Tips and Tricks for your Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) Dashboard

Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) is a great option for those looking for a free and easy to use data visualization tool. However, it has some limitations that hinder it from being a true competitor to a more powerful tool, like Tableau or PowerBI. Here are a few tips and workarounds to take your dashboards to the next level.

Creating a basic template for your reports

Components of your report can be set to either page-level or report-level. Page-level components will only appear on the page they are placed, while report-level components will appear on every page of your report. Report-level components can be used to make a template for your dashboards that stays consistent throughout the whole report.

A good starting point is to build a frame using the rectangle tool and color it using your brand colors. From there you can add a company logo, and any dropdowns you will want to use throughout the report. This can include date range, filter, and data controls which all give your users the ability to change the reports on the fly. Once you have the basic layout and frame for your report set up, select everything on the page and make them report-level. Now when you add a new page to your report it will already be set up to match the look and feel of your other dashboards.

Blended data using segmented metrics (aka custom conversion rates)

Let’s say you want to create a new metric comparing two different audience segments. For example, what is the percent of total sessions with event XYZ, or what is the % of total sessions that viewed page XYZ. You can create a blended data source that incorporates multiple segments, enabling you to compare a particular audience segment to all of your traffic, or even compared to another segment.

For this example we want to see the percent of total sessions that visited the /gpsmap/ page.

• Create your segment in GA (sessions including page contains ‘/gpsmap/’)
• Create a new blended data source in Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio)
• Add sessions as your first metric (with no filters or segments applied)
  • This is your baseline metric that you will compare the segmented audience to
• Add sessions as the second metric, with your new segment applied
  • Be sure to rename the second metric to avoid confusion in your reports
• You can combine up to 5 different data sources, which means you can use data from multiple sources (ex. GA and Sheets) or you can create 5 segmented metrics at a time
• To calculate conversion rate, create a new calculated field dividing one metric from the other
• From here you can turn this table into a scorecard to display only CVR
• NOTE: Make sure to include a dimension in your blended data source if you want to use your new metrics in a table or chart. A scorecard does not need a dimension
• NOTE: The calculated field is specific to the chart it was created in, so you’ll need to make a copy for each use of the CVR unless you want to re-calculated it each time

Building funnels in Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) using blended segments

By building upon the previous technique, we can bring full GA user funnels into Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio). This can get complicated very easily so for this example we’ll stick to a simple user flow:
Visit homepage -> Visit product detail page -> Converted (purchased a product)

• Create a GA segment for each step of your flow, using the ‘Sequence’ type
  • Be sure to include the previous steps in your segments for Steps 2, 3, etc
• Create a new blended data source in Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) using your new segments
  • Give them descriptive names so that you can find them easily and keep everything in order.
• Create scorecards for each of your new metrics
  • Create calculated metrics to show CVR between steps
• You can use the Rectangle tool to visualize the flow, but it won’t change in real time

Turning dimensions into hyperlinks

Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) makes it easy to take a look at your top visited pages and landing pages, but it’s missing one of the handiest features of GA: the ability to click on a small button next to the URL and go straight to that page. By creating a new dimension that combines the page URL with your domain, you can give your dashboard users the ability to click directly through to the page they are interested in.

This calculated dimension uses the hyperlink and concatenate formula. Just add your domain using the Hostname dimension and either the Page or Landing Page dimension:

HYPERLINK(CONCAT([Hostname], [Landing Page]), [Landing Page])

As you’ve hopefully learned, the capabilities of Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) are a lot bigger than what you get out of the box. By using the techniques in this blog post, you will be able to make your reports more interactive, more intuitive, and just better looking overall.

Read more from our Data Visualization practice here.