Coupler.io Blog

Top 12 Marketing and Sales APIs: Benefits and Use Cases

  • Daria Molochenko

    • How do APIs help with marketing and sales?

    Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) enable marketers to extend the standard functionality of marketing and sales tools. In most cases, you can use APIs to retrieve data for reporting and analytics purposes or for backups. 

    This article outlines some of the most popular marketing and sales APIs, detailing when and how to use them. You will also discover no-code alternatives to APIs for reporting and analysis.

    Popular Marketing APIs

    1. Facebook API

    Facebook Graph API allows developers to extract data from Facebook. Graph API is an umbrella interface that includes various APIs, such as the Pages API and the Marketing API. These two APIs are of particular interest to marketers as they provide a performance overview of Facebook pages and ad campaigns, respectively. Facebook Insights API, an endpoint dedicated to reporting within Marketing API, allows you to retrieve marketing campaign metrics on ads, ad sets, and campaigns.

    Read more about Facebook Ads APIs in our guide.

    How to use the Facebook Ads API

    To retrieve data from Facebook, follow these steps:

    1. Log into your Facebook developer account and select My Apps.
    2. Create a Facebook App if you don’t have one yet.
    3. Go to Tools -> Graph API Explorer from your developer’s account on Facebook.

    1. In the window that appears, select your Facebook app and specify User Token from the User or Page drop-down list. Then, set ads_read permission and other necessary permissions.
    2. Click Generate Access Token and adjust its expiration time.

    1. Click Submit and explore the JSON response.

    Use case for the Facebook Ads API

    It makes sense to use Facebook APIs when you need to:

    All this data is necessary to craft comprehensive reports for marketing and ad campaign evaluation. Use the obtained results to make weighted decisions and increase ROI from your ads on Facebook.

    Examples of dashboards built with the Facebook API

    Instead of spending lots of time coding to pull data with Facebook API, consider using Coupler.io. This reporting platform allows you to create custom reports using data from Facebook and offers ready-to-use report templates. You don’t need any coding or technical skills. Simply authorize access to Facebook for Coupler.io and follow the instructions to load data to the chosen report template.

    Explore other Facebook Ads report templates.

    2. Instagram API

    Business users can take advantage of the Instagram Graph API, which is built on the Facebook Graph API. It helps users assess business account performance, embed Instagram photos into proprietary apps or websites, manage comments, track mentions, etc.

    How to use the Instagram API

    To use Instagram Graph API, make sure you have a business or creator account that is linked to the corresponding Facebook Page. Similar to the Facebook API setup, you will need to create or log in with your developer account and create a Facebook App.

    To access Instagram Graph API, follow these steps:

    1. Go to the App Dashboard of your Facebook App and click Products on the right sidebar.
    2. Click on the Facebook Login for Business card on the dashboard and make the proper configurations following the official Facebook Login documentation.
    3. On the left sidebar of your Facebook developer’s account, click App Review and select Permissions and Features. Enable permissions that correspond to your objective of using Instagram API.
    4. Go to Tools -> Graph API Explorer and open it in a new tab.

    1. In the window that appears, select your Facebook app and specify User Token from the User or Page drop-down list. Then, set ads_read permission and other necessary permissions.
    2. Click Generate Access Token and adjust its expiration time since it lasts only one hour by default.
    3. Select the corresponding Facebook Page and an Instagram account to which you want to provide access.
    4. Click Submit and explore the JSON response.

    Use case for the Instagram API

    Instagram APIs will be helpful in these cases:

    Examples of dashboards built with the Instagram API

    Instead of spending hours pulling all the necessary data from Instagram with API, benefit from no-code reporting templates designed by Coupler.io. You only need to connect to your business Instagram account, organize data, and send it to your preferred reporting tool within an intuitive interface.

    Explore other Instagram report templates.

    3. LinkedIn API

    LinkedIn API helps businesses get insights into how their ads perform on the LinkedIn platform. It also shows how users interact with LinkedIn Pages by providing metrics such as impressions, clicks, demographic details, etc. Marketers may benefit from LinkedIn APIs to improve their ad campaign results.

    How to use the LinkedIn API

    Interacting with LinkedIn API can be a challenge as you need to first be approved by LinkedIn authorities before using it.

    Here are some basic steps to start with LinkedIn APIs:

    1. Log in to the LinkedIn Developer portal.
    2. Click My Apps at the top of the page and select Create App.
    3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the app creation.
    4. Associate the newly created app with your company page.
    5. Go to Settings from your LinkedIn company page and click Verify to confirm the responsibility for the newly created app.
    6. Check the app authorization setting by navigating to the Auth tab.
    7. If you want to post on the LinkedIn company page, you need to access the Marketing Developer Platform by compiling the Access Request Form email.

    Use case for the LinkedIn API

    Here are some typical use cases for LinkedIn API:

    Examples of dashboards built with the LinkedIn API

    Given the complexity of LinkedIn API, its initial setup, and permission requests, consider using pre-made reporting solutions with no coding requirements. These are Coupler.io dashboard templates that facilitate LinkedIn data extraction and transform it into actionable insights.

    Explore other LinkedIn Ads report templates.

    4. TikTok API

    The TikTok API allows you to add TikTok functionality to your applications and retrieve information about users, content, and products from this social media channel. You can get reporting details on video plays, user demographics, and more to analyze consumer behavior and interactions with your account.

    How to use the TikTok API

    To perform API integration with the TikTok platform, follow these steps:

    1. Register on the TikTok developer portal by providing the requested details and performing all the configurations following the on-screen instructions.
    2. From your developer’s profile, click Manage apps and select Connect an app. You will need to provide the principal details about your applications. Then, click Submit to send your request to the TikTok team for review. They usually take 3-4 days to check a request and provide access to TikTok API.
    3. Go to Manage apps again and copy the authorization URL. Then, paste it into your browser window, log into your TikTok account, and confirm the requested permissions.
    4. Open up the CLI tool on Windows or the Terminal on Linux / macOS and generate the access token with this command:
    curl -H "Content-Type:application/json" -X POST -d "{\"secret\": \"APP SECRET\", \"app_id\": \"APP ID\", \"auth_code\": \"AUTH_CODE\"}" https://ads.tiktok.com/open_api/oauth2/access_token_v2/

    Note: Put your values instead of secret, app_id, and auth_code.

    1. Copy the access token that appears on display and save it.
    2. Explore the official TikTok API documentation with the TikTok endpoint to retrieve the needed data.

    Use case for the TikTok API

    TikTok API is useful when you need to get the following data:

    This information helps you evaluate content performance on the TikTok platform and decide how it aligns with your short-term and long-term marketing goals.

    Examples of dashboards built with the TikTok API

    Coupler.io enables users to easily load data from TikTok without any coding and also provides ready-to-use dashboard templates to explore TikTok ads and content performance:

    Explore other TikTok report templates.

    5. X (Twitter) Ads API

    X Ads API provides a programmatic method for managing advertising campaigns on this platform. It also allows marketers to retrieve analytics data such as impressions, clicks, video views, and spending for comprehensive campaign evaluation. X Ads API supports metrics retrieval almost in real-time, allowing for rapid campaign optimization.

    How to use the X Ads API

    To access X Ads API, you will need to take these three steps:

    1. Create a Developer account on X and select an access plan. Then, create a new project and a developer app within your account.
    2. Within your developer app, explore a set of API Keys and generate Access Tokens. As both keys and tokens only appear once within your developer’s account unless regenerated, use a secure password manager to preserve them.
    3. To get access to specific X Ads API functionality, go to ads.x.com/help and submit your request for each of your developer apps.
    4. Once you are granted access to X Ads API, test it by using the available endpoints.

    Use case for the X Ads API

    With X Ads API, you can perform several actions:

    Examples of dashboards built with the X Ads API

    As you can see, obtaining permission for X Ads API access is a long process. To save your time and effort, consider using Coupler.io’s pre-made templates. They let you connect to your X Ads account and prepare data for reporting in just a few minutes. Moreover, you can easily blend data from other ad channels within the same report.

    Explore other Twitter Ads report templates.

    6. Bing Ads API

    Bing Ads API provides developers and marketers access to the Microsoft Advertising platform. This API uses SOAP protocol for data exchange, where each request must always include a SOAP header with the user’s credentials. Bing Ads API helps marketers manage extensive campaigns and integrate them with other systems.

    How to use the Bing Ads API

    To obtain access to Bing Ads API, you will have to take some preparatory steps:

    1. Register with Microsoft Advertising or log in to your account on this platform.
    2. Submit a form to Microsoft Advertising support with the access request to APIs. 
    3. After approval, create an account on the Microsoft Advertising Developer Portal and navigate to the Account to generate your developer token.
    4. Set up OAuth authentication for your application to get a user access token to authorize API requests.
    5. In addition to developer and access tokens, retrieve your account ID and client ID to be able to make API calls.

    Use case for the Bing Ads API

    The use of Microsoft Bing Ads API is appropriate in the following cases:

    Examples of dashboards built with the Bing Ads API

    With Coupler.io, you can collect data from the Bing Ads API without any coding or technical skills. Moreover, it offers ready-to-use dashboard templates designed for this advertising platform:

    Explore other Bing Ads report templates.

    7. Google Ads API

    The Google Ads API assists marketers with PPC campaign management and optimization. It provides all the essential metrics to track ad performance and budgeting. This API allows you to use Google Ads data to generate comprehensive reports and synchronize data with other systems.

    How to use the Google Ads API

    To start using Google Ads API, follow the instructions in the official documentation. In a nutshell, log into your Google Ads Manager account and obtain a developer token. Next, create the OAuth 2.0 credentials necessary to enable Google Ads API for your app and make API calls. Take other necessary steps provided in the official documentation to use Google Ads API for your purposes.

    Use case for the Google Ads API

    Google Ads API is suitable for tasks such as:

    Examples of dashboards built with Google Ads API

    Note that Google Ads API setups require a strong technical background and programming skills. If you don’t have a developer on your team, feel free to use Coupler.io. This solution allows you to extract data from your Google Ads account with no coding and prepare holistic reports out of it. What’s more, you can exploit ready-to-use dashboard templates to kick off your reporting right away.

    Explore other Google Ads report templates.

    8. Google Analytics API

    Google Analytics 4 provides an API to retrieve your website’s performance data. In particular, you can extract page views, traffic source, time on page, and other essential metrics. With Google Analytics API, it’s possible to explore website traffic dynamics, conversion rates, and user behavior patterns in detail.

    Interaction with Google Analytics API is possible with programming languages. Python is commonly used for such purposes due to its simplicity and easy-to-understand syntax.

    How to use the Google Analytics API

    If you have an expert with programming skills on the team, feel free to enable Google Analytics API by completing several steps:

    1. Create an account on Google Cloud if you don’t have one, or log into your existing account.
    2. Create a new Google Cloud project or use the existing one.
    3. In Google Cloud Console, open the left sidebar and go to API & Services -> Enables API & services.
    1. Click Enable API and service at the top of the screen, select Google Analytics Data API, and enable it. Then, create credentials following the on-screen instructions.
    2. In Google Cloud Console, open the left sidebar and go to IAM & Admin -> Service accounts. Then, click Create service account at the top of the screen and provide all the requested details on the form.
    3. Once your service account is created, click it and go to the KEYS tab. Create a new key, download it in JSON format, and save it on your computer.
    4. The next step implies the use of the preferred programming language. You will need the information from the recently generated key to authenticate to Google Analytics 4 correctly. Then, import libraries and write code to start retrieving data from Google Analytics.

    Use case for the Google Analytics API

    Google Analytics API usage is common in the following cases:

    Examples of dashboards built with the Google Analytics API

    If your team doesn’t include developers, we suggest trying no-code alternatives for accessing Google Analytics data and building custom reports. You can use pre-configured templates from Coupler.io that give you a comprehensive overview of your web analytics in just a few clicks.

    Explore other GA4 report templates.

    9. Youtube API

    YouTube API allows users to embed videos into their web applications and retrieve data about channel videos. Marketers particularly benefit from metrics such as total views, average view time, and other metrics explaining how users interact with your video content.

    How to use the YouTube API

    Since the YouTube platform is part of the Google Inc. corporation, the YouTube API setup is similar to that of Google Analytics described above.

    1. If you don’t already have a Google Cloud account, create one. Otherwise, log in to your existing account.
    2. Create a new Google Cloud project or use the existing one.
    3. In Google Cloud Console, open the left sidebar and go to API & Services -> Enables API & services.
    1. Click Enable API and service at the top of the screen, select YouTube API, and enable it. Then, create credentials following the on-screen instructions. Find your API key by clicking on the Credentials tab under API & Services.

    Now, you can use this key in your application code to authorize access to YouTube. Explore the official YouTube API documentation to make API calls and extract data of interest.

    Use case for the YouTube API

    YouTube API might be helpful in the following cases:

    Examples of dashboards built with YouTube API

    If you don’t have specialists with coding skills on your team, you can use no-code alternatives, for example, YouTube report templates developed by Coupler.io. The setup information for each template is provided in the Readme tab.

    Learn more about Looker Studio YouTube template.

    Popular sales APIs

    10. Hubspot API

    HubSpot API is built on REST conversions and uses standard HTTP methods for communications (GET, PUT, POST, DELETE). It enables access and manipulation of HubSpot’s data from other services and applications. The key benefit of HubSpot API integration is the potential to improve the efficiency of your marketing and sales processes.

    How to use the HubSpot API

    There are multiple use cases for HubSpot API, including different applications, web services, and data integrations. To configure and use HubSpot API for marketing purposes, follow the steps below:

    1. Create a new HubSpot developer account or log into an existing one.
    2. On the left sidebar, click Apps. Then, click Get HubSpot API key.
    3. Explore HubSpot’s integration guides and other API documentation to start retrieving data from this CRM.

    Use case for the HubSpot API

    HubSpot API helps to access CRM data (company information, deals, contact details, etc.) and analyze it, providing a comprehensive overview of your marketing operations. It might also be useful for automating marketing workflows and enhancing customer relationship management.

    Examples of dashboards built with HubSpot API

    In contrast to Google Ads, Google Analytics, and YouTube, which natively integrate with Looker Studio, using HubSpot API for integration and data ingestion is more challenging. Therefore, it makes sense to use pre-configured dashboard templates produced by Coupler.io. It takes only a few minutes to set them up and start tracking marketing and sales performance almost in real-time.

    Explore other HubSpot report templates.

    11. Salesforce API

    Salesforce provides several programming interfaces, though REST and SOAP are the most commonly used ones. With Salesforce REST API, you can easily manipulate records (create, update, and delete) in the CRM by accessing Salesforce from other web applications.

    How to use the Salesforce API

    To use Salesforce API to elaborate on sales data, check the official Salesforce REST API documentation. Here are some quick configuration steps to start using Salesforce APIs:

    1. Sign in or create a developer account on Salesforce.
    2. Install Salesforce CLI to obtain the access token.
    3. Select the tool or development environment that can make REST requests (for instance, the cURL tool).
    4. Explore the API request examples and create your own ones that match your needs.

    Use case for the Salesforce API

    Salesforce APIs are most commonly used for manipulating records in the CRM (creating, updating, deleting, reading). Extracting records from Salesforce facilitates custom reporting and provides an overview of the sales process. This allows sales managers to evaluate their strategies and take action to increase conversions, reduce average deal time, and implement other improvements.

    Examples of dashboards built with Salesforce API

    Making API requests requires coding skills and CLI command knowledge, which might not be an optimal solution for each organization. Therefore, consider the use of no-code alternatives to Salesforce API for reporting purposes. For example, Salesforce dashboard templates designed by Coupler.io.

    Explore other Salesforce report templates.

    12. Pipedrive API

    Pipedrive offers Restful API, which you can use to create applications, both public and private, as well as integrations. The OAuth 2.0 authentication method is used when building applications and the API token is used for custom integrations. Building customer integrations with API tokens works well for accessing and extracting sales data from Pipedrive.

    How to use the Pipedrive API

    Now, let’s explore how to start using Pipedrive API with the example of deal information retrieval from the CRM system.

    1. In your Pipedrive account, click your user name in the upper-right corner and go to Company settings -> Personal preferences -> API. Your personal token will be displayed there, and you need to copy it. Then, get your company domain, which is also available in your account settings.
    2. Create a custom PHP script to retrieve deals from Pipedrive. Make sure to include variables for the API token and company domain.
    3. Use the cURL tool to send a GET request to the Pipedrive API for sales deals retrieval.
    4. Inspect the response from the Pipedrive API provided in the JSON file.

    Use case for the Pipedrive API

    Pipedrive API is helpful in a number of cases:

    Examples of dashboards built with Pipedrive API

    Interacting with Pipedrive API, even for simple integrations, requires PHP coding skills, cURL commands, and other technical knowledge. However, there is an alternative marketers and salespeople can benefit from: – Coupler.io’s no-code report templates. With Coupler.io, you simply need to authorize access to your Pipedrive account, select the needed data in a visual interface, and apply transformations to prepare it for analysis.

    What are marketing and sales API connectors for reporting?

    As you can see, interacting with any marketing and sales API requires a solid technical background and expertise. Since not every team has proficient IT experts with programming skills, an alternative solution is needed. One such solution is Coupler.io – a reporting and analytics platform that doesn’t require any coding skills to retrieve data from APIs and build digital marketing reports.

    Coupler.io provides all the above-mentioned marketing and sales APIs as ready-to-use connectors. In case you need to connect to another API, you can create a custom connection using the JSON API connector. Overall, Coupler.io contains over 60 pre-built connectors to data sources, including marketing and sales ones, and over 10 destinations.

    Starting with Coupler.io is free, so you can fully test its capabilities. It’s easy to set up and no credit card details are required to register.

    Step 1. Collect data from your marketing or sales app

    Select the needed data source and follow the in-app instructions to establish a connection and provide authorized access to data. Then, fill in all the required fields on the form by specifying the report period, metrics, etc.

    Step 2. Transform data

    At this stage, Coupler.io generates a preview of the extracted data and allows you to organize using the following options:

    Step 3. Load data to the destination

    Select the desired destination among spreadsheet apps, BI tools, and data warehouses. 

    Proceed with the on-screen instructions to connect to your destination application. Then, enable Automatic data refresh if you need to supply your reports with fresh data regularly. The available data refresh intervals range between 15 minutes and one month.

    Once the setup is complete, run the integration and observe how your reports are filled with marketing and sales data!

    Try Coupler.io for free

    Key features to look for in marketing and sales APIs

    Each API comprises a set of components, starting from authentication details to data operation methods. Knowing these elements helps to build and use marketing and sales APIs properly.

    1. Authentication methods

    Authentication is the initial element necessary to enable any API interaction, ensuring data security and authorized access. There are a few auth methods you can encounter in the marketing and sales APIs.

    Basic authentication

    It’s a standard HTTP-based authentication that assumes sending a username and password as a part of the HTTP request. To get authorized by the server, a client needs to send a request to the server with the authorization header, which contains the word “Basic” followed by a base64-encoded string of the username and password separated by a colon.

    Example of the authentication header:

    curl -X GET "https://api.example.com/resource" \
     -H "Authorization: Basic username:password"

    Even though this method is easy to implement, it’s vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.

    API keys

    An API key is a unique identifier provided to authorized users by the application provider. When a user wants to use an API key for authentication, it must be included as a parameter in the API request.

    Overall, API keys are much more secure than basic authentication. They are also used to identify and track API usage.

    OAuth 2.0

    OAuth 2.0 is an authorization protocol that allows one service or application to obtain access rights to user resources on another service. This protocol eliminates the need to provide login and password details for authentication. Cloud services, web apps, and social media platforms widely use the OAuth 2.0 method.

    With Auth 2.0, the client requests authorization from the resource owner to access resources on the resource server, which is authenticated by the authorization server. The result of authorization is an access token that usually contains a set of characters. Such a token is used to access the resources.

    2. Endpoints

    Endpoints are the backbone of your API, allowing systems to interact with each other. So, to make the data exchange happen, it’s necessary first to create API endpoints.

    An endpoint contains a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), indicating where to find this resource on the web. As a rule, a dedicated URL address is the most popular URI type used to access a specific resource.

    A client application or service is responsible for sending an API request to the endpoint. The request body includes information on what needs to be done with the resource using one of the HTTP methods:

    Here is an example of the REST API request:

    GET https://api.example.com/v1/users/{user_id}

    3. Error handling

    One of the parts of the response contains an HTTP status code, which provides information about the outcome of the request. That way, a client can understand whether the request was processed successfully or some errors occurred.

    Here are some common HTTP status codes:

    Sample response:

    HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "error": "Invalid parameter: 'status' must be one of ['active', 'inactive']"
}

    In this example, the 400 HTTP error code appears. This means that the syntax of the request was not correct, so the server couldn’t provide the information.

    4. Filtering and sorting

    When composing a request, it’s possible to narrow down results by indicating filtering and sorting parameters. Those could be ranges, categories, statuses, etc., allowing developers to save time and improve the efficiency of data retrieval.

    Filtering example

    Sample request:

    GET https://api.example.com/v1/orders?status=completed&date_from=2024-01-01

    In this sample case, the completion date and status parameters are indicated as filtering parameters. That way, the server is supposed to return a list of orders that were completed on January 1st, 2024, or later.

    Sample response:

    [
  {
    "order_id": "001",
    "status": "completed",
    "amount": 50.00,
    "created_at": "2024-01-01T10:00:00Z"
  },
  {
    "order_id": "002",
    "status": "completed",
    "amount": 75.00,
    "created_at": "2024-01-02T14:30:00Z"
  }
]

    Sorting example

    Sample request:

    GET https://api.example.com/v1/products?sort=price:asc

    In this case, the response is supposed to include the product list, sorted by the price in ascending order.

    Sample response:

    [
  {
    "product_id": "011",
    "price": 15
  },
  {
    "product_id": "037",
    "price": 25
  },
 {
    "product_id": "014",
    "price": 28
  },
 {
    "product_id": "052",
    "price": 29
  },

  …
]

    5. Request limits

    Very often, servers impose limits on the number of API calls (requests) per minute, hour, or day. API responses often include headers to show rate limit status.

    Sample response:

    HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "error": "Rate limit exceeded. Try again in 60 seconds."
}

    To not exceed these limits, it’s necessary to ensure fair usage of resources with rate limiting. For instance, consider optimizing requests by using bulk operations or filtering.

    Typical use cases for marketing and sales APIs

    APIs provided by marketing and sales tools aren’t only aimed at promotional purposes. These programming interfaces help businesses in other activities, including reporting automation, process optimization, app integration, and others.

    Workflow Automation

    Marketing and sales APIs aim to simplify communication and information exchange between different systems. This has a positive impact on daily workflows, reducing manual input of the same data into various tools and minimizing the probability of human error.

    App Integration

    The main objective of any API, of course, is to ensure smooth integration of an app with other services. For instance, it’s possible to integrate a Facebook feed or TikTok feed into a proprietary corporate mobile application.

    Marketing and sales tools offer APIs that connect to proprietary business applications. These APIs also allow users to extract and manipulate data as needed.

    Marketing campaign management

    Derived from the API’s ability to retrieve data, businesses can assess their marketing efforts and monitor ad campaigns in real-time. That way, marketers have the latest information and can make informed decisions to refine their approaches.

    Enhanced analytics

    Detailed marketing and sales performance metrics can be retrieved from dedicated tools and transferred into analytics applications. This enables businesses to perform comprehensive reporting for timely decision-making.

    API integrations without programming knowledge: myth or reality?

    While APIs have enormous potential to streamline marketing strategy and sales operations, they aren’t always easy to use. Marketers need IT experts to integrate apps and extract data from them. However, in certain cases, no-code alternatives offer the same possibilities as APIs but are much easier to use.

    Coupler.io is a zero-code solution that enables marketers to easily extract data from apps and create comprehensive reports. In just a few minutes, you can get data from marketing and sales services, blend it, prepare it for reporting, and send it to a BI tool, spreadsheet, or data warehouse — all through a user-friendly, intuitive visual interface.

    Automate reporting with Coupler.io

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