ChannelMix Platform | Connecting Data Sources

With the Connect page in ChannelMix Control Center, you can initiate connections to your data sources, granting ChannelMix the ability to extract data from those systems.

*NOTE: Before connecting any data sources, we recommend opening the ChannelMix Control Center in an incognito or private browsing window, so that when you begin to connect data sources, you do not accidentally connect personal accounts or some other account you do not want to sync.  

Here are the steps to connect a data source:

1. Navigate to the client dropdown in the upper part of the screen.
2. Find and select the client, brand, or property you want to connect to.
3. Find the data source you’d like to connect (or use the Search Connections to find available data sources) and click the logo.
4. Depending on the data source selected, you will be prompted to authenticate directly with the data source (OAuth) or enter the information necessary for ChannelMix to connect to the data source.
   1. Non-OAuth Data Sources:  You will be prompted to enter the information necessary for ChannelMix to connect to the data source. If you have any questions about the information required, contact your Client Solutions Rep.
   2. OAuth Data Sources:
      
      1. You will be redirected to the source’s log-in screen.
      2. Enter the username and password that you use to log in to your client’s or brand’s account.
      3. Once complete, you will be redirected back to the ChannelMix Control Center.

Once you have connected your data source, you will need to associate that credential to a ChannelMix Profile. 

Associating the appropriate ChannelMix Profile to the data source credential you have set up is the second part to allowing ChannelMix to pull in the appropriate data for the correct client. ChannelMix Profiles are client-specific and can be set up to make it clear where ChannelMix is pulling data from.

For example, Client 1 has two different Facebook Pages (Page A and Page B). We would compile data for both of these pages into one dataset. Once in the dataset, the data could be differentiated by using ChannelMix Profiles, which would be set up as Client 1 - Page A and Client 1 - Page B, for example.

1. Once the Connection has been created, be sure to set the Connection Name to something intuitive. We highly recommend adding the username of the account in the Connection Name. This is for a number of reasons...
   1. It will make it easier to see if the particular connection is already in use. If it is, then you can simply add more ChannelMix Profiles and accounts to it as opposed to creating more credentials that you would then have to manage.
   2. Having fewer credentials in ChannelMix will make it much easier to reconnect if you ever have to do so. For example, if you ever change your Facebook password, you'll need to reconnect in ChannelMix. It's a lot easier to reconnect one credential that is tied to many accounts as opposed to reconnecting each account individually.
   3. Lastly, there are some services that only allow you to authorize so many times with one login. So, for example, let's say you are using a service like Google Ads, and you've created 20 different credentials in ChannelMix using the same login. Then you authorize some other application several times, also using that login, we may lose access for one of those credentials in ChannelMix if that authorization puts you over the limit for the service. They sort of work like Netflix, where if you're watching a show and someone else logs in on a different TV and Netflix just kicks you out because there are too many people using your login at the same time. Services like Google Ads do the same thing so it's best to only create one connection per login and connect many accounts/profiles to that login.
2. Next, select a ChannelMix Profile to associate with the New Connection.
3. Populate the fields with the appropriate information
   1. Not all fields are required.
   2. Some fields will take you to a list of available values. For other fields, the values will need to be manually entered.
4. Once the information looks correct click SAVE.