Doubling Data Volume Through Custom Report Support for Ads Connectors
As Fivetran's Ads connector portfolio matured, our customers demanded greater flexibility and visibility into their campaign data. The lack of support for custom report configurations meant many critical metrics and breakdowns were unavailable, limiting our data coverage.
This created friction not only for end users but for our revenue goals as well. Data limitations led to reduced connector usage, slower adoption, and missed opportunities to grow ARR across key marketing integrations.
To address this, I proposed and led a product initiative to enable custom report support for multiple ad platforms, starting with Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, Reddit Ads, and Snapchat Ads.
The Problem
Each ad platform offers a customizable reporting API, allowing users to pull a wide range of fields, metrics, and breakdowns. However, our connectors were built to deliver standardized datasets, which created several challenges:
- Customers couldn't access advanced metrics or campaign structures they needed
- Data availability gaps led to missing insights, forcing workarounds
- Agencies couldn't reuse connectors across diverse client needs
- Limitations created friction in pre-sales and upsell conversations
- Internal teams saw slower connector adoption and stalled growth
This gap in data flexibility ultimately translated to a ceiling on product usage and revenue.
Goals
- Expand data availability across Ads connectors via custom field support
- Maintain sync reliability and API efficiency
- Perform audit of metrics, fields, and breakdowns to ensure compatibility with custom report support
- Enable agencies and advanced users to tailor reports to client-specific needs
- Support ARR growth and upsell opportunities tied to marketing analytics
Solution
I designed a rollout plan to enable customers to define custom reports directly in their connector configuration. Internally, we built the logic to validate these inputs and map them to platform-specific API calls.
Key product components included:
- Structured schema for defining custom fields and breakdowns
- Input validation during setup to prevent invalid requests
- Dynamic mapping engine per ad platform (e.g. Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads)
- Guardrails for query limits and rate usage
- Beta rollout across four core connectors: Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, Reddit Ads, and Snapchat Ads
Execution
- Collaborated with Engineering and Product Design to scope and implement the platform
- Worked with Solutions Architects to identify power users for early testing
- Coordinated with Support and Success teams to onboard beta customers and reduce friction
- Developed supporting documentation and onboarding flows for custom report setup
- Instrumented usage tracking to monitor adoption and downstream impact
Results
- Expanded data availability across 4 major ad connectors
- On average, doubled data volume per connector with custom reports enabled
- Increased ARR by unlocking usage-based pricing for previously limited connectors
- Reduced schema-related support tickets across Ads portfolio
- Enabled agencies to scale usage by tailoring reports to client needs
- Strengthened Fivetran's value proposition in the marketing analytics segment
Strategic Value
This initiative positioned Fivetran as a more flexible and extensible solution for enterprise marketing teams and agencies. By expanding data availability and removing schema limitations, we unlocked new revenue opportunities and improved retention among power users.
Internally, the architecture became a blueprint for future extensibility work across other connectors. Externally, it drove clearer messaging to customers: Fivetran can scale with your analytics needs—without compromise.
You can see an example of this feature in Fivetran's TikTok Ads Custom Reports documentation.