maskegger / r-estimates-fb-ads

Accessing the Facebook Marketing API using httr in R, for demographic researchers

Demographic estimates from the Facebook Marketing API

Connor Gilroy, University of Washington

This module introduces you to obtaining estimates of populations of Facebook users stratified by demographic characteristics and geographies. It does this by accessing the Facebook Marketing API using httr.

We use httr because there exist no dedicated R packages for the Facebook Ads API. Existing R packages (SocialMediaLab, RFacebook) are designed for retrieving public information from the Facebook Graph API, such as comments on Facebook Pages.

The activities in this module will allow you to retrieve a novel kind of social media data that has previously only been accessed using other tools and languages, such as Python. The module thus illustrates the versatility and utility of R and httr for digital demography.

Additionally, we present examples of contemporary demographic research using the Facebook Marketing API in slides found here and here.

Using this module

The easiest way to work with this module is as an "R Project." To do this, open the folder that you downloaded from Dropbox or Github and click on the facebook_ads.Rproj file (not the .R file!). This will open the R Project in RStudio, and make it convenient to access all of the files you need.

See this page for more information on R Projects in RStudio:

https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/200526207-Using-Projects

For this module, you will need to edit two types of files that your computer may not have a program set up to open by default: .json (JSON) and .yml (YAML) files. Unless you are familiar with using text editors to write code, we recommend editing these files directly in RStudio.

If you have already opened the R Project, you can easily access existing files in the project folder through the "Files" pane of RStudio (which shares a panel with Plots, Packages, and Help); otherwise, you can open them through RStudio > File > "Open file...".

Obtaining Facebook Ads Manager Credentials

The two pieces of information to send with every Facebook Ads API request are an Ads Account ID and a valid access token.

The authentication process is similar to that for the Twitter API, in that you create an application and use it to generate an OAuth access token. It is moderately complex, so follow the instructions carefully.

The overarching steps to accomplish are the following:

• Create a verified Facebook account
• Create a developer app
• Get a Marketing API access token for this app
• Create an Ads Account by starting to create an ad

Detailed instructions, with screenshots, may be found in the included set of slides, Obtaining Facebook Ad Manager Credentials

Social media platforms frequently make small changes to their developer platforms, so do not be surprised if you notice some minor differences between the screenshots in the instructions and your own experience.

Once you have successfully obtained a valid access token and your Ads Account ID, be sure to store these credentials in the following way:

• Copy your access token and your account id into EXAMPLE_facebook_config.yml; use the format "act_#########" for your account id
• RENAME the file to "facebook_config.yml"