window	The timeframe for which data is refreshed during incremental load when `DAILY` time granularity is chosen. For example, if the conversion window (link removed) is equal to 30 days, then during the INCREMENTAL load, the ingestion starts from the date of the last successful ingestion minus 30 days. It must be specified only when DAILY time granularity is chosen. For other possible time granularities, such as `ALL`, `MONTHLY`, and `YEARLY`, the SNAPSHOT ingestion strategy is used. Data from the start date to the present is always downloaded, so there is no need to use a conversion window. The conversion window can be any number from 1 to 365.
Metrics	List of comma-separated metrics. Metrics are case-sensitive. For more information, see Reporting (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/integrations/ads-reporting/ads-reporting?view=li-lms-2025-03&tabs=http#metrics-available). The `pivotValues` and `dateRange` metrics are mandatory and are automatically included by the connector. Up to 20 metrics can be specified, including the mandatory metrics.
Pivots	List of comma-separated pivots. The available pivots are as follows: Analytics Finder (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/integrations/ads-reporting/ads-reporting?view=li-lms-2025-03&tabs=http#analytics-finder) Statistics Finder (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linkedin/marketing/integrations/ads-reporting/ads-reporting?view=li-lms-2025-03&tabs=http#statistics-finder) The connector uses the Analytics Finder when zero or one pivot is specified, and switches to the Statistics Finder when two or three pivots are selected. You can use a maximum of three pivots.
Shares	List of comma-separated share IDs. This parameter can be used to filter results by share ID.
Campaigns	List of comma-separated campaign IDs. This parameter can be used to filter results by campaign ID.
Campaign Groups	List of comma-separated campaign group IDs. This parameter can be used to filter results by campaign group ID.
Accounts	List of comma-separated account IDs. This parameter can be used to filter results by account ID.
Companies	List of comma-separated company IDs. This parameter can be used to filter results by company ID.
Destination Database	The destination database in which the destination table is created. It must be created by the user.
Destination Schema	The destination schema in which the destination table is created. It must be created by the user.

Note

You must specify at least one of the filters, that is shares, campaigns, campaign groups, accounts, or companies.

Run the flow¶

Right-click on the plane and select Enable all Controller Services.
Right-click on the imported process group and select Start.
The connector starts the data ingestion.