The Ultimate Guide to Google Data Studio in 2020

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Having the ability to visualize information helps you unlock invaluable insights for much better decision-making in your company and gives you a severe advantage when it comes to getting competitive opportunities.

While many tools will help you visualize data, none compare to Google Data Studio, that is entirely free plus accessible to all (even if you don’t have any kind of data of your own! ). Like most Google tools, Data Studio can be hard to master, yet it’s well worth this. Once you’ve got comfortable with its functions, you can use it to generate stunning and educational reports for your customers, coworkers, or leadership team.

This guide will walk you through the most useful Data Studio tools. We’ll start with the basics before moving into the advanced features. Finally, we will go over the innovative options.

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1 . Login Data Studio

To log in in order to Data Studio, you’ll need a Google accounts — I recommend utilizing the same one otherwise you Analytics, Search Gaming console, and/or Google Advertisements account.

You will land on the Information Studio overview page. Click the “Home” tabs to view your dashboard.

2 . Explore the Data Studio Dashboard

how to use google data studio: explore dashboard If you’ve used Google Docs, Bedsheets, or Drive prior to, this dashboard need to look pretty acquainted.

Reports

Here’s where you can access all of your reports (equivalent to a workbook within Tableau or Excel).

Notice that you can filter by who owns the report:

how to use google data studio: access reports

Information Sources

Data sources list all of the connections you’ve developed between Data Studio room and your original data sources.

Data Studio currently facilitates 500+ data resources. Below are the most popular sources:

If you’re making use of Google Analytics and/or Search Console (which I highly recommend), you’ll need to separately connect each see and property, correspondingly.

So if you have three GA sights for three different subdomains, you’ll need to set up three separate information sources.

Explorer

Explorer is an fresh tool that allows you to experiment or fine-tune a chart without modifying your statement itself.

For instance, let’s say you’ve created a table in Data Studio that shows the top landing pages by transformation rate. While taking a look at this table, you believe, “Huh, I wonder what I’d discover if I added average page load time. ”

You don’t want to edit the particular chart in the statement, so you export it into Labs — where you can tweak it to your heart’s content. If you decide the brand new chart is useful, it’s easy to export it back into the statement. (Jump to the area where I clarify how. )

Report Photo gallery

The particular report gallery is really a collection of templates plus examples you can use based on your business needs.

how to use google data studio: explore report gallery

For example, if you run an ecommerce store, the particular ecommerce revenue design template would be very useful.

Connect to Data

Plus here’s where you add data sources. (you actually can also add resources within a report alone. ) Let’s add our first supply.

How to Connect Data Sources to Google Data Business

Here’s the step-by-step guide means connect data sources to Google Information Studio.

one Start with Analytics or even Search Console.

how to connect data sources to google data studio: analytics

In this particular example, I’ll link Analytics — however , the process is nearly identical for other sources.

If you want to follow together exactly with what I’m doing, connect the Google Analytics Demonstration Account for the Search engines Merchandise Store.

You’ll be prompted to authorize the bond. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to select an account, residence, and view.

how to connect data sources to google data studio: select property

You’ll be presented with something like the view beneath: a list of every industry in your Analytics accounts (both the standard types and the ones you’ve added).

how to connect data sources to google data studio: fields

Does this really feel overwhelming? Yep, same here.

We could do a lot in this step — add new fields, duplicate current ones, turn them off, change field values, etc . However of course , we could furthermore do all those stuff in the report alone, and it’s much easier there. So let us do that.

2 . Click “Create Report” in the upper correct.

Data Studio room will ask if you need to add a new databases to the report; indeed, you do.

how to connect data sources to google data studio: create report Here’s what you will see. It’s pretty spartan, but not for long!

a few. Click “Add the chart” in the alexa plugin.

It’s time to add your very first chart. The good news is that will data Studio makes it simple to compare chart sorts with some handy illustrations.

how to connect data sources to google data studio: add chart

4. Choose the initial option under “Time series. ”

For the purpose of this guide, we’ll start with a “Time series” chart. This chart type shows change over time. Once it appears on your report, the right-hand pane will change. Here’s what you should see:

how to connect data sources to google data studio: time series

By default, the dimension will be “Date”; you can alter this to any of the time-based dimensions, which includes “Year, ” “Hour, ” etc .

I will stick with “Date” because the Demo Accounts doesn’t have a lot of traditional data.

Data Studio will instantly select a metric (i. e., what’s displayed on the Y-axis) to suit your needs. Feel free to change this; for instance, it defaulted to “Pageviews” for me personally, but I’d rather see “Revenue per user. ”

how to connect data sources to google data studio: chart example

5. Add another metric.

First, ensure you’ve selected the chart, so you see the pane on the correct:

how to connect data sources to google data studio: add metric

You have two options for adding a metric (or dimension).

You can click the azure plus-sign icon — which will bring up a search box so you can discover the field you want — or you can drag a field from the right into the metric section.

To delete a metric, simply float over it with your mouse and click the white “x” that seems.

6. To include a table, choose the third option under “Add a chart. ”

how to connect data sources to google data studio: add table

My graph defaults to Medium (for dimension) and Pageviews (for metric), so I change it in order to Product and Unique Purchases.

And I think this table’s format could use some function.

Change the “Rows per page” from 100 to twenty (much easier to read) and check the box for adding an overview row.

how to connect data sources to google data studio: rows

7. Finally, click “Style” to the style tab.

Scroll down and select “Add border darkness. ” This is one of my favorite ways to make a data visualization put off the page.

how to connect data sources to google data studio: add style

almost eight. To see the finished product, click “View” within the top corner.

This transitions you from Editor in order to Viewer mode.

Voila!

how to connect data sources to google data studio: finished product

9. Click “Edit” to finish upward and name the report.

Double-click the title (right now, it’s “Untitled Report”) to change it.

how to connect data sources to google data studio: report name

And with that, the first report is formally done. Click that will familiar icon over the Chart Editor and add some email addresses to share your document.

Okay, don’t share the review just yet because I’m about to reveal the particular secrets that’ll help you seriously upgrade this.

Google Information Studio Tutorial

  1. Use templates.
  2. Publish your review.
  3. Connect to 150+ sources.
  4. Produce your own report concept.
  5. Embed exterior content.
  6. Send scheduled reports.
  7. Download reports.
  8. Embed reports.
  9. Add a date range.
  10. Add filter controls.
  11. Produce interactive chart filter systems.
  12. Add information control.
  13. Add a dimension breakdown.
  14. Use Data Studio Explorer (Labs).
  15. Create report-level filter systems.
  16. Create mixed fields.
  17. Blend your data source with itself.
  18. Produce a basic calculated industry.
  19. Creating a professional calculated field.
  20. Create a calculated combined field.

browsing through their themes for inspiration.

google data studio tips: use template

Take notice of the report’s creator. Many templates were built by the Data Facilities team; you can find them all in the “Marketing Templates” section. But there are also 45+ user submissions located in the “Community” section. A few of my favorite templates:

  • GA Behavior Overview: This dashboard pulls out there the most relevant info from the Behavior portion of Google Analytics
  • Paid Channels Mix Report: Use this design template to understand how your ads are executing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, search, and more.
  • Website Specialized Performance Indicators: Get a quick overview of just how your site is performing in real-time, including JavaScript and 404 errors and page load times.

Additionally, there are a bunch of fun, non-marketing templates in the photo gallery (found in the “Featured” section), like F1: How Important Is the Initial Race? and Superstar Wars: Data from the galaxy far, far. Definitely take a look should you be curious to see the complete potential of GSD unleashed.

this Google form.

Read over the entire instructions at this hyperlink, but here’s what I’d keep in mind:

  • Don’t share sensitive information. I recommend creating a report with widely accessible data, so there’s absolutely no possibility you get in trouble designed for sharing data a person don’t own. (Pro tip: recreate your existing company reviews with dummy information from one of Google’s sample data models! )
  • Make it awesome. The public reports are impressive, so don’t hold back with design, features, and so forth.
  • Add context. Provide on-page explanations of what you are measuring or overseeing with captions, instructions, maybe even a video clip of you walking through the report.

all the options here.

google data studio tips: connect to sources

has an excellent tip: utilize a free color picker tool to identify exactly what they’re using on the website.

You can also create a custom graph palette in this tabs and edit the border and background settings.

ultimate guide to Google Analytics. )

You also share the report with the School team, who has access to the GA watch for academy. hubspot. com, and the Leads Optimization team, that has access to offers. hubspot. com.

To see this report populated with the relevant information, these teams must select their view from the “data source” drop-down, and voila — all the graphs will update immediately.

Pretty nifty, right?

google data studio tips: data control

Not only will this save you from rebuilding the same review for different groups, but it also means you do not need to worry about unintentionally sharing sensitive or even confidential information. Every viewer can only choose data sources they’ve been granted entry to.

You can include several data controls in a single report.

Include the data control widget to your report simply by clicking this symbol:

google data studio tips: data control button After that choose which primary source you’d such as viewers to pull from:

google data studio tips: data control source

Data Business dashboard and select “Explorer (Labs)” in the left-hand menu.

google data studio tips: explorer plus button

Add a new data source by clicking the blue button in the lower right corner.

Initially, Explorer confused me personally. It feels very similar to the particular core Data Business — what was the point of having both?

However , after spending some time in Explorer, I’ve come to appreciate the unique value.

this W3Schools primer. ) The reason why do you care? Because the order of your information sources matters.

Put your primary databases first — electronic. g., the one to want all the ideals, regardless of whether there’s a match in your 2nd source.

Since we’ve gotten everything that out of the way, let’s setup a blended industry.

First, include a chart to your record.

google data studio tips: blend data button

Click on “Blend Data. ”

This panel will pop-up:

google data studio tips: blend data panel

Select your first data source on the left. Remember, this is the primary data bank. Then add your second data bank. Data Studio lets you add up to five information sources in a chart, but let’s stay with two for now.

Now pick your join key(s). If the field exists both in sources, it will turn green. If it does not exist, you’ll observe this:

google data studio tips: join keys

Remember that the important thing acts as a filter for that second data source. So in this example, only records that match the particular landing page from the GA view for hubspot. com will be pulled from Google Search Gaming console.

Choosing several keys will further limit the number of information pulled from the second data source.

Once you’ve picked your own join key(s), the rest of the process should really feel familiar.

Choose the dimensions and metrics you want to see for your first data source. After that do the same for your second.

You can also limit the results by adding a filter or date range (or for GA sources, segments). Filters, time ranges, and sections applied to the left-most data source will carry over to the other data sources.

Once you’ve finished designing the report, click “Save. ” Congrats: you just created your first blended data graph!

If you find it easier to create two separate charts after which combine them, Data Studio offers a excellent shortcut.

Just select both graphs, right-click, and choose “Blend data. ”

google data studio tips: blend data button Unfortunately, Data Studio could possibly get confused pretty rapidly, so I’d nevertheless make an effort to learn how to mix data using the right-hand pane.

round-up of example calculated metrics, including:

  • Average goal completions per user
  • Non-bounce rate
  • Pageviews per transaction
  • Value per session

You can check it to inspiration.

If you prefer a little practice before you start going to town on your own data, Google offers a handy sample workout.

Google Sheets expert Bill Collins points out, this trick will also standardize any custom identifying; for example , if some people on your team utilized “chat” for a marketing campaign, and others used “Chat, ” the UPPER functionality will aggregate both together.

Perhaps you want to create a brand new field for town and country.

Just click “Add dimension” (since city and state are specific, not quantitative, variables) > “Create industry. ”

Then use the CONCATENATE function to smush jointly the City and Nation fields.

Screen Shot 2019-05-08 at 5.43.36 PM

Check out the total list of functions Data Studio supports.

One of the niftiest is usually CASE. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s essentially an IF/THEN statement. This function lets you develop custom groupings.

For example , let’s say you’re looking at the particular table we created in the last step:

google data studio tips: table example

Here, Data Studio is treating Facebook mobile traffic (m. fb. com) and desktop computer traffic (Facebook) as two different resources. There’s also d. facebook. com — desktop traffic arriving via a link shim, which Facebook implemented in 2008 to shield users from potential spam. What if you want to combine all Facebook traffic into a single resource?

A CASE formula solves this issue nicely. Here’s the formula:

CASE

WHEN situation THEN result

WHEN condition THEN result

ELSE result

END

You can have 1 condition (like the particular example below) or several. The ELSE argument is optionally available, so feel free to depart it out if you don’t need it.

Here’s the formula we’ll use to group Fb traffic:

SITUATION

WHEN REGEXP_MATCH(Source, “^(l. facebook. com|m. facebook. com|facebook. com)$”) THEN “Facebook”

END

This formula tells Data Studio, “If the origin matches l. fb. com, m. fb. com, or facebook. com, call it ‘Facebook. ’”

To include a CASE formula, you must be able to edit the information source.

Click on the pencil icon alongside your source to create up the data field editor.

Then click “Add a new field” in the top right corner.

Enter your formula.

google data studio tips: formula

If the formula functions, you’ll see a eco-friendly checkmark. Give your field a name and click “Save. ” Now you can add this field to the chart or information viz that uses this data source.

You might be thinking, “Okay, great, but was that formula written within Klingon? How do I develop my own? ”

Don’t know RegEx? No problem! This blog article has five formulations to get you started.

www.hubspot.com and blog. hubspot. com. google data studio tips: blended field

Then click “Add metric” > “Add new field” as you would to create a normal calculated industry.

Enter your own formula.

I wanted to see “Total Users” (i. e., users from www.hubspot.com plus users from weblog. hubspot. com), which is a simple calculation:

google data studio tips: calculation blended field

Note : It could get a bit hairy here if you’re using two different areas with the same title, as I’m carrying out here. Sometimes Data Studio is smart enough to recognize the difference, plus sometimes it’s not.

If you run into issues, I recommend editing the name of one or both areas in the original data source(s), which you can perform at any time by clicking the pencil alongside the blended data source.

Then click on the pencil next to area name you want to modify.

google data studio tips: editing name of fields This particular pane will appear; edit the title appropriately.

google data studio tips: editing pane After that click “Save” plus go back to your determined field to upgrade the formula:

google data studio tips: update the formula Done! I can now see in my report.

Google Data Recording studio is the Best Way to Visualize Your Data

Since you know Data Recording studio inside and out there, you’re well-prepared to create stunning interactive reports for your coworkers, customers, and executives. Use the tips I distributed above to make the most of it and successfully show the ROI of your marketing initiatives.

Editor’s note: This post had been originally published within October 2018 and has been updated pertaining to comprehensiveness.

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