Reporting Fast Track

Follow-along video tutorial

Written Tutorial

Integration - an API connection to an ad platform, tool, or software that allows Kitchn.io to read data, make changes or create new objects. In the Integrations section, you can select which ad platforms, tools, or software can be integrated into the automations. We allow you to connect to nine ad platforms and seven software tools. Only the user who created an integration can disconnect it! For the Automation that we are about to set up in this tutorial you would need to create two integrations: Facebook and Google Sheets.

To create an integration:

1. Go to the Integration section.
2. Click on the integration you want to create.
3. On the top right corner, click on Connect button.
4. Log into your account and follow the instructions.

Repeat the same steps for the next integration before moving forward.

Automation - a sequence of nodes designed to achieve a specific goal, f.e. importing data into a spreadsheet, increasing the campaign budget, or sending a Slack notification about a disapproved ad.

You can create automations from scratch or import them from our recipe library.

Recipe - a standard template of ready-to-use automation. You can copy-paste a JSON template of any recipe and customize it by inserting your variables, such as Facebook Account Id, days to schedule automation, or spreadsheet id.

With Kitchn Academy Express, you will learn how to import automations and slightly modify them. If you want to learn how to build custom automations from scratch follow The Classic Kitchn Academy.

To import an automation:

1. Click on “New Automation”
2. Click on the library. Here you will find all automation recipes.
3. Click on Pull data from Facebook into a Spreadsheet recipe.
4. Go to the JSON recipe section. Copy the automation JSON.
5. Go back to Kitchn. Click import automation. Paste the JSON, name your automation and click on “Create.” Congratulations! You've just created your first automation.

Nodes

Node - the smallest unit of the Kitchn.io, designed to do a specific function, f.e. filter data, fetch insights, or append spreadsheet. Currently, there are almost 200 nodes that will help you build automations without a single line of code!

To add a node to the automation, right-click on the canvas and choose the node from a node menu. Alternatively, click on the “plus” sign in the top right corner. To delete a node, left-click on it and click the trash icon. In our example, we don't need to add any additional nodes to start the automation unless we want to modify the workflow.

Now, let's set up our reporting automation for your ad account. First, take a look at the Select Facebook Ad account node. In this node, specify the ad account from which you would like to pull data.

Each node has input and output sockets that transfer data - they are purple. You can either manually add data to the input fields or connect data from the output of a node to the input field of the other node.

Some nodes have required sockets to be filled to trigger the node successfully. For example, the socket input is needed if you see a yellow warning sign.

To establish a connection of data (purple) sockets:

1. Click on the output socket of a node
2. Drag a purple line to the input socket of another node
3. When both sockets turn purple, you have successfully established the connection!

A schema defines what data type is available for the sockets. You can only connect sockets that have the same schema.

Fetch Facebook insights node extracts data from Facebook. Specify the desired timeframe, time increment (daily, weekly, or entire month), your attribution window, and reporting level (ad, adset, campaign, or account). Choose whether you want to unify the attribution setting for all your campaigns, and choose the fields or metrics you would like to report on. Note that all conversion events are in the category “actions,” and their conversion values are in the category “action values”. Let's select impressions, actions, action values, ctr, CPC, and spend.

Specify breakdowns and action breakdowns if needed. Choose “conversion” for the action report time.

Green fields are called triggers. They determine the function of the node. In our example, the automation will start with a Fetch Facebook Insights node and end with an Append Google sheets node. Connecting trigger sockets establish the sequence in which nodes will be running. The output sockets will be filled when you trigger the node. Only the “selector” nodes don't have triggers and populate the output sockets when you choose the desired objects.

To establish a connection of trigger (green) sockets:

1. Click on the output socket of a node
2. Drag a green line to the input socket of another node
3. When you see a green line, you have successfully established the connection!

Now that we have specified the data we want for our reporting and figured out the correct node sequence let's move to the spreadsheet. You can create a new spreadsheet for this automation. Then, go to the Select Google Spreadsheet Id node. In the spreadsheet, choose the sheet that you've created. Next, in the tab, choose the tab where you want the raw data to be stored. Now are are ready to run your first automation!

To run an automation

1. In the top right corner, click the Run Automation button OR
2. In the automation view, on the left side, enable the automation

To run a partial workflow:

1. Click on the node
2. Click on the input trigger
3. In the top right corner, click Run from here OR
4. Enable Breakpoint on Socket field - the automation will stop at this trigger

To run an individual node:

1. Click on the node
2. Click on the input trigger
3. In the top right corner, click trigger

Monitoring automation activity

In the Automation Activity section, you can monitor nodes being triggered. When you click on one of the activities, you will see the details, f.e. which step of processing is happening now. If you click on the name of the activity, you will be shown a canvas with this particular node.

To stop automation:

1. Click Abort Automation in the top right corner of the automation activity field
2. In the automation view, on the left side, disable the automation

Scheduling automations

Finally, let's schedule the automation to run every hour.

One of the most critical processes within Kitchn is scheduling and delaying automations, which means you can schedule automation to run on a specific day, at a particular time, or just run it every 1,3,8 hour. It always happens inside of automations.

To delay automation:

1. Add Delay node
2. In the duration field, enter the delay duration in seconds
3. Connect the output trigger of the last node in the automation to start
4. Connect delayed to the input trigger of the first node in the automation

To schedule automation:

1. Add Delay To node
2. Choose weekdays when you want your automation to start in the weekdays field
3. Choose the time when you want your automation to start in the time field (time of your browser)
4. Connect start to start
5. Connect delayed to the input trigger of the first node

If you want to set up the same automation for another account, you can easily do it by exporting automation.

Exporting:

1. Inside the Builder view of your automation, click on the three dots in the top right corner.
2. Click “Export Automation”