Porter connects your marketing data to five destinations. Each one is designed for a different workflow. This guide helps you pick the right one — or combine them.
Destination | Best for | Technical level |
|---|---|---|
Looker Studio | Visual dashboards and client reports | Beginner |
Google Sheets | Flexible spreadsheets with live data | Beginner–Intermediate |
BigQuery | Data warehouse, SQL queries, large volumes | Advanced |
Claude / ChatGPT / Gemini (MCP) | Ask questions in plain English, instant analysis | Beginner |
Power BI | BI dashboards for Microsoft-heavy teams | Intermediate |
What it is: Google's free reporting tool. Porter sends your data there as a live connector, so your dashboards update automatically.
Best for:
Agencies sharing reports with clients
Marketing teams that need visual dashboards (charts, scorecards, trend lines)
Anyone who wants a polished, shareable report without building anything from scratch (use our templates)
Non-technical users — no SQL or formulas required
How data refreshes: Every 12 hours by default (adjustable per data source in Looker Studio). Facebook Ads refreshes every 6 hours.
How to start: Connect a data source in Porter, copy one of our Looker Studio templates, and your data appears automatically.
What it is: Porter pushes your marketing data into a Google Sheets spreadsheet on a schedule you control.
Best for:
Custom calculations, formulas, and pivot tables on top of your ad data
Finance or ops teams that already work in spreadsheets
Combining Porter data with your own columns (budgets, targets, notes)
Feeding data into other tools (Zapier, AppScript, Looker Studio via Sheets)
Exporting raw data for deeper ad-hoc analysis
How data refreshes: You choose the schedule — hourly, daily, or weekly. Sheets keeps a rolling history of the data Porter pushes.
How to start: In Porter, create a new report and select Google Sheets as the destination. Choose your data source, metrics, and schedule.
What it is: Google's cloud data warehouse. Porter loads your raw marketing data into BigQuery tables that refresh automatically every 12 hours.
Best for:
Data analysts and engineers who write SQL
Teams that need to join marketing data with CRM, revenue, or product data
Large volumes of data (millions of rows) that would be too slow in Sheets or Looker Studio
Powering other BI tools (Tableau, Power BI, Looker) from a single source of truth
Building custom data models or attribution logic
How data refreshes: Every 12 hours automatically. Porter appends new rows to your tables — it does not overwrite historical data.
How to start: In Porter, create a new report and select BigQuery as the destination. You'll need a Google Cloud project with BigQuery enabled.
What it is: Porter's MCP (Model Context Protocol) connector lets any AI chat tool query your marketing data in real time. Ask questions in plain English and get instant answers, charts, and summaries.
Best for:
Marketers who want answers fast — no dashboard setup, no SQL
Generating client-ready reports on demand ("draft a weekly summary for Client X")
Cross-source analysis in seconds ("compare Meta Ads vs Google Ads ROAS this month")
Diagnosing performance drops ("why did our ROAS fall on Tuesday?")
Teams that already live in Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini and want data there
How data refreshes: Live — Claude queries Porter in real time each time you ask. Ads, social & GA4 are near real-time. Shopify, HubSpot, Klaviyo, and ActiveCampaign refresh every 12 hours.
How to start: See our guide: "How to connect Porter to Claude (MCP)". The same MCP URL works for ChatGPT and Gemini.
Included in your plan: The MCP is included at no extra cost. No double billing if you already use the same account in Looker Studio or Sheets.
What it is: Microsoft's BI platform. Porter connects your marketing data to Power BI so you can build dashboards inside the Microsoft ecosystem.
Best for:
Organizations that standardize on Microsoft tools (Azure, Teams, SharePoint)
Teams that need to blend marketing data with ERP or business data already in Power BI
Analysts comfortable with Power Query and DAX
Yes — and many teams do. Once you connect a marketing account in Porter, it's available to every destination at no extra cost. A common setup: Looker Studio for client-facing dashboards, BigQuery for the data team, and Claude for quick daily analysis. You pay once per data source account, not per destination.
"I need to share a nice report with my client"
→ Looker Studio
"I want to do custom calculations on my ad data"
→ Google Sheets
"I need raw data for my data team or to combine with other systems"
→ BigQuery
"I just want to ask a question and get an answer right now"
→ Claude / ChatGPT / Gemini via MCP
"My company runs on Microsoft"
→ Power BI
