Data Studio is a free Google tool that includes many integrations-some free and some paid-and allows you to have several charts on one page that give a complete view of business performance.
What Google Data Studio is for.
Want an easy way to interpret your analytics? Are you wondering how to create a dashboard? With all the data available to marketers, it is hard to figure out what is useful and what is not. Google Analytics and Facebook reports, but also customer relationship management (CRM) tools provide tons of data. The problem is visualizing the information in a way that helps you understand what actions you need to take and eliminate the less useful information. So, Google Data Studio is the solution for you.
How google data studio works
With this magical tool you can easily create data reports, extracting them from a wide range of connectors (over 180!), i.e., sources, such as Google Ads, Google Analytics, Search Console, Facebook, and many more. Data can also be cross-referenced with data from Databases.
Within Data Studio there is a Template Gallery, from which you can take pre-set examples of table mixes, in which you can change and replace the numerics by entering your own data source. Also, in addition to the built-in ones you can find templates created by the Community, where you can share them in turn.
You will be able to represent data with different types of graphs: from bars to pie charts to pivot tables and so on. But that’s not all, you will also be able to customize them with the layouts, colors, fonts and sizes you like.
Google Data Studio benefits.
First of all, it should be pointed out that the visual aspect is important to better understand data. In fact, 90% of the information picked up by people comes from sight, 40% of the information is better received if it contains images and understood 60,000 times faster than classic textual information. The result? With learning through images compared to simple texts, a person’s efficiency increases by 17% in performance at work.
READ ALSO: Data storytelling: what it is and why it’s so popular.
Let’s move on to the technical information.
On Google Analytics you can put only two custom dimensions, while on Data Studio you have the possibility to put many more to filter and cross-reference the data. You can also use multiple Data Sources in the same dashboard, so you get a broader view of the situation, on different fronts.
This tool is simple and intuitive to use, helping to speed up reporting and interpret data in a more immediate way.
With Google Data Studio, it is possible to share the report with individuals, publicly in the community section, or in teams in order to collaborate on the document.
Google Analytics has another limitation: the data are not always processed. In fact, you often have to go to Realtime to see the same day’s data, whereas on Data Studio the report information updates in real time to all users. The downside is that if a table is deleted, it disappears for everyone! You can edit everything very quickly this way, though.
How to create a dashboard in Data Studio
Here are the first steps to create a new Data Studio report: choose a template or blank report, which has a graph paper background.
From here, choose the Data Source, such as Analytics samples, or a scorecard (it is on “Add a chart” and is nothing more than numbers, such as your e-commerce conversion rate, which you can do different things with, though). Then select all the metrics and dimensions you want to include in the field.
It may be interesting, for example, to show the comparison between the current period and the previous one. The period can be made interactive by entering a scorecard with the date range so that you can change it at any time. You can set the default date range to the last 30 days, 14 days or 7 days, depending on what you need. Also, you can compare the specified range with the previous year’s period, so you can see trends in the data.
It is very useful to include a filter table on the side, so once you enter generic data into the dashboard, you gradually go on to filter out what you need to analyze (e.g., device category). You can also create exclusion filters, including or excluding potentially important chart-level data.
Data fusion, a recent and interesting implementation, allows you to compare up to five data sources in a single table or chart.
Once finished, you can see the result of your dashboards in visualization mode and share them with your clients or colleagues. These visualizations show the data from your data sources.
Now that you have the bike, pedal it!
Now that you’ve mastered the basics and have the tools to start using Data Studio marketing dashboards, all that’s left to say is…room for imagination! For those who don’t have any, don’t worry-you can always use the templates to practice and play with the tool. The more you use it, the better questions you will start asking yourself. From there, you will know how to customize your reports.
Ah, one last tip: always remember to include the right data, because it is yes important to create beautiful charts, but the content is what matters.
