How to Use Dataslayer for a Weekly Paid Media Sheet

The short answer: if your Monday report covers Google Ads and Meta Ads with three accounts or fewer on each, Dataslayer's Starter plan at $35 a month billed annually runs it on a daily schedule (pricing page, checked on 26 October 2026), so build it there before you look at a bigger tier. The steps: install the add-on, connect both platforms, build one query per platform on its own tab with a date dimension, switch on Combine new with old results so last week stays, schedule the document outside the busy morning hours with failure emails on, and check one week against each ad manager before anyone reads the sheet.

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A weekly paid media sheet is three jobs: pulling the numbers, keeping last week's, and noticing when a pull failed. Dataslayer does all three inside Google Sheets. Whether two platforms' conversions belong in one total is a different question, and the last section takes it. Plans and prices are in the Dataslayer glossary entry.

Three checks before the first query:

1. Google's clock, not Dataslayer's. Every scheduled refresh under one Google account shares 6 minutes of Apps Script time per hour, and one document takes at most 7 schedules (scheduling article). For example, two queries of 2 minutes each use 4 of the 6 minutes, so a large refresh from any other sheet in that same hour risks failing.
2. The report you send today. Keep it and run it beside the new sheet for a fortnight; where they disagree, the old one points to the date range or setting to check.
3. Where to look on Monday. The hidden DataslayerQueries sheet shows, in columns E and F, whether each query refreshed and at what time (schedule check article).

What you need

• A Google account with Google Sheets, and a Dataslayer account with Google Sheets chosen as the product, per the Sheets guide.
• Access to the Google Ads and Meta Ads accounts, with permission to authorise Dataslayer on them.
• The trial or Starter. The trial lasts 15 days with no card (pricing page).

Step 1: Install the add-on

Install Dataslayer from the Google Workspace Marketplace and authorise it, then open the spreadsheet and go to Extensions, Dataslayer, Launch Sidebar. If Dataslayer is missing from the Extensions menu, the Sheets guide says to reload and check that you installed it under the same Google account you are using in Sheets.

Step 2: Connect Google Ads and Meta Ads

In the sidebar, pick the data source, then the hub account (the login) and the accounts under it; Manage Hub Accounts adds another login. You see only the accounts your login can reach on the platform. Starter's limit counts selectable accounts per connector across all hub accounts together, as the accounts article explains, so a second login does not buy a second allowance.

Step 3: Build one query per platform, each on its own tab

Choose the account, a date range, the dimensions (Date and Campaign), the metrics (cost, impressions, clicks, conversions, conversion value), any filters and the start cell, then click Generate Table. The query settings are stored in the sheet, so you can modify or refresh them later.

Keep each platform on its own tab. A schedule refreshes the whole document or one tab, never a single query that shares a tab with others (schedule article), so separate tabs let a slow query run at its own time.

If Meta bills in dollars and you report in euros, Dataslayer converts Google Ads, Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads metrics with ExchangeRate-API rates it updates daily (exchange rate article). That total will not match the invoice to the cent, so label it.

Step 4: Keep last week with Combine new with old results

Without it, every refresh replaces the table. The combine article sets the order: build the query first with your full history range and a time dimension, then edit it, change the range to a dynamic one such as Last 7 days, and tick Combine new with old results in the Options tab. New dates are appended at the bottom; dates already in the table are overwritten with fresh values, which matters for conversions that arrive late. Avoid Today, because that day is still incomplete, and do not combine this option with Exclude header row.

Step 5: Schedule the document and switch on failure emails

In the sidebar, open Schedules, choose the document or the tab, the frequency and the time. Google runs the first execution at any minute within the hour you picked, then keeps that minute every day. The scheduling article names the busy window: 6 to 10 in the morning CET, Mondays busiest, the first Monday of the month most of all, and it suggests 05:00 or 11:00 instead. Tick the email notification that fires only on failure and add every address that should hear about it (schedule check article). The refresh runs on Dataslayer's side, so no computer has to stay on.

Step 6: Ask the questions in Claude through Dataslayer's MCP

This step needs Advanced, or MCP bought as a destination of its own. From Advanced the MCP comes with your other destination; the pricing page says 100 messages a day and the MCP billing article says 100 a month, so confirm which before a team relies on it. To connect, open Claude, then Settings, Connectors, Discover, search for Dataslayer and click Connect, as the Claude setup article shows.

Then ask the Monday question in full: "Compare my Google Ads and Meta Ads spend and conversions for last week, by campaign." Claude drafts; a person checks. Whoever sends the Monday note compares each figure with the sheet before pasting it, and where they differ, the sheet's stored query (date range, time zone, account) is the record.

What Dataslayer's help centre warns about

• Big schedules in the same hour. Past 6 minutes of combined run time, some refreshes fail; stagger them and fetch only the fields you use (scheduling article).
• Numbers that differ from the platform. Check the time zone first, then Facebook's attribution setting and GA sampling. A discrepancy report needs screenshots of both the Dataslayer query and the platform query with their settings (discrepancy article).

Two platforms, one conversion column

Google Ads and Meta each count a conversion when their own ad was in the path, so the sum of the two columns can count one order twice. The free check needs no tool: put last week's orders or leads from your shop or CRM in a third tab and set them beside the summed platform conversions. If the platforms' total runs well above your own count, report each platform separately rather than adding them up.

Mind the calendar while you do it. The 15-day trial runs with every feature and then falls back to one connector and one manual refresh a day, so the schedule you build in week one is the part that stops on day 16, which is when the plan gets chosen (pricing FAQ). Decide on the evidence of those two weeks, not on the fear of losing the schedule.

Later, if you want the gap between what the platforms claim and what your own orders show measured every week, a causal attribution tool such as Causality Engine is built for that; disclosure: I founded it.

FAQ

Does my computer need to stay on for scheduled refreshes?

No. Scheduled refreshes run through Google's and Dataslayer's services, per the Sheets guide, so the sheet updates with the laptop closed.

Can I schedule one query on its own?

Only if it has a tab to itself. Schedules cover a whole document or a single tab, per the schedule article, which is why this guide puts each platform on its own tab.

Why does the sheet show different numbers from Ads Manager?

Usually because the two queries differ in time zone, attribution setting or date range. The discrepancy article gives the order to check them in.