Introduction
On Google Data Studio, you may use the data as a canvas to create your works of art. It gives you all the resources you need to create a compelling, attractive, and dynamic visual representation of your data. When you first open it, it seems somewhat straightforward, but do not be fooled. It is surprising how many different ways Google Data Studio Report can present the same raw data. The marketing industry is built on data. It can show where your advertising budget should be directed, the most lucrative clientele, and much more. But data alone is nothing but a collection of numbers. You need to know the meaning of your data to maximise its potential.
Google Data Studio steps in at this point. Google's Data Studio goes all out to assist you understand what your data means, in contrast to Google Analytics, which collects the data and provides (limited) display analytics options. It is a multi-purpose reporting tool as a result of its willingness to change. You can find a technique to create first-rate reports for no cost; you need the data. Don't know how it works or if the effort is worthwhile. This manual covers the functions of Google Data Studio and shows how to use it.
What Is Google Data Studio?
Data can be transformed into educational reports and interactive dashboards with the aid of Google Data Studio, an online tool for data visualisation. It aids in visualising patterns, keeping track of important KPIs for clients, and evaluating performance over time. You can visualise data using this free web application. You can select from some data sources, including Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. The artificial intelligence (AI) in Google Data Studio combines and analyses data from many sources. It allows you to generate interactive graphs, dashboards, and reports. Selecting the charts and tables you want to use in your report and giving them some vibrant themes is all that remains to be done. You don't need to attend lengthy training sessions to become comfortable with the tool. Dragging and dropping charts into the canvas will allow you to build recurring project reports, team performance reports, project budget projections, and more.
What Advantages Do Google Data Studio Users Get?
Data, not hypotheses, should be the foundation of marketing initiatives. You can leverage your data to make smarter marketing decisions by using Google Data Studio to generate stunning interactive reports that you can show to your boss, clients, or even investors. Here are few benefits of using Google Data Studio in your project:
- Simpler reporting, easier setup.
- Builds unique, interesting reports.
- Assembles data from many sources into a single report.
- Simplifies collaboration and sharing.
- Produces five custom reports that are free to use.
- Helps you to connect to more than 150 data sources.
- Keeps track of promotions.
- Cuts down on reporting turnaround time.
Feature Highlights of Google Data Studio
1. Many Data Collection Sources
Data Studio reduces the need to maintain several iterations of work-related Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel files. The program has 490+ data connectors that enable it to analyse raw data from more than 800 data sources. You can now import Data from external sources like TapClicks, Amazon Seller Central, Jira Cloud, and others. Also, you can authorise the tool to use data from other Google products like Google Analytics, MySQL, and Google Sheets, for data access and analysis. Data security and integrity are not issues you have to worry about when using Data Studio. To protect your data both inside the tool and during transit, it makes use of cutting-edge encryption technologies.
2. A Cool Dashboard Data Studio's User Interface And Dashboard
They are comparable to those of Google Drive. As a result, you are familiar with the user interface of the tool. The most crucial components that people often engage with are the following:
- Reports, templates, and data sources can all be found using the top-right Search Data Studio box.
- Reports, Data Sources, and Explorer's visibility in the Recent area are all movable.
- A new Report, Data source, or Explorer can be created using the left-hand menu. Also, the shared products section and the Templates gallery are located here.
- By using the gear icon in the top right corner, you can alter many fields in the User settings.
3. Interactive Data Visualisation
The Data Studio report's display mode is responsive because of sophisticated programming capabilities including chart interaction controls, drill-downs, and cross-chart interactions. Because of this, a viewer can alter any aspect of your reports, from filters to metrics, to get fresh information. By dissecting your graphs and tables into manageable informational units, Data Studio Explorer enables the reader to dive deeper into your report. Viewers are not required to be SQL database professionals to access a report's databases. Database exploration is possible for viewers using visual queries.
4. Performance-Driven In-Memory BI Engine
Imagine you are providing a client with a report on a project's performance using a performance-driven in-memory BI engine. The presentation is struggling even if you are using high-end, cutting-edge data visualisation technologies since the data keeps loading. The lag might be worse when using many data sources. Data Studio performs in under a second due to the BI Engine developed by the Google Cloud BigQuery team. It is an on-premises BigQuery data warehouse compatible with in-memory data access and analysis solutions. A single dashboard that refreshes and loads in real time can show real-time data from hundreds of sources.
5. Real-Time Collaboration
You and your collaborators may collaborate on the same Data Studio report, like with other Google productivity tools. From the Share menu at the top of the report, you may share the report on social media, invite individuals to collaborate with you, control their access levels, and more. When someone joins your Data Studio workspace that you have shared with them, their Google profile will show up in the menu bar. Data Studio also has the following noteworthy features that ease group work:
- Give team members the ability to edit a reusable data source and use it in their reports.
- Blogs, emails, and newsletters are a few of the formats in which you can embed Data Studio reports.
6. Usefulness
Users of Google Workspace are already accustomed to its user-friendly online interface. In the workspace for altering reports, full drag-and-drop operations are accessible. Access custom data panels for each object that you use in your reports. Using Data Studio's ready-to-use templates eliminates the need for extensive graph and table knowledge. In the Templates library, eight main categories of reports can be selected.
7. 14 Various Types Of Charts Can Be Made In Data Studio For Your Reports
The bulk of them may be obtained with only one click, whether you need Bar, Pie, or Line charts. The in-memory BI Engine examines the data type and arranges it per the charts or tables you select. To give your report a polished and imaginative appearance, you can also include charts from the community. Many visualisations, like Gantt charts, radar charts, gauges, star ratings, and others, are available to you without restriction.
8. Report Scheduling
You may need to share the data visualisation report or by the client's preferences. It is simple to overlook sending your client project reports when you're managing a team and juggling many duties. The Data Studio's Schedule email delivery tool allows for advanced planning. You can put together a report for your client and schedule its delivery. Data Studio will email your client when the report is ready. To inform the tool whether the client needs reports at particular intervals, you may also change the Repeat settings.
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How Can You Create a Report Using Google Data Studio?
1. Log In
Use your Google Analytics, Google Ads, or Search Console login credentials to access Data Studio by visiting https://www.google.com/analytics/data-studio. The Google Data Studio overview page will now be displayed to you. Choosing the "Home" tab will display the dashboard.
2. Take A Look At The Data Studio Dashboard
This dashboard ought to appear very similar if you have used Google Docs, Sheets, or Drive in the past. You have the choice of starting a tutorial, a blank report, or seeing report templates in the centre. Reports, Shared with Me, Owned by Me, Trash, and Templates are a few of the tabs that are found in the column to the left. There are three more tabs at the top: Reports, Data Sources, and Explorer.
3. Adding A Data Source
Many built-in data connectors can be used to add data sources to Data Studio. There are database connectors like MySQL and CloudSQL as well as connectors for Google products like BigQuery, AdWords, and Analytics. Recently, Google announced an upgrade that permits third-party providers to build their connectors. These Community Connectors include social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, ad networks like Bing Ads and Facebook Ads, and SEO tools like Moz. Data Studio's Google Sheets connection may be used to import data from any platform by first adding it to a Google Sheet and then importing it from there. Making a new report is the first step in configuring your data source. On Google Data Studio's home page, click the Plus icon to do this. This will produce a fresh, blank report. A data source addition request will appear in the panel on the right side of the page.
It is easy to add a new data source with below steps:
- Select the button for creating a new data source.
- Choose Google Analytics from the menu on the left.
- You will be asked to grant permission for Data Studio and Google Analytics to connect. To authorise, click.
- Choose the Google account that Data Studio should be connected to.
- Once you have been given permission, you may choose the Google Analytics account, the property, and the view you want data from.
- In the top right corner of the page, click the blue Connect button.
- Your data source has been established. You will be provided with a complete list of all metrics and dimensions offered by the new data source. In the page's top right corner, click the blue Add to Report button.
4. Add A Widget
You can start building our visualisations now that you have a data source set up. All the visualisations that you can include in your report are located in the report's top navigation bar. These comprise:
- Graphs of time series
- Bar graphs
- Tables and pie charts
- Maps Scorecards
To make your reports simpler to interpret, you can also include design components like text boxes and shapes. Also available are some excellent report controller components. You can change the report's data display using these components. You can alter the date range of the data because they have a Date Selector included. Also, the data displayed throughout the entire report can be changed using the filter controller. Google has updated Data Studio, adding a brand-new controller called the Data Control. You can change a report to include information from any of the Google Analytics accounts you oversee.
5. Personalise The Widget
To display only the facts you need, you can alter your measure and dimension. In this case, the combination is already appropriate. To get the precise result you want on the graph, you can change several other settings in the Time Series Properties.
6. Final Steps To Take In Data Studio Google
All done! You have finished producing your first Data Studio report. You have a graph with data from Google Analytics that compares the most recent data to earlier data and shows the current data as well. You may generate all the components you need for comprehensive and successful reports by following the simple procedures you learned in these steps.
7. Share the Report
You can invite people to view or access reports and data sources here or share them with them. Also, without a Google account, anyone in your organisation can browse your Data Studio assets by turning on link sharing. To allow your clients or colleagues to read or change the reports, click the "Share" option. You can download the report, receive a link, embed it, send it by email (this is helpful for client work), invite others to read it, and more. Moreover, when you invite others, you can choose who gets the report, giving you total control over who sees it.
What Is Google Data Studio Report?
Google developed the free web-based visualisation tool Google Data Studio Report to make it simple for anyone to generate shareable reports. Users can build individualised dashboards to track the effectiveness of their businesses, marketing campaigns, sales efforts, and other projects. Users of Google Data Studio Reports can build versatile reports by including their data sources for easy data flow. Get real-time chart updates to help people find the data's hidden insights. The pre-built KPIs, reporting and visualisation tools, and data segmentation features in Google Data Studio Reports make it easy for users to analyse data and trends.
What Advantages Come with Reporting Using Google Data Studio?
When designing adaptable dashboards that need frequent, minor adjustments, Google Data Studio Reports is a great tool. Because Google Data Studio Reports has so many features, many people and marketers favour it. The following is a summary of some advantages of Google Data Studio Reports:
- Data Sources Integration
For seamless data flow into dashboards, Google Data Studio Reports enables integration with more than 100 different apps besides various Google services and products.
- Create Shareable Reports:
With the help of Google Data Studio Reports, you can produce reports that you can then send to team members, managers, and other people without having to download any files. Links, scheduled sharing, and sharing through emails are all supported.
- Drill-Down Reports
Google Data Studio Reports make it simple for people to gain insights from data by drilling down into it. It provides several tools to speed up the process.
- Setting Goals and KPIs
This feature enables users to define goals and compare performance to those goals. Many key performance indicators (KPIs) are included, which aid users in knowing crucial information.
What Are The Ideal Methods For Producing Google Data Studio Reports?
Google Data Studio Reports are simple to create using drag-and-drop functionality. One should always adhere to a few best practices for most effectiveness to develop Google Data Studio reports. The following list of best practises includes the following:
- Setting Goals and KPIs
It is always advised to select the metrics and performance indicators that will best capture the status of your project or organisation. Setting up weekly and monthly objectives enables businesses to assess their performance against a benchmark and inspires them to meet it.
- Choosing Date Ranges for Reports
This feature enables businesses to tailor Google Data Studio Reports' views to any dates or timespan for which they choose to display data in-depth. It increases the reports' adaptability for use according to personal desire.
- Setting up Google Data Studio Reports for Accessibility
When designing any Google Data Studio Report, one should always be aware of the report's intended audience. Access to reports and dashboards should be granted by team members or other individuals to the appropriate parties.
- Application of Predictive Analytics
Google Data Studio provides Predictive Analytics tools that enable users to foresee a few results and predict patterns based on their data.
- Distribute Related Charts
Increasing the number of widgets on a page makes reporting more difficult. The ability to separate widgets on the same page based on their relationships with other widgets is provided by Google Data Studio Reports, which can be added to another page. You have seen how simple Google Data Studio makes it to create reports. It is simple to access and integrate with all the other Google services. You may put together a very attractive report in a matter of minutes and head to your meeting if you know what you want to deliver. Your reports can be made more dynamic and practical by including photos, and external links, and using tools like Date Range and Data Control. To share it, create a link to it or download it as a PDF.
Conclusion
Data Studio allows marketers, sales teams, and company owners to create interactive reports that are interesting and interactive from difficult-to-understand data. You and your team can use Google Data Studio to mix data from Google Analytics and other sources to produce visual reports. It will help you to better understand how your data affects your business. You can make pivot tables, interactive dashboards, pie charts, and more. Google Data Studio, in contrast to Google Analytics, is not a data source. It does not collect information from your website or any other source, either. In contrast, it compiles data from many sources, merges it, and streamlines the process of creating charts, dashboards, and reports. Your team can use it to project sales, track marketing initiatives, and forecast trends. Although there is a little learning curve with Google Data Studio, it is worthwhile to invest a few hours in becoming comfortable with this data visualisation tool. You'll soon be sending out expert reports if you follow the above instructions.