A Guide to Looker Integration with Salesforce

5 min readMay 21, 2024

In today’s data-driven business environment, the ability to integrate analytics tools with CRM like Salesforce is critical for success. One such powerful integration is between Looker and Salesforce.

Looker, a leading business intelligence (BI) tool, allows for deep data analytics and visualization, while Salesforce, a robust customer relationship management (CRM) platform, manages your customer interactions and data.

Integrating Looker with Salesforce can unlock valuable insights, streamline operations, and drive better decision-making.

This comprehensive guide will delve into the benefits, setup process, and best practices for integrating Looker with Salesforce, helping you understand how to maximize the potential of this powerful combination.

Why Integrate Looker with Salesforce?

Enhanced Data Visibility and Insights

Integrating Looker with Salesforce provides enhanced visibility into your data. With Looker’s advanced data analytics and visualization capabilities, you can transform raw Salesforce data into actionable insights. This allows you to make informed decisions based on real-time data, improving overall business performance.

Streamlined Reporting and Dashboards

Salesforce’s native reporting capabilities are robust, but integrating Looker can take your reporting to the next level. Looker allows for the creation of custom dashboards and reports that provide deeper insights into your sales, marketing, and customer service data. These dashboards can be customized to meet the specific needs of different departments within your organization.

Improved Decision-Making

With Looker’s ability to perform complex data analysis and Salesforce’s comprehensive customer data, you can gain a 360-degree view of your business. This holistic view enables better strategic decision-making and helps you identify trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement.

Increased Operational Efficiency

By integrating Looker with Salesforce, you can automate data workflows and reduce the need for manual data entry and analysis. This not only saves time but also minimizes the risk of errors, ensuring that your data is accurate and reliable.

Setting Up Looker Integration with Salesforce

Integrating Looker with Salesforce involves several steps. Below is a detailed guide to help you set up the integration successfully.

Step 1: Prepare Your Salesforce Environment

Before integrating Looker with Salesforce, ensure that your Salesforce environment is properly configured. This includes:

Data Cleaning: Ensure that your Salesforce data is clean and up-to-date. Remove any duplicate or irrelevant records to ensure accurate analysis.
Field Mapping: Identify the fields in Salesforce that you want to import into Looker. This includes standard fields like Account Name, Opportunity Amount, and Custom Fields that are specific to your business needs.
User Permissions: Ensure that you have the necessary user permissions to access and integrate Salesforce data with Looker.

Step 2: Connect Looker to Salesforce

Once your Salesforce environment is ready, you can connect Looker to Salesforce. Follow these steps:

Log in to Looker: Access your Looker instance using your credentials.
Create a Connection: In Looker, navigate to the Admin panel and select the Connections tab. Click on the ‘New Connection’ button to create a new connection.
Select Salesforce: Choose Salesforce from the list of available connection types.
Authenticate: Authenticate the connection using your Salesforce credentials. This typically involves entering your Salesforce username, password, and security token.
Configure the Connection: Configure the connection settings, such as selecting the Salesforce objects and fields you want to import into Looker.
Test the Connection: Test the connection to ensure that Looker can successfully access your Salesforce data.

Step 3: Import Salesforce Data into Looker

After successfully connecting Looker to Salesforce, you can start importing data. Follow these steps:

Select Data: Choose the Salesforce objects and fields you want to import into Looker. This could include Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Leads, and Custom Objects.
Define Data Models: Create data models in Looker that represent your Salesforce data structure. This involves defining dimensions, measures, and relationships between different data entities.
Schedule Data Imports: Schedule regular data imports to ensure that Looker always has the most up-to-date Salesforce data. You can set up data imports to occur daily, weekly, or at custom intervals.

Step 4: Create Reports and Dashboards

With your Salesforce data imported into Looker, you can start creating custom reports and dashboards. Here’s how:

Explore Data: Use Looker’s Explore feature to navigate through your Salesforce data. This allows you to filter, sort, and visualize data based on your specific requirements.
Create Reports: Create custom reports that provide insights into key metrics such as sales performance, customer engagement, and pipeline health.
Build Dashboards: Design interactive dashboards that consolidate multiple reports into a single view. Dashboards can be shared with different teams within your organization to provide real-time insights.

Best Practices for Looker and Salesforce Integration

To maximize the benefits of integrating Looker with Salesforce, consider the following best practices:

Ensure Data Quality

Data quality is critical for accurate analysis. Regularly clean and update your Salesforce data to ensure that Looker reports and dashboards are based on reliable information.

Define Clear Objectives

Before creating reports and dashboards, define clear objectives for what you want to achieve. Identify the key metrics and KPIs that are important for your business and focus on those.

Utilize Looker’s Features

Looker offers a range of features that can enhance your data analysis. Utilize Looker Blocks, pre-built data models, and visualizations to speed up the report creation process.

Train Your Team

Ensure that your team is trained on how to use Looker and Salesforce effectively. Provide training sessions and resources to help them understand how to navigate the platforms and interpret the data.

Monitor Performance

Regularly monitor the performance of your Looker and Salesforce integration. Check for any data synchronization issues and ensure that data imports are running smoothly.

Use Cases for Looker and Salesforce Integration

Sales Performance Analysis

Integrating Looker with Salesforce allows sales teams to analyze performance data more effectively. Sales managers can track key metrics such as win rates, deal sizes, and sales cycles, and identify areas for improvement.

Marketing Campaign Effectiveness

Marketing teams can use Looker to analyze the effectiveness of their campaigns. By combining Salesforce data with other marketing data sources, they can gain insights into campaign ROI, lead conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs.

Customer Service Optimization

Customer service teams can use Looker to monitor customer interactions and identify trends in service requests. This helps them improve response times, enhance customer satisfaction, and reduce churn rates.

Financial Reporting

Finance teams can leverage Looker to create detailed financial reports based on Salesforce data. This includes tracking revenue, expenses, and profitability across different segments and regions.

Conclusion

Integrating Looker with Salesforce can significantly enhance your organization’s ability to analyze and leverage data. By combining Looker’s powerful analytics and visualization capabilities with Salesforce’s comprehensive CRM data, you can gain deeper insights, improve decision-making, and drive better business outcomes.

To ensure a successful integration and maximize the benefits, consider partnering with a Salesforce integration consultant. They can provide expert guidance, help you set up the integration correctly, and ensure that you are getting the most out of both platforms.