GrowthLoop Audience Platform connects directly to Snowflake so you can leverage the customer data in your data warehouse to create audiences with just a few clicks.

Here are the key steps to establish the connection to Snowflake:

Creating a public/private key pair
Creating a Snowflake user and role with proper permissions
Creating a dedicated Snowflake schema and storage integration for audience exports
Providing the connection information to the GrowthLoop interface during onboarding

Create Public/Private Key Pair

Open your local machine’s command prompt or terminal and run the following command:

openssl genrsa 2048 | openssl pkcs8 -topk8 -inform PEM -out fw_private_key.p8

After running this command, you will be prompted for an encryption password. Please enter any secure password and keep record of this for later use.

Then run the following command:

openssl rsa -in fw_private_key.p8 -pubout -out fw_pub_key.pub

After running this command, you will be prompted for the encryption password set above. Please enter the encryption password and take note of where your public and private key are stored for later use.

Create the Snowflake User and Role for connecting with GrowthLoop

Login to your Snowflake account with a user who is assigned administrative privileges to manage users and roles. A common admin role with the necessary privileges is ACCOUNTADMIN or SECURITYADMIN.

Then, open a worksheet and run the following commands:

Create a Role

use role <*INPUT_ROLE>*;

create role <*fw_access_role_name*>;

If you encounter any permission errors, ensure that you have a properly permissioned role selected in your Snowflake worksheet (pictured in the top right corner of the image below).

IMPORTANT: If running multiple commands ensure the “All Queries” box is checked

Next, Assign Privileges to the Role

use role <*INPUT_ROLE>*;

grant usage on warehouse COMPUTE_WH to role <*fw_access_role_name*>;

grant usage on database CUSTOMER_DATA_MODEL to role <*fw_access_role_name*>;

grant usage on all schemas in database CUSTOMER_DATA_MODEL to role <*fw_access_role_name*>;

grant select on all tables in database CUSTOMER_DATA_MODEL to role <*fw_access_role_name*>;

grant usage on future schemas in database CUSTOMER_DATA_MODEL to role <*fw_access_role_name*>;

grant select on future tables in database CUSTOMER_DATA_MODEL to role <*fw_access_role_name*>;

//Replace COMPUTE_WH with the name of your data warehouse
//Replace fw_access_role with the name of the role created in the 'Create a Role' step above
//Replace CUSTOMER_DATA_MODEL with the name of the database to be connected to GrowthLoop

Next, Create a User and Assign a Role

use role <*INPUT_ROLE*>;

create user flywheel_service_user password='abc123' default_role = <*fw_access_role_name*> default_warehouse = COMPUTE_WH default_namespace = CUSTOMER_DATA_MODEL;

grant role <*fw_access_role_name*> to user flywheel_service_user;

Lastly, Assign Public Key to flywheel_service_user

use role <*INPUT_ROLE*>;

alter user flywheel_service_user set rsa_public_key='MIIBIjANBgkqh...';

//the rsa_public_key value can be found in the fw_pub_key.pub file created above. Exclude the '------BEGIN PUBLIC KEY------' and '-----END PUBLIC KEY-----' header and footer in this value.

Create the Snowflake Schema and Storage Integration for Exports

Before exporting audiences, a schema must be established for GrowthLoop to write snapshotting tables. Snapshotting tables will store changes in audience, and sync membership over time. These tables are necessary to maintain ongoing syncs to your destinations.

In the same database where you connected your customer data, create the FLYWHEEL_SYSTEM schema.

Note: You may choose any alternative name that you prefer for this schema

Create a New Schema

create schema FLYWHEEL_SYSTEM;

Grant Privileges to FLYWHEEL_SYSTEM schema

grant all on schema FLYWHEEL_SYSTEM to role fw_access_role;
//Replace fw_access_role with the name of the role created in the 'Create a Role' step

Create Storage Integration

Snowflake storage integration allows GrowthLoop to export data to your marketing platforms. This data is exported and deleted after it’s been exported and not stored on the GrowthLoop system. To utilize a GrowthLoop managed bucket, please follow the steps below. To configure your own cloud storage bucket for exports please check out Setup External Storage in GrowthLoop

For SaaS

Create a new storage integration in your Snowflake instance to allow writing to temporary bucket to enable exporting. Below are examples for Google Cloud and AWS.

Google Cloud

create storage integration flywheel_app_gcp
  type = external_stage
  storage_provider = gcs
  enabled = true
  storage_allowed_locations = ('gcs://flywheel-prod-328213-outgoing/exports/');

You’ll need to provide GrowthLoop with either the STORAGE_GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT property. To access these properties, run the DESC STORAGE INTEGRATION command in Snowflake.

DESC STORAGE INTEGRATION flywheel_app_gcp;

+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+------------------+
| property                    | property_type | property_value                                                              | property_default |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+------------------|
| ENABLED                     | Boolean       | true                                                                        | false            |
| STORAGE_ALLOWED_LOCATIONS   | List          | gcs://mybucket1/path1/,gcs://mybucket2/path2/                               | []               |
| STORAGE_BLOCKED_LOCATIONS   | List          | gcs://mybucket1/path1/sensitivedata/,gcs://mybucket2/path2/sensitivedata/   | []               |
| STORAGE_GCP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT | String        | [email protected]                  |                  |
+-----------------------------+---------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+------------------+

Finally, an external stage will also need to be defined for the storage integration.

CREATE OR REPLACE STAGE flywheel_external_stage
  URL='gcs://outgoing_bucket_name/exports/organization_identifier'
  STORAGE_INTEGRATION = flywheel_app_gcp
  ENCRYPTION = ( TYPE = 'GCS_SSE_KMS');

Note: Reach out to GrowthLoop to confirm the correct URL string to input in this command

The Snowflake user role also needs to have sufficient permissions to load and unload data from this external stage.

grant read, write, usage ON STAGE CUSTOMER_DATA_MODEL.FLYWHEEL_SYSTEM.flywheel_external_stage to role fw_access_role;

Connect to Snowflake in GrowthLoop

Establish Connection

During onboarding, you will see the options pictured below, choose Snowflake.

After selecting Snowflake, you’ll be prompted to enter information for the following fields:

Name: This will be the name used to refer to your Snowflake DWH in the GrowthLoop Application going forward. This can be any name you choose.

Description: This will be the description associated with your Snowflake DWH in the GrowthLoop Application going forward, should you want to provide one. This is optional and can be any description string you choose.

Account: This can be pulled from the Snowflake account URL, which is available from the profile menu on the bottom left (see screenshot). The format to input should be account-identifier.region.cloud-platform for example: xy12345.us-central-1.gcp

The Account string required will change slightly depending on the cloud provider in which your Snowflake account is hosted. Please refer to the Snowflake documentation below for specifics for your cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.).

https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/admin-account-identifier.html#non-vps-account-locator-formats-by-cloud-platform-and-regio

Username: This will be the USER created in the “Create Snowflake User and Role” Section of this documentation.

Role: This will be the ROLE created in the “Create Snowflake User and Role” Section of this documentation.

Passphrase: This will be the encryption password used when creating the private key in the “Create Public/Private Key Pair” section of this documentation.

Dataset for snapshots: The schema name created for storing GrowthLoop audience export snapshots. Note that this is case sensitive.

Connect Your Customer Data

After your connection has been established, click continue and you will see the following page:

In this section, choose the specific dataset and table in your data warehouse that you will be activating in GrowthLoop.

Next, select your unique key and the fields you wish to show in the criteria builder by default. Click finish and you are set to start creating your first audience!