Build Your First Data Use Case on 5X in 30 Minutes: A Complete Guide

Startups and SMBs often face a harsh reality: data is abundant, but actionable insights are scarce. As your company scales, the challenge isn’t just collecting data—it’s turning that data into decisions that push your business forward.

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That’s where a full-stack data platform like 5X comes in. Imagine setting up an end-to-end data use case in under 30 minutes, without getting buried in technical complexity. 5X makes that possible by bringing all the critical layers—Data Ingestion, Storage, Transformation, Orchestration, and Visualization—under one roof.

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In this post, we’ll show you how to build an end-to-end use case on 5X to analyze your marketing spend across social media channels. In just 30 minutes, you can set up a robust pipeline to visualize and optimize your ad performance, helping you make data-driven marketing decisions.

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Use case overview: analyzing social media marketing spend

Imagine you’re tasked with understanding the impact of your company’s ad spend on LinkedIn and Google. You want to consolidate this data, build a dashboard, and identify key metrics like total spends, clicks, and impressions. With 5X, you can build this analysis seamlessly, saving your data team time and reducing operational costs.

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Step-by-step guide to building your use case on 5X

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Step #1: Onboard and set up your account

• Sign up or log in: Visit the 5X website and create an account using your work email. You can also sign in via Google for quick access
• Verify and set password: Enter the four-digit verification code sent to your email and set a password for your account. Name your workspace (e.g., Marketing Spend Demo)
• Select a data warehouse: Choose to Set up a warehouse through 5X (using Snowflake with a 14-day free trial and $25 credit) or import your existing one

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Step #2: Understand 5X’s platform architecture

5X simplifies your data operations by integrating everything on one platform:

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• Data ingestion: Pull data from multiple sources
• Data warehouse: Store all your data in one central location
• Data transformation: Use dbt for transforming raw data
• Orchestration: Automate data workflows
• BI tools: Create insightful dashboards and charts

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Step #3: Ingest data from marketing sources

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LinkedIn Ads ingestion:

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• Navigate to the Ingestion tab and select LinkedIn Ads as your data source
• Choose your destination schema and name it (e.g., LinkedIn_Ads)
• Click Save and Test, then Start Initial Sync to pull in all historical campaign data

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Google Ads ingestion:

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• Repeat the process by selecting Google Ads, authorize your account, and start the initial sync

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Step #4: Verify your data in the SQL IDE

Go to the SQL IDE to run simple queries and ensure your data has been ingested correctly.

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For example, use SELECT * FROM linkedin_ads_campaigns to check LinkedIn data.

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Similarly, review your Google Ads data with SELECT * FROM google_ads_performance.

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This step ensures that your raw data is available for modeling.

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Step #5: Model your data with dbt

• Connect to GitHub: Add your dbt project by linking your GitHub repository and copying the deploy key
• Define your sources: Use the sources.yaml file to outline LinkedIn and Google Ads as data sources
• Aggregate data: Create transformation models to unify ad data into a single view (e.g., Marketing_Spends)
• Run dbt commands: Compile and preview models directly in the IDE to ensure they’re correct

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Step #6: Orchestrate your data pipelines

• Navigate to the Jobs section and create a new pipeline. Name it (e.g., Marketing Analysis Pipeline), choose your schedule (e.g., daily or monthly), and add dbt tasks
• Run and monitor: Save the pipeline and do a manual run to execute it. Check logs for successful runs and any errors

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Also read: Why Full-Stack Data Platforms are Better

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Visualizing insights with 5X BI

Now that our data is prepped and ready, it's time to look at visualization! 

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5X BI can empower stakeholders to:

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• Analyze customer behavior: Uncover patterns in customer interactions, preferences, and purchasing habits
• Optimize product performance: Identify top-performing products, track sales trends, and uncover areas for improvement
• Manage financial health: Monitor revenue, expenses, and profitability to make informed financial decisions
• Enhance marketing strategies: Measure campaign effectiveness, track lead conversions, and refine the way you approach your customers

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Step #7 Visualize your data

Go to the BI section and create a chart to visualize your marketing metrics

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• Choose Marketing_Spends as your dataset and select the appropriate chart type, such as a trend line or bar chart
• Build a chart to display key metrics like total ad spend, clicks, and impressions
• Name your chart (e.g., Ad Performance Overview) and save it in your dashboard

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Customize your dashboard:

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• Pre-created dashboards are available to inspire you, showcasing KPIs such as total spend, CTR (click-through rate), and ROI (return on investment)
• Share these insights easily with team members or stakeholders to inform data-driven marketing decisions

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Step #8: Manage permissions and monitor utilization

• Teams Section: Add users to your project and set permissions to control data access
• Utilization Page: Monitor your data warehouse’s usage, job status, and ingestion performance to optimize operational efficiency
• Alerts Setup: Create alerts to notify you via Slack or email if a job fails or completes successfully. This ensures proactive management of your data pipelines

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Why choose 5X for your data use cases?

At 5X, we understand the unique challenges faced by SMBs. That's why we've built a platform that streamlines the entire data journey, from ingestion to analysis, without the need for complex integrations, long lock-in periods, or specialized technical expertise.

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Companies use 5X for 3 reasons:

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• Build a data platform from scratch, or fill in missing pieces on your existing platform
• Decrease the total cost of ownership by up to 50%
• Use our full-stack data consultancy for support on data strategy, analytics, data engineering, cost optimization, or AI/ML

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By following this guide, you’ve learned how to build a complete marketing spend analysis that centralizes data from LinkedIn and Google Ads, transforms it, and visualizes it for actionable insights—all in under 30 minutes. This efficiency not only accelerates decision-making but also empowers your startup to stay ahead of the competition with a clear understanding of marketing performance.

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While we've focused on the core data workflow—ingestion, modeling, orchestration, and visualization — 5X doesn't stop there. It packs a punch with additional features designed to make your data journey even smoother and more efficient:

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• Alerts & monitoring: Stay informed with a robust alerting system that keeps you updated on the status of your data and pipelines, ensuring a proactive approach to data management
• Audit logs: Detailed logging gives you a clear view of your data processes, making troubleshooting a breeze and empowering you to optimize performance and maintain data governance
• Utilization tracking: Gain valuable insights into your resource usage across ingestion, modeling, orchestration, and BI. Optimize costs and scale your data infrastructure effortlessly to meet your evolving needs
• Team collaboration: Easily manage access and assign roles to your team members, ensuring everyone has the right permissions and responsibilities across 5X Ingestion, 5X Orchestration, and other components

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These features, combined with the powerful core capabilities we've explored, make 5X a truly comprehensive data platform, living up to its promise of "data made simple."