The Final Information to Google Information Studio in 2020

Should you’ve used Google Docs, Sheets, or Drive earlier than, this dashboard ought to look fairly acquainted. Within the middle, you’ve gotten the choice to begin a clean report, begin a tutorial, or see report templates. To the left, you will see a column that homes a number of tabs together with Reviews, Shared with me, Owned by me, Trash, and Templates. On the high, you will see three extra tabs: Reviews, Information sources and explorer.

Let’s go over every of those tabs intimately.

Reviews

Right here’s the place you possibly can entry your whole stories (equal to a workbook in Tableau or Excel).

To create a report in Google Looker Studio:

• Click on the Create button.
• Select Report.
• Add an information supply.
• Customise your report.

As soon as you’ve got created your report, you possibly can entry it later in your dashboard. To gentle by a number of stories, filter them by identify, proprietor, or final opened date through the use of the dropdown filters.

Information Sources

Information sources checklist all of the connections you’ve created between Looker Studio and your authentic information sources.

To create an information supply in Google Looker Studio:

• Click on the Create button.
• Select Information supply.
• Enter in your organization data, click on Proceed.
• Arrange electronic mail preferences.
• Choose a Google Connector.
• Authorize the Google Connector utilizing a Google Account.
• Select the account and property you need to view.
• Click on Create Report.

Professional Tip: Should you’re utilizing Google Analytics and/or Search Console (which I extremely suggest), you’ll must individually join every view and property, respectively. So when you have three GA views for 3 completely different subdomains, you’ll must arrange three separate information sources.

Looker Studio at the moment helps 760+ information sources. Under are the preferred sources:

Explorer

Explorer is an experimental software that allows you to experiment or tweak a chart with out modifying your report itself.

As an example, let’s say you’ve created a desk in Looker Studio that exhibits the highest touchdown pages by conversion fee. Whereas taking a look at this desk, you assume, “Huh, I ponder what I’d discover if I added common web page load time.”

The method is sort of equivalent for different sources.

If you wish to observe alongside precisely with what I’m doing, join the Google Analytics Demo Account for the Google Merchandise Retailer.

3. Authorize the connection and choose an account.

You’ll be introduced with one thing just like the view under: a listing of each discipline in your Analytics account (each the usual ones and those you’ve added).

Does this really feel overwhelming? Yep, similar right here.

We might do rather a lot on this step — add new fields, duplicate current ones, flip them off, change discipline values, and so on. However, after all, we might additionally do all these issues within the report itself, and it’s a lot simpler there. So let’s try this.

Create a Report in Google Looker Studio

1. Click on “Create Report” within the higher proper.

Right here’s what you’ll see. It’s fairly naked, however not for lengthy!

2. Click on “Add a chart” within the toolbar.

It’s time so as to add your very first chart. The excellent news is that information Studio makes it simple to check chart varieties with some helpful illustrations.

3. Select the primary choice below “Time collection.”

As soon as it seems in your report, the right-hand pane will change. Right here’s what you need to see:

By default, the dimension is “Date”; you possibly can change this to any of the time-based dimensions, together with “12 months,” “Hour,” and so on.

I’ll persist with “Date” as a result of the Demo Account doesn’t have loads of historic information.

Looker Studio will mechanically choose a metric (i.e., what’s displayed on the Y-axis) for you. Be at liberty to vary this; for example, it defaulted to “Pageviews” for me, however I’d moderately see “Income per consumer.”

4. Add one other metric.

First, ensure you’ve chosen the chart, so that you see the pane:

You could have two choices for including a metric (or dimension).

You may click on the blue plus-sign icon — which can convey up a search field so you will discover the sector you need — or you possibly can drag a discipline from the correct into the metric part.

To delete a metric, merely hover over it together with your mouse and click on the white “x” that seems.

5. So as to add a desk, select the third choice below “Add a chart.”

My chart defaults to Medium (for dimension) and Pageviews (for metric), so I modify it to Product and Distinctive Purchases.

And I feel this desk’s formatting might use some work.

Change the “Rows per web page” from 100 to twenty (a lot simpler to learn) and examine the field for including a Abstract row.

6. Lastly, click on “Fashion” to go to the fashion tab.

Scroll down and choose “Add border shadow.” That is certainly one of my favourite methods to make an information visualization pop off the web page.

7. To see the completed product, click on “View” within the high nook.

This transitions you from Editor to Viewer mode.

Voila!

8. Click on “Edit” to complete up and identify the report.

And with that, your first Google Looker Studio report is full. Click on that acquainted icon above the Chart Editor and add some electronic mail addresses to share your report.

Okay, don’t share the report simply but—I’m about to disclose the secrets and techniques that’ll enable you severely improve it.

Newbie Google Looker Studio Ideas

1. Use templates.

First, enter your recipients’ electronic mail addresses, then select a schedule, whether or not each day, each Monday, or each month.

That is notably helpful when working with clients, since it’s possible you’ll not need to give them entry to the dwell report.

7. Obtain the report as a PDF.

Alternatively, you possibly can obtain your report as a PDF. That is useful for one-off conditions, like in case your boss asks for a standing report or your shopper needs to understand how an advert has carried out up to now this month.

To obtain the file, click on “obtain” on the drop-down menu.

Looker Studio offers the choice of downloading your present web page or the complete report. You may even add a hyperlink again to the report so your viewers can dig in deeper in the event that they’d like and add password safety to make sure your information stays secure.

Intermediate Google Looker Studio Ideas

7. Add a date vary.

Give your viewers extra freedom by letting them choose which dates they’d wish to see data for.

For instance, my stories all the time default to the final 30 days, but when certainly one of HubSpot’s weblog editors needs to see how their property carried out within the earlier calendar month, the date vary controls allow them to regulate the report.

They will select from predefined choices, like “yesterday,” “final seven days,” “yr thus far,” and so on., or choose a customized interval.

To allow this, first navigate to the web page you need to give customers date management. Subsequent, click on on the drop-down menu by “Add a management.” Subsequent, click on “Date vary” from the toolbar.

Clicking this module will convey up a panel on high of your report referred to as Date Vary Properties. Set the default date vary to “Auto date vary,” if it isn’t already.

In case your viewers choose a date vary utilizing the date vary widget, each report on the web page will mechanically replace to that interval.

There are two methods to override this:

• Set a time interval inside a selected chart. That point interval will all the time supersede the date vary management.
• Group the charts you need to be affected by the date vary management with the module. Choose the chart(s) and the field, then select Prepare > Group.

Now, solely the chart(s) on this group will replace when somebody adjusts the date vary.

Be sure that this setting is obvious to your viewers — in any other case, they’ll in all probability assume all of the charts they’re taking a look at on their present web page are utilizing the identical time interval.

8. Create interactive chart filters.

Wish to make it even simpler to your viewers to filter the charts in your report? Create responsive chart filters.

This sounds fancy, however it merely means deciding on a dimension in a chart will filter all of the charts on that web page for that dimension.

As an example, for those who click on on “natural” on this chart, the opposite charts on the web page will replace to indicate information for natural site visitors solely — similar to you’d utilized a standard filter management.

You can even create chart controls for time, line, and space charts. For instance, if a consumer highlights say, January by March on a time chart, the opposite charts on the web page will present information for January by March as effectively — similar to date vary management.

And in addition, similar to filter controls, you possibly can group chart controls.

To allow chart management, choose the suitable chart. Within the right-hand panel, scroll to the underside and examine the field labeled “Apply filter.”

Add a caption subsequent to charts that assist interactive filtering, so your viewers understand it’s an choice:

9. Add an information management.

Information controls may be one of many coolest Looker Studio options, full-stop. Place certainly one of these dangerous boys in your report, and also you’ll give viewers the flexibility to decide on the supply of the info being piped into your charts.

It is a game-changer for anybody managing a posh property or working with a number of stakeholders.

As an example, think about you’re the admin of HubSpot’s Google Analytics account. You create a Looker Studio report monitoring key web site efficiency indicators, like common web page velocity, variety of non-200 response codes, variety of redirect chains, and so forth.

Not solely does this prevent from rebuilding the identical report for various teams, however it additionally means you don’t want to fret about unintentionally sharing delicate or confidential data. Every viewer can solely choose information sources they’ve been granted entry to.

You may embrace a number of information controls in a single report.

Add the info management widget to your report by clicking this icon:

10. Add a dimension breakdown.

As an alternative of telling you what a dimension breakdown is, it’s simpler to indicate you the way it works.

Suppose we need to see customers by supply. To seek out out, we create a easy bar chart.

That is attention-grabbing — but there’s some context lacking. For instance, is all of that natural site visitors coming from Google? (Since that is U.S. information, in all probability, however think about creating the identical chart for China or Japan, the place Baidu and Yahoo have a far better presence.)

What about referral site visitors? Clearly, we’re getting a major variety of customers from referral hyperlinks; is a single supply driving most of them, or is it distributed pretty equally throughout all kinds of sources?

We might create separate bar charts for every supply — first filtering by medium after which making the dimension “Supply” and the metric “Customers.”

Or we might click on a single button and have Looker Studio do it for us.

Below Breakdown Dimension, click on “Add dimension.”

Add “Supply.”

Right here’s what you need to see:

Fairly positive my former Information Analytics professor would cry if he noticed this. However don’t fear, we’re not accomplished but.

Leap over to the “Fashion” tab and examine the field “Stacked bars” to show your common bar chart right into a stacked bar chart (you need to see the chart sort replace accordingly).

Looker Studio will mechanically make your bar charts “100% stacking,” that means that each bar will go to the highest of the chart. Nonetheless, this fashion is deceptive — for instance, right here, it suggests each medium drove the identical variety of customers.

Uncheck this field.

Now test it out:

11. Use Looker Studio Explorer.

To convey any chart into Explorer, mouse over the house subsequent to its top-right nook. You’ll see three vertically-stacked dots seem; click on them.

Choose “Discover.”

You’ll see one thing like this:

You may toggle between completely different visualizations; add and take away dimensions and metrics; change the date vary, and apply segments.

Be aware: In contrast to each different Google software on the market, Explorer doesn’t mechanically save your work.

To protect your chart, click on the “Save” button on the highest nav bar (to the left of your profile icon). When you try this, your Explorer “report” can be saved within the Explorer part of your dashboard. As well as, each change you make can be saved by default.

Create a brand new Explorer view by clicking the “Create” button on the left facet..

At first, Explorer confused me. It feels similar to the core Looker Studio — what was the purpose of getting each?

Nonetheless, after spending a while in Explorer, I’ve come to understand its distinctive worth.

In contrast to Looker Studio, any modifications you make to a chart in Explorer are non permanent. Meaning it’s an incredible place to dig into your information and check out alternative ways of visualizing it with out making any everlasting adjustments. Then, when you’re glad together with your chart, merely export it again into Looker Studio.

To do that, click on the small sharing icon within the high navigation bar.

Then select whether or not so as to add your Explorer work on a brand new or current Looker Studio report.

Superior Google Looker Studio Ideas

12. Create report-level filters.

By default, a filter applies to each chart on that web page. However what if the viewer goes to the following web page? The filter gained’t go along with them.

That is complicated for non-technical of us and inconvenient for data-savvy ones. To convey a filter up from page-level to report-level, merely right-click on it and choose “Make report-level.”

13. Create blended fields.

Looker Studio is highly effective as a result of you possibly can herald 760+ sources of knowledge right into a single report. However, because of a brand new function, blended sources, it simply received even mightier.

Heads up: this can get a bit technical. Stick with me, and I promise it’ll be price it.

Should you’re accustomed to JOIN clauses in SQL, you’ll perceive information mixing instantly. No concept what SQL is? Not an issue.

The easiest way to consider mixing information is with a Venn Diagram. You could have two information units. Every information set has distinctive data — e.g., reminiscent of the info residing within the inexperienced and blue areas.

However they’ve (no less than) one information level in frequent: the knowledge within the blue-green overlap part.

This shared information level is called a key. In case your information units would not have a key, they’re not blendable.

For instance, suppose you need to evaluate how customers behave in your web site versus your app. The hot button is the consumer ID, a customized dimension you’ve created in Google Analytics that your app analytics software program additionally makes use of. (Be aware: The important thing doesn’t must have the identical identify in each information sources; it simply must have equivalent values.)

You mix your web site habits report from GA together with your app utilization report. This offers you all of the information from the primary report together with any matching ones from the second; in different phrases, if a consumer has visited the location and used the app, they’ll be included.

Nonetheless, in the event that they solely used the app however didn’t go to the location, they won’t be included within the new blended information.

This panel will pop up:

Choose your first information supply on the left. Bear in mind, that is the first information supply. Then add your second information supply. Looker Studio helps you to add as much as 5 information sources in a chart, however let’s stick to 2 for now.

Now choose your be part of key(s). If the sector exists in each sources, it would flip inexperienced. If it doesn’t exist, you’ll see this:

Keep in mind that the important thing acts as a filter for the second information supply. So on this instance, solely information that match the touchdown web page from the GA view for hubspot.com can be pulled from Google Search Console.

Selecting a number of keys will additional restrict the variety of information pulled from the second information supply.

When you’ve picked your be part of key(s), choose the size and metrics you need to see to your first information supply. Then do the identical to your second.

You can even restrict the outcomes by including a filter or date vary (or for GA sources, segments). Filters, date ranges, and segments utilized to the left-most information supply will carry over to the opposite information sources.

When you’ve completed customizing the report, click on “Save.” Congrats: you simply created your first blended information chart!

Should you discover it simpler to create two separate charts after which mix them, Looker Studio provides an incredible shortcut.

Simply choose each charts, right-click, and select “Mix information.”

14. Mix your information supply with itself.

Do this workaround for those who’re bumping into limitations together with your information supply connectors: mix an information supply with itself.

To offer you an concept, the GA information connector solely helps you to add one “lively consumer” metric to a chart, so there’s no strategy to see 1 Day Energetic Customers, 7 Day Energetic Customers, and 28 Day Energetic Customers on the identical chart… until you mix your Google Analytics information supply with itself.

Comply with the identical directions as above, however as an alternative of choosing a brand new supply to your second information supply, simply choose the primary one once more.

And since the entire fields are equivalent, you possibly can choose whichever be part of key you’d like.

This feature can also be good when evaluating developments throughout two-plus subdomains or segments.

As an example, I wished to have a look at natural customers for the HubSpot Weblog (weblog.hubspot.com) and first website (www.hubspot.com) on the similar time.

This helps me work out if we’re rising search site visitors throughout the board. It’s additionally useful when site visitors decreases — have rankings dropped site-wide, or simply for the weblog (or the location)?

Nonetheless, you possibly can’t add two separate “consumer” metrics to a chart without delay… until, after all, you’re mixing information.

Create a brand new blended information supply (following the identical course of as above) to set this up.

Add your first view to the left-most column, your second view to the next column, and so forth.

Be aware: Be sure to’re selecting views with mutually unique information. In different phrases, I wouldn’t need to use “weblog.hubspot.com” as my first supply and “weblog.hubspot.com/advertising” as my second supply as a result of all the info for the weblog.hubspot.com/advertising view is included within the weblog.hubspot.com one.

Due to that overlap, we wouldn’t be capable to spot developments clearly.

I added the natural site visitors phase to each sources, however you possibly can select whichever phase you’re excited by (paid site visitors, social site visitors, and so on.) Or depart it off completely! Tons of potentialities right here.

In actual fact, listed here are some extra concepts for mixing a supply with itself:

• Examine two-plus customized segments
• Examine two-plus touchdown pages
• Examine two-plus purpose completions

15. Create a primary calculated discipline.

When your current information doesn’t offer you sufficient data, it’s time to create a calculated discipline.

Calculated fields take your information and, as their identify suggests, and make calculations.

It’s in all probability best to elucidate with an instance.

Let’s say you need to take a look at the typical variety of transactions per consumer. You may create a calculated discipline that takes the metric “Transactions” and divides it by the metric “Customers.”

As soon as this discipline has been created, it’ll be up to date mechanically — so you possibly can change the chart’s time vary, dimensions, and so on., and the typical transactions per consumer information will replace accordingly.

There are two methods to create a calculated discipline.

Create a data-source calculated discipline

This feature makes the sector out there in any report that makes use of that information supply.

It’ll even be out there as a filter management or in new calculated fields (like calculated discipline inception).

Clearly, it is a good choice for those who plan on utilizing this practice metric greater than as soon as. The one caveat — you need to have edit rights to the unique information supply. You can also’t use an information supply calculated discipline with blended information.

To create a data-source calculated discipline, add a chart to your Looker Studio dashboard, then select the info supply you need to derive your new discipline from.

Click on “Add a brand new discipline” within the decrease left-hand nook.

(You can even do that by clicking the pencil subsequent to the info supply after which deciding on “Add a discipline” within the higher proper nook of your discipline menu.)

Use the left menu to seek for the metrics you want; click on one so as to add it to the components.

If the components has an error, a notification will seem in purple beneath the editor explaining the place you went mistaken.

In case your components works, you’ll get a inexperienced checkmark.

Click on “Save” so as to add your new discipline to the info supply.

And don’t overlook to call yours — which I forgot to do. 🙂

Now you possibly can add this calculated discipline to any chart similar to an everyday discipline.

Create a chart-level calculated discipline

For this feature, you’ll solely be capable to use the sector for that particular report.

This feature is a bit simpler as a result of all the restrictions of the opposite sort are reversed.

When you can’t use a chart-level calculated discipline in one other chart, filter management, or extra calculated discipline, you don’t want edit rights to the unique information.

You can even use a chart-specific calculated discipline for information mixing, which we’ll cowl within the subsequent step.

To create a chart-level calculated discipline, merely click on “Add a discipline” beneath the prevailing dimension(s) and metric(s) you’ve chosen.

From right here, enter the components to your new discipline — merely typing within the identify of your required metric will set off a menu of choices — and click on “Apply.”

Your new discipline can be added to the chart.

If the components works, you’ll see a inexperienced checkmark. Give your new discipline a reputation and click on “Save.” Now you possibly can add this discipline to any chart or information viz that makes use of this information supply.

You may be pondering, “Okay, nice, however was that components written in Klingon? How do I give you my very own?”

Then click on “Add metric” > “Create Area” as you’d to create a traditional calculated discipline.

Enter your components.

Be aware: It will possibly get a bit furry right here for those who’re utilizing two completely different fields with the identical identify, as I’m doing right here. Generally Looker Studio is wise sufficient to acknowledge the distinction, and generally it’s not.

Should you run into points, I like to recommend modifying the identify of 1 or each fields within the authentic information supply(s), which you are able to do at any time by clicking the pencil subsequent to the blended information supply.

Then click on the pencil subsequent to the sector identify you need to change.

Then click on “Save” and return to your calculated discipline to replace the components:

Carried out! I can now see each in my report.

Google Looker Studio is the Finest Method to Visualize Your Information

Now that you understand Looker Studio in and out, you’re well-prepared to create gorgeous interactive stories to your coworkers, shoppers, and executives. Use the guidelines I shared above to take advantage of it and efficiently present the ROI of your advertising efforts.

Editor’s word: This submit was initially printed in October 2018 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.