In this article, we are going to learn how to implement specific data visualizations to allow you to interpret data using charts and tables. It is recommended that you read the previous articles in our ‘how to’ series before moving onto this on:.
This article consists of 11 steps to demonstrate how to use these charts to visualize your data in an interactive way.
Scatter Charts
Scatter charts show how one variable is affected by another. This relationship is known as ‘correlation’.
An example of this might be a comparison of clicks per campaign or total spend per day. The position of the individual dots on a scatter chart enables you to see the relationship between two different campaigns or daily expenditures. One dot is plotted along the ‘X’ axis, and the other along the ‘Y’ axis showing you how one variable is affected by another.
1) The first step is to select the ‘scatter chart’ option from the ‘add a chart’ drop-down menu and position it on your report.
For this example, we will explore the relationship between the total number of sessions and the total number of page views.
2) The scatter chart is set to default which displays the total number of sessions on the ‘X’ axis, and total page views on the ‘Y axis’. In order to change these metrics, simply click on the metrics and select one from the list.
3) In order to identify which data points refer to a certain category of information, it is necessary to add in the product category name as a label. To do this, select the ‘style tab’ then click the checkbox ‘show data labels’. Finally, you have the option of changing the colour of the data points.
4) In order to view data from previous weeks, months or even years, switch to view mode and set the date range of your report. The charts are interactive so it is possible to see the data points as you move your cursor over the graphs.
Bullet Charts
5) Bullet charts are typically used to display performance data and display progress towards a certain goal. Ie: Revenue, expenses, volume. Bullet charts can be both vertical and horizontal.To add a bullet chart, simply click ‘add chart’ in the quick links and select ‘bullet’.
6) On the right hand side of the page, there are options to set the metrics that you want to display. The range limits set the lower, middle and upper targets for the metric.
For this example, the bullet chart is set to default which displays the total number of sessions.
It is important to note that the date range needs to be adjusted accordingly.
Below the following values have been set: Target value: 4200, Range 1: 1800, Range 2: 3600, Range 3: 5400
7) It is also possible to change the colour of the metric bar and the range of the bullet chart.
8) To view your bullet chart, select ‘view’ mode in the top right hand corner of your screen.
Tables
A table is used to organize and display information in columns and rows.
9) To add a table with bars, select ‘add chart’ from the dropdown menu in the ‘quicklinks’ and select ‘table with bars’.
On the right-hand side of the page there are options to select different metrics and dimensions. For this example, we have added ‘month of the year’ as an additional dimension and ‘users’ and ‘new users’ as additional metrics.
10) It is possible to view months in descending order in order to display the latest data at the top of the table. It is important to note that the date range needs to be adjusted accordingly.
It is also possible to remove the row numbers from the ‘style tab’.
11) In the ‘style tab’ you will see a list of options for each column in the table. A number, bar or heatmap can be selected. Similar to the bullet chart, it is also possible to set a target value. The target value line will appears once the target goal has been set. It is also possible to change the colour of the bars.
All of the above options can be applied to each column of the table. Select your desired style based on the information you would like to display. In this example, we used the following options: Column 1: Bar, Target value: 950, Column 2: Heatmap, Column 3: Heatmap.
This article is a continuation of our previous article where we covered how to connect and display your Google Analytics data, creating an interactive dashboard using time series charts. In this article we are going to explore time series charts in more depth, as well as focusing on bar and pie charts.
This guide consists of 8 steps to help you better understand the various charts that Google Data Studio has to offer.
If you missed our previous article, ‘How to: Connect Google Analytics to Google Data Studio’, you might want to check it out before progressing as it provides an explanation of how to add and edit a time series chart using analytical data.
Bar Charts
Step 1 – Segmentation
First, it’s important to include some segmentation to see which marketing channel has brought in the most traffic over a specified period of time. For this, a bar chart is the most effective data visualisation tool.
You need to select the bar chart option from the ‘Add a chart’ drop-down menu and position it wherever you feel it is most suitable on your report.
Step 2 – Metrics
The bar chart is set to default which displays the total number of sessions by traffic medium. If you would like to change these metrics, simply click on the metric ‘sessions’ and select one from the list. It is important to note that your bar chart has to be selected before attempting to change the data.
Step 3 – Date Range
The final thing you need to do is change the date range so that only the previous month’s data is displayed.
Step 4 – Chart Appearance
You have the option to change the orientation of the chart which could give you a better visualisation of the category names and the information displayed. In order to do this, select the ‘Style’ tab in the top right-hand corner of the report and then select the horizontal orientation. If you would also like to see data labels, so that you don’t have to scroll over the chart to see the total number of sessions, click the checkbox ‘show data labels’. Finally, you have the option of changing the colour of your chart.
Pie Charts
Step 5 – Split by Channel
Pie charts can be useful to display percentage or proportional data. Continuing with our theme of traffic via different marketing channels, it’s possible to establish the effectiveness of each channel, by using a pie chart.
To add a pie chart, simply click ‘add chart’ in the quick links and select ‘pie chart’.
For this example, the pie chart is set to default which shows the total number of sessions by traffic medium. If you would like to change these metrics simply click on the metric ‘sessions’ and select one from the list. It is important to note that your pie chart must be selected before attempting to change this data. Don’t forget to set the custom date range to the correct time period!
Step 6 – Pie Chart Appearancee
There are a few styling options available for your pie chart. A useful facility is to use the ‘Doughnut’ option.
This can be done by using the slider to increase and decrease the size of the hole in the middle. It is also possible to limit the number of segments shown on the pie chart. Simply select the number of segments you would like to be shown from the drop-down menu.
Area charts
Step 7 – Trend Analysis
Area charts are most useful when facilitating trend analysis and are a good choice in order to see time series data broken down by categories. In this example, we would like to understand which marketing channels have contributed to the overall trend we see in traffic. Select an area chart from the ‘add chart’ drop-down menu, in the quick links menu.
If you would like to change these metrics, simply click on the metric ‘source’ or ‘sessions’ and select one from the list. It is important to note that your area chart must be selected before attempting to change this data.
Step 8 – View the report
To see your report as others would view it, click ‘view’ at the top right of the page. This is different from how you would see it in the edit mode. You will notice that the charts are interactive which allows you to see the data points as you move your cursor over the graphs.
Don’t miss the next article in our ‘how to’ series: ‘How to make your dashboard interactive with filters’!
In this article, we are going to learn how to use GDS’s dashboard by exploring different filters. This report is a continuation of our previous article, How to: Time Series Charts, Bar Charts and Pie Charts in Google Data Studio. It is recommended that you read the previous articles in our ‘how to’ series before moving onto this one.
We will be exploring 3 types of filters on Google Data Studio that enable you to focus on subsets of your data:
This article consists of 12 steps to demonstrate how to use filters to create an interactive report.
Filtering by Date
1) One way to keep your users engaged with your reports is to add filters. To start, add a date range filter into your report. This filter allows your users to control the timeframe of your report. To add this filter, click on the ‘date range’ filter icon in the quicklinks menu and add it to the header of your report. Select ‘Style’ to change the font size and colour of the text.
2) To select a date range, switch back to the ‘Data’ Tab. By default, the filter prompts you to select a date range.
3) In order for the ‘date range’ filter to take effect, it is important to note that any ‘custom’ date ranges that you have previously applied, need to be changed to ‘auto’. This is done by selecting ‘auto’ in the data tab.
4) In order to see the results of the interactive filter, exit the editing mode by clicking ‘view’ in the top right-hand corner of the page.
5) When users view your report, they will now have the ability to use the date range filter. This will allow them to view data from previous weeks, months or even years.
Filtering by Dimension
6) A dimension filter enables you to categorise your data by different criteria: e.g country, city or user profiles.
In order to filter by dimension, click on the ‘filter’ icon in the quicklinks menu and add it to the header of your report. Next, select ‘style’ to change the font size and colour of the text. There are also some additional style options available with this filter.
7) It is important to note that the ‘data’ tab needs to be selected in order for you to change the dimension and metric settings.
8) To see the filter in action, click the ‘view’ mode. You have the option to use the search bar to search for a country you are looking for. If you would like to select only one option, hover over the option and select ‘only’.
Filtering by Geographical Location
9) For this example, you need to remove all data visualizations except the key summaries. Select the ‘Geo map’ option from the ‘add a chart’ drop-down menu and position it wherever you feel it is most suitable on your report.
10) This filter displays data according to geographical location. The map visualization is set to default which displays country (dimension) by sessions (metric). If you would like to change these settings, simply click on the ‘dimensions’ or ‘metric’ tabs and select one from the list. It is important to note that your geo map has to be selected before attempting to change the settings.
It is also possible to zoom into a country to display data from a specific region or city.
11) There are a few style options available with the map. The default setting displays the countries with the highest number of sessions in blue. In the ‘style’ tab, it is possible to select additional colours in order to display other values.
12) It is possible to display the sessions per country without having to hover over the map. To do this, you need to copy your map and change the data visualization type to a table.
Don’t miss the next article in our ‘how to’ series: Advanced Data Visualization!
Google Data Studio has powerful features which make it a compelling alternative to other established platforms. In a recent article we compared these differences and made a case for GDS. GDS has come out with a slew of new updates over the past months which has made it even better
In this post, we’ll talk about some of the most noteworthy updates to the platform, plus our thoughts on each one of them. Here’s an overview of the best and the latest on GDS that we’ll cover:
Tell your story your way with Data Studio Community Visualizations Developer Preview
Create attractive charts more easily
Filter your charts more intuitively
Share more informative reports
Tell your story your way with Data Studio Community Visualizations Developer Preview
GDS already offers a vast range of templates you can use to visualise your data. However, this usually isn’t enough if there’s a specific way you wish to display your data.
With the Data Studio Community Visualizations Developer Preview, you can build charts and style them so you can present your data that’s easy to understand and blends seamlessly with your dashboard’s design.
Developers now have a wide range of tools to build, use, and share community visualisations, including the Data Studio Community Component Library. Plus, there’s more you can do with Data Studio Community Visualisations, like:
Using visualisation libraries as well as custom JavaScript and CSS for visualisations;
Defining the required style elements of your visualisation; and
Creating highly interactive visualisations.
This Developer Preview version means it’s still constantly being improved. But you can also develop and share your own visualisations already if you wish. Either way, everyone’s welcome to provide their feedback to the GDS team so they can further improve this feature.
Why it’s great
The wealth of GDS templates is a great way of helping you set up your dashboard quickly. But when it comes to telling rich stories with data, you might need to customise your dashboard a bit more. With Data Studio Community Visualisations Developer Preview, you can tell these stories your way with an extra layer of customisation. A few features may still be lacking here and there since it’s a Developer Preview, but like Google’s other products, you can be sure that it will only get better.
While you can now customise your charts, there are still, of course, the good old pre-built ones, so you can create dashboards easily. The great thing is that the GDS team made it even easier for you to create visually striking charts:
First, go to the Add a chart menu and choose your chart design;
Next, customise the data in the DATA properties panel; and finally,
Customise the look of the chart with the STYLE properties panel.
You can customise your chart further, of course, without being technical. While components ‘snap to grid’ by default, you can position them exactly the way you want using your mouse and keyboard. Another thing is that you can switch chart types using the chart icons, so you can quickly decide which type of chart is best suited for your dashboard. What’s more is that whatever customisations you made to the previously selected chart will remain intact, saving you a lot of time in the process.
That’s not all. Adding and replacing fields in a chart takes just a few mouse clicks. You can also add other components like interactive components, images, and annotations, to make your dashboards richer and easier to understand than ever before.
Most recently, the GDS team also let users customise the axis and data labels of bar, line, scatter, and area charts. As usual, you can access this in the STYLE if you’re using the appropriate chart type.
Why it’s great
People can be neatly divided based on how they prefer to create their dashboard. One camp wants it to be as simple as possible so that they can share their dashboard as quickly as possible. The other, meanwhile, wants a greater level of control so they can create dashboards that match their exact specifications. For those who want simplicity, GDS’ three-step chart creation can be a huge benefit. All in all, it’s about giving even non-techies a great way to create and share dashboards.
Why stop at great looking charts when you can add a level of interactivity to them? In its latest update, GDS also added what is called interaction filters. They work like filter controls, so when you click on a portion of the pie chart, for example, you’ll be able to filter results based on your selection. Or if you’re using a time series, the interaction filter can work as a date range filter when you drag or ‘brush’ your mouse across it, which also works for line charts and area charts.
Here’s an example of interaction filters in action, as prepared by the GDS team:
These interaction filters make it even simpler and more intuitive for you to filter data you wish to be displayed on your dashboard. You no longer have to enter values by hand—all it takes is a mouse click or drag to create a filter. From the end user’s standpoint, it’s also easier now to find and display the data that you want because of this.
While dashboards are by far the quickest and easiest way to display and share your data, you’re probably also working with stakeholders who might prefer to print out their reports. With GDS’ January update, you can now implement to your PDF reports viewer refinements such as filter controls and date ranges. Now, it’s even easier to print and share customised reports.
Why it’s great
The beauty of GDS is how you can adapt it to a wide range of users and stakeholders. So if you want to share a more informative version of a report based on the viewer’s customisations, it’s now possible with GDS.
Here at Data Studio Templates, we definitely think it’s great that Google continues to step up their game with the latest GDS updates. They might look minor on paper, but we believe each will have a tremendous impact in terms of usability and in enabling people to tell richer and more in-depth stories with data.
How about you, what do you think of the newest features launched by the GDS team? Please share with us your thoughts by leaving a comment below!
Google Analytics provides a wealth of information on website performance such as; who is visiting your site, where they came from, how long they stay on your site and how many pages they have viewed. As well as much more info. By connecting Google Analytics with Google Data Studio, you are able to display this information in a dashboard and visualise it in an interactive way.
While it is possible to view dashboard style reports directly in Google Analytics, GDS has a number of advantages, such as being able to blend data sources together, report in a more visual manner and provide better access to this data for those not familiar with the Google Analytics interface.
This article outlines 9 steps to help you create reports using Google Data Studio.
If you missed our previous article, ‘Understanding the Layout of a Report’, you might want to check it out before progressing as it provides a solid background to navigating through GDS.
Sign in to Google Data Studio using the following URL: https://datastudio.google.com/overview
1) In order to create a report, click the ‘+’ button at the top of the page or bottom right-hand corner.
2. You will then be prompted with a welcome message. Follow the steps to move on to ‘terms and conditions’ and then ‘preferences’.
3) Once you have completed these steps, Google Data Studio (GDS) will take you back to step 1. Here you will need to select the ‘+’ button again to begin creating your report.
4) The next step is to add your own data source. Do this by selecting ‘create a new data source’ >> ‘Google Analytics’ >> ‘authorize and connect’.
5) You will then be asked to sign in to your Google account so that GDS can access your Google Analytics. Once signed in, you will be presented with the following page. Next, select your preferred analytics account and connect.
6) The next page you see will be the ‘Data Source Review Page’. Here you will learn more about the specific fields GDS recognizes within your data set.
You will be presented with a list of field names, field types, field aggregation rules and descriptions. On a more advanced level, if you are looking to create calculated fields or change metric formatting, these fields can be edited. Otherwise, these fields should be left as they are and you can proceed to the next step, ‘add to report’.
Data Stido Terminology:
Field names: The name of the dimensional metric in your data. Dimension is a categorical value such as device type. Metric is a numerical value such as the number of visits to your website.
Field type:This describes the data type of your field. For example; number, text, percentage or currency.
Default Aggregation & Default Description: Google automatically updates these fields so, no changes are necessary here.
7) When you are ready to publish, select ‘add to report’.
8) Creating Data visualization:
One of the first data visualizations you can add to your report is called ‘The Scorecard’. ‘The Scorecard’ is a good option if you want to display key summary numbers. Simply click on the ‘add chart’ drop-down menu icon in the ‘quicklinks’ and select ‘Scorecard’.
Once you have added The Scorecard to your report, you have the option to change the metrics and time period under the ‘DATA’tab on the right side of your screen.
You also have the option to compare your results over different time periods. To do this, click on the ‘compare against previous period option’ underneath the date range.
You can proceed by adding additional scorecards to your report and changing the metrics to view different results. You also have many options to edit these scorecards – these can be found under the ‘STYLE’ tab to the right of the screen. In order to make any changes you need to ensure that your scorecard is selected.
9) Adding time series charts:
Simply click on the ‘add chart’ drop-down menu icon in the ‘quicklinks’ and select a time series chart.
The chart’s default setting highlights sessions per date. Variables can be changed in the ‘DATA’ tab under ‘dimensions and metrics’.
In order to compare results, you can add a line from the previous month data by selecting the previous period in the comparison drop down.
You also have the option to edit data points, colour and titles all found in the ‘STYLE’ tab to the right of the screen.
Click ‘view’ in the top right-hand corner to see how users will see this report once you have shared it with them.
You will notice that the charts are interactive so you will be able to see the data points as you move your cursor over the graphs.
We hope this article was helpful and has assisted you in improving your knowledge in Google data studio. Don’t miss the next article in our how to series guide, navigating Google Data Studio’s navigation bars.
In this article we take a deep dive into Google Data Studio’s toolbars. We’ve outlined 3 steps you can follow to give you a basic understanding of how to create a Google Data Studio report.
This is the second article in a series of ‘How to’ guides. You might like to visit the previous article on, ‘How to Connect Google analytics to Google Data Studio’, first to get a thorough understanding of how to connect to a data source and start working with data in GDS.
1) Just underneath the menu, you will see a list of quick links. You can add many pages to each report. Add a new page by clicking ‘+Add page’ in the top left corner.
2) You have the options to add a range of data visualizations from bar charts to bullet charts.
You also have the options to add some standard elements such as Text, images, and rectangles. Finally, at the end, you’ll see two options to add filters on dates and dimensions.
To the right of the page, you will see an area with two tabs – one for report layouts and another for report themes.
3) To see your report as others would view it, click ‘view’ at the top right of the page. This is different from how you would see it in the edit mode.
Under layout options, you can also edit other things such as canvas size.
In the ‘theme section,’ you can choose between a light and a dark theme. As well as a standard colour pallet for your text, charts and other elements on the page.
Don’t miss the next article in our ‘how to’ series – More Options for Time Series, Bar and Pie Charts.
An example of the wide variety of dashboards and reports you can create in Data Studio.
Ever since it was launched in late 2018, Google Data Studio has positioned itself as a highly capable, feature-packed, and serious alternative to other dashboard software like Whatagraph, Klipfolio, and DashThis.
The biggest draw to Data Studio, of course, is that using the platform is free—all you need is a Google account. Not only this makes it a compelling option, but it also removes one of the biggest barriers of entry altogether.
In this article, we’ll take a more in-depth look at some of Data Studio’s top features so you can decide for yourself if it’s worth a try.
Connectors
One of the biggest selling points of Google Data Studio is its number of data connectors. What these connectors do is allow you to quickly and easily display your data obtained from a source, such as your Google Analytics, YouTube, or MySQL.
It only takes a few clicks to do this. First, choose your data source:
Connect and log into your data source:
And you can start displaying whatever data you’d like to display within that source:
Google Data Studio currently has over 130 connectors of which 17 are built and supported in-house by Google, while over 100 are Partner Connectors made by Data Studio partners, and 12 are Open Source Connectors created by the Data Studio open source community. Of course, you can also upload your own data in a CSV file.
Note: Using Data Studio itself is free to use, but using most, if not all third-party connectors will cost you money.
If you’re technically inclined, you can also create your own connector or use others built by various developers called Data Studio Community Connectors. You have the option to share the connector you created only with select users or add it to the public Data Studio Connector Gallery so that everyone can find and use it.
Google Data Studio templates
Once you’ve gathered the data you need, you now have to be able to visualise the information in a way that’s not only easy to understand but easy on the eyes as well.
You can choose to create a report or a dashboard from scratch. But this takes a lot of time and effort, not something you want if you’re after speed and ease of use.
This is where Data Studio templates come in.
Just go to the Gallery and then choose from a myriad of templates that you can customise to match the look and feel of your brand.
Of course, if you’ve chosen to create your own design, you can save it as a template so you can use it again in the future.
You can also choose from third-party templates if you want something more unique. Here at Data Studio Templates, you can choose from our gallery of templates we cover:
Sharing and collaborating on your reports and dashboards
If you’ve ever used Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides products, you’re probably familiar with how easy it is to share and collaborate on projects. With just a few clicks, you can choose who to share your reports and dashboards with and what they can do with it.
You can also embed your dashboard on a website, which is ideal if you’d like to present your data to a wider audience. To do this, just click on the embed icon:
Enable embedding:
Choose whether to embed the code or the URL:
Before finally copying and then pasting the code.
Once someone accesses the dashboard, the data presented will be up-to-date. This may sound like a minor feature, but it’s actually a big deal once you realise that some dashboard platforms require you to cough up money just to get shorter data refresh times.
Just like working in Google Docs, you can collaborate with others in real-time, whether they are your teammates or people from other organisations. You can see changes as they happen on your screen, which are then saved automatically.
Complex functions for your complex needs
While Data Studio shines in its ease of use, it is also highly capable of performing more complex tasks if you require them. For example, you can create custom formulas, as well as apply arithmetic, logical, and other operators. Plus, you can also use a wide range of functions that include string and date to help you present your data in an even more meaningful way. This means that you won’t be limited in what you can actually do and display Data Studio. For example, you can perform basic math such as calculating the total number of visitors for a specific year, convert text to upper or lowercase, or calculate the difference in days between two dates.
A few things to remember
As it is, Data Studio is already a powerful and feature-rich dashboard platform that can rival other paid options out there. However, keep in mind that it is still practically fresh out of beta, so expect a few kinks here and there. For example, while doing this review, I encountered an issue with the menu where the tabs became unresponsive, which was fixed after I refreshed the page.
Also, just like the earlier versions of Google Docs, there may be features that you’re expecting to have that you won’t find in Data Studio yet. But Google is aware of this, which is why they prominently added a Request a Feature option in the Help tab. And based on how they’ve improved their other products over the years, we can definitely expect Data Studio—a platform that’s already good—to get even better.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning here that although the platform itself is free to use, you may have to pay for some other features, such as connectors. Even then, you’ve already saved a lot of money from the free access you get to Data Studio.
Summary
With the increasing amount of data that businesses gather every day, the need for easily accessible and easy to use tools to visualise these data grows as well. Because of that, Data Studio entered the market at the right time and coupled an already compelling product with tons of great features (and more on the way), free access, exceptional customisation, and a multitude of connectors. That said, it presents other dashboard platforms with some serious competition from one of today’s tech giants.
Looking for Google Data Studio templates?
We understand that while Data Studio already has a vast amount of templates in its gallery, you might find it difficult to find one that matches the look you want. Or you probably don’t want to get caught using the same template hundreds of other companies have used before. In that case, we can help.
We design and sell Data Studio templates that you can use to present your data in a more unique and visually striking way. They are professionally designed and very reasonably priced, giving you more options to create and customise your dashboard.
To find out more, please send us an enquiry today and we’ll get in touch with you as quickly as possible.
Launched as a free beta version in May 2016 and then officially released in September 2018, Google Data Studio (GDS) has quickly become a powerhouse dashboard platform for professionals in the fields of search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimisation (SEO), and ecommerce.
Its intuitive interface also makes GDS an ideal tool for more inexperienced users, such as those who simply want to visualise data either for themselves or their clients. Choosing a data source, for example, can be done with a few clicks, while choosing data to be displayed is a matter of dragging and dropping them on the dashboard.
In this post, we’ll share with you some of the best features that make GDS a highly recommended tool if you want a powerful and easy-to-use dashboard software. Plus, we’ll compare it with some of the most popular platforms today so you can see for yourself if GDS is indeed the right platform for you.
TL;DR
GDS is, in our opinion, the most capable dashboard software available today with its perfect balance between the number of connectors, ease of use, and availability of third-party Google Data Studio templates. Of course, the fact that it’s free to use doesn’t hurt as well.
Why Data Studio is the best dashboard platform today
There are a lot of great reasons why we think GDS is the best dashboard software available today. Here are some of them:
You can display data from 100+ sources – Dashboard platforms are often only as good as the number and quality of connectors they offer. GDS currently has 128 connectors that include Google-owned products like Analytics, Ads, BigQuery, and YouTube, along with other connectors that connect to Bing Ads, Amazon Ads, and Facebook Ads, MySQL databases, just to name a few. You can also upload your own CSV file.
It’s free – Using GDS itself is free. To access it, all you need is a Gmail account, which you may already have if you use AdWords and Analytics. Keep in mind though that some third-party connectors are paid like Supermetrics, which requires a subscription for you to pull your Facebook data and display it on GDS.
It’s easy to use – GDS provides templates to help set up your dashboard quickly. If you know how to use Microsoft Word and PowerPoint or Google Docs and Slides, you’ll know how easy it is to create a dashboard using GDS’s pre-built templates, making it a perfect tool even if you’re not that technically inclined.
The available number of third-party Google Data Studio Templates is also growing, including the ones that we develop in-house. This further expands your options when it comes to displaying your data more beautifully.
GDS vs. other dashboard platforms
Of course, being a relative newcomer, GDS has a lot of more-established competitors. Here, we take a look at some of GDS’ biggest competitors—Whatagraph, Klipfolio, DashThis, and Reporting Ninja—and see how they stack up against Google’s own product.
Data sources
If you or your clients would like to display data from a wide range of sources, then it’s important that you have access to as many data connectors as possible. In that case, Klipfolio is probably the only serious competition with its more than 600 data connectors compared to GDS’ 128. DashThis lags behind at third with 34, followed by Whatagraph with 18, and Reporting Ninja’s 13.
Of course, the quality of the connectors is important too. Aside from the connectors Google developed in-house, they also partnered closely with other developers to ensure that these work flawlessly with GDS—all these make GDS the best in its class when it comes to the number and quality of connectors.
Pricing – Another great thing about GDS is that you can use it for the absolutely great price of FREE—all you need is a Gmail account to use all its features. This isn’t the case with some of the dashboards.
Klipfolio, for all its massive library of connectors, crippled their free and lower-priced options with very long data refresh rates of up to 4 hours. You’ll have to go to the $99 tier to get a 1-minute refresh rate. GDS thus wins again since it’s the only free dashboard that offers the same, if not better, exceptional level of quality of its competitors.
Templates
Ease of use is another area where GDS shines. While all the platforms we compared here offer templates, only GDS has third-party templates, letting you choose how to present your data, including the type of data to include and the overall look of the dashboard. All these make setting up a dashboard quick and easy.
Competitors’ templates, meanwhile, tend to be somewhat limited. For example, Dashthis only has one template for displaying campaign results. The limited number of templates and lack of third-party options make the competition a little less attractive.
Shareability – Sharing and collaborating with GDS is familiar to users of Google Docs or Sheets. Access permissions let you choose who can view or edit reports and data sources. You can post reports on social media or share them via email. Everyone gets the most up-to-date information when they open the dashboard. Collaborating with GDS is quick, easy, and secure, so it’s an obvious choice in multi-user environments.
Klipfolio offers a similar level of control as GDS on who can edit, view, or share dashboards. DashThis opted for simplicity over security as they allow you to just share dashboards via email, PDF, or a link.
Visualisation & customisation
GDS makes it quick and easy for you to create beautiful dashboards with its range of templates. While other platforms have that feature, only GDS gives access to third-party templates, making it the most flexible and customisable dashboard in its class.
Other platforms vary in the level of customisation that they allow. For example, Whatagraph has chosen simplicity since customisation is limited only to adding widgets to a dashboard. Klipfolio, is more robust, letting you create custom Klips (what they call their widgets) using HTML, Javascript, and CSS for a deeper level of customisation that others don’t offer.
Having compared GDS with other dashboard platforms, we can still confidently say that GDS offers the best dashboard available when it comes to price, value, and features.
Customising dashboards with Google Data Studio templates
GDS already offers a number of templates, but if you want to have something more unique, use third-party templates. Because GDS was launched recently, there are currently very few providers of Google Data Studio templates.
Here at Data Studio Templates, we offer a wide array of beautiful and affordable templates that suit a variety of applications, including AdWords templates, SEO templates, site traffic report templates, and social media templates. They’re easy to install too so you can go from choosing a basic template to customising it to your liking in just a few steps.
For more information about our collection, please send us an enquiry today.
Google data studio templates have proved to be an amazing addition for digital marketers. These templates allow you to create a professional level report that your clients will be happy with in no time at all. The best part is that these reports can be configured to be dynamic and update in real time to reflect current numbers. Moreover, they easily connect to Google services such as Analytics and AdWords and can be shared with clients as easily as a Google Drive file.
Here at Data Studio Templates, the five main data studio reports that we focus on are:
AdWords Templates
SEO Templates
Social Media Templates
Site Traffic Report Templates
Ecommerce Templates
This article will provide a comprehensive analysis of these 5 data studio templates, which we believe to be the best ones available for search marketers. We will discuss the benefits of using each of these templates and highlight how they can be used to grow your business and the businesses of your clients.
AdWords Templates
Google AdWords represents an ideal way to get your brand in front of customers with high buyer intent. Typically, these customers are searching for an answer to a problem that your business can help to solve. They are engaged buyers who are actively searching for products in your niche and typically will prove easy to convert. Our data studio AdWords report will give you deep insights into the performance of your campaigns, in turn allowing you to make tactical decisions in real-time that will improve your results.
These reports will focus on the following factors:
Demographics
Understanding the demographics of your target audience will save you significant money in the long term. Once you’ve established a demographic of people that regularly purchase your products, you can target the majority of your marketing spend towards this group. Having the data behind you will provide the extra confidence necessary to make these decisions that can increase your profitability.
Daily CTR and CPC Trends
Once you develop a strong understanding of your CTR and CPC, you’ll be able to take your digital marketing to the next level. This data studio report gives you an insight into your exact cost per customer, which is incredibly valuable information that allows you to optimise future campaigns.
Device Breakdown
This section of the report provides an in-depth analysis of what devices customers are using when exposed to your ad campaigns. If you find that your campaign is performing much better on one device than another, you can then utilise this information to accentuate your campaign strengths and minimise weaknesses.
Clicks and Impressions
Knowing how frequently your ads have been clicked is a crucial digital marketing metric. This allows you to adapt and tweak both your copy and strategy as you seek to improve your ads. The best part is that this will update in real time, allowing you to quickly tell if your adjustments have made a profitable difference.
SEO Templates
Effective SEO provides an excellent foundation for a successful digital marketing campaign. It comprises a diverse range of metrics in an attempt to increase your web traffic through organic search results. Our excellent data studio SEO reports will provide you with a plethora of valuable information that can help you identify which keywords you’re ranking for, the top pages on your site and trends surrounding your clicks and impressions. When used effectively, this comprehensive SEO dashboard will provide valuable insights into your site performance that will save both time and money.
Our SEO Data Studio reports analyse the following key areas:
Trend Analysis
Being able to understand the performance of your website over time will prove beneficial as it pertains to optimising your SEO. The trends in this template give you a deep and unique insight into the behaviour of your target customers. They paint a data-driven picture that measures exactly how effective the changes you’ve implemented have been over a prolonged period of time. This information can subsequently be used to make adjustments accordingly and identify which trends could be effective to hop on in the near future.
Landing Page Sessions
An effective landing page can dramatically improve both the engagement of your audience as well as overall conversions. Our dashboard will provide a real-time picture of your landing page performance. This allows you to effectively analyse what is going well currently before optimising the process through split testing and tactical improvements.
Search Query Reports
Our SEO reporting templates also seamlessly integrate with Google Search Console. This in turn makes it very easy to get an insight as to how frequently your site is appearing in Google search results. From this you’ll also gain valuable information, such as the keywords customers are searching for to get on to your website and where most of your visitors are coming from.
Demographics
The demographic insights of these free data visualisation tools provide a great insight into what your audience looks like. With just the click of a button, you can find out who is coming to your website, where they are coming from and what device they are using. This allows you to in turn optimise your site and content towards these individuals, thereby improving their engagement and likelihood of purchasing.
Social Media Templates
Understanding the analytics behind the engagement of your social media posts is an extremely effective way to increase your chances of success. These useful and actionable Data Studio analytics give you the ability to make informed and data-driven decisions that result in increased profitability. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have incredibly large in-built followings. As such, mastering the information contained within these social media templates will likely prove to be an excellent cost-effective way to increase your organic website traffic.
Our comprehensive Google data studio templates provide key insights into the following areas:
Geo Reporting
This gives you a proper understanding of where the majority of your audience is coming from. You gain an insight into which campaigns are performing well in certain regions and which campaigns could be improved upon. This is extremely valuable data that will help with both targeting new markets and improving your engagement in specific regions.
Likes, Subscriptions and Comments
Our Google Data Studio social media templates provide a strong visual insight into your social media metrics. Likes, subscriptions and comments are excellent indicators as to how engaged your audience is. The information contained within our templates will help you drive engagement and build profitable relationships with your followers.
Current Trends
If you can effectively understand current trends and look out for what may be trending in the future, you’ll enjoy a significant advantage over your competitors. These will create excellent opportunities to publish your own unique content to capitalise on these trends. If done effectively, this content can even go viral and drive through considerable organic traffic.
Goals and Events
Another notable feature of our social media templates is that they are dynamic and will update in real time. They seamlessly integrate with Google Analytics and give you a comprehensive snapshot of the exact traffic coming from each of your social media platforms. This also allows you to analyse which content is driving the most engagement so that you can optimise for future performance.
Site Traffic Report Templates
Gaining a deeper insight into your website traffic is an excellent way to optimise your content. You gain a much clearer picture of exactly the type of content that your audience is engaging the most with. Whilst the numbers are important, actually understanding your customer’s on-site behaviour is next-level stuff that gives you a significant competitive advantage.
Our excellent site traffic Data Studio reports give you comprehensive insights surrounding the following features:
SEO
If you want to increase your organic traffic, developing an effective SEO strategy represents the best way to do so. However, you need to see how the changes you implement are impacting on visitor behaviour for this to be truly worthwhile. Fortunately, our site traffic templates provide comprehensive insights about your current site performance and how the on-site SEO can be improved.
Dynamic Data
Our versatile site traffic report templates allow you to view both real-time and historical data. Historical data gives you a strong insight as to how your traffic has evolved over time, whilst the real-time information allows you to see the exact effect that your changes are having on traffic. This gives you all of the information necessary to make smart data-driven decisions that can increase your bottom line.
Google AdWords and Analytics
Google AdWords and Analytics are extremely valuable tools that give you a strong insight as to how your business is performing from a data perspective. Our site traffic templates integrate seamlessly with both platforms and will update in real-time. This allows you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your current campaigns and optimise for future performance.
eCommerce
A functional and professional eCommerce design is the primary way to increase conversions on your site. You need to create an offer that can benefit a specific group of people and then effectively communicate that value to bring traffic to your site. However, it can prove more difficult to analyse the traffic for eCommerce site than just a regular niche or authority site. Our Data Studio templates provide comprehensive visualisations that help analyse customer behaviour and engagement.
These excellent eCommerce reports specialise in the following areas:
Conversion Metrics
Our eCommerce Data Studio reports provide a strong insight into how your site is performing according to key metrics such as CPC, CTR and your overall conversion rate. This data updates in real time and allows you to modify your product and copy in an attempt to increase conversions. Utilising this information effectively will both lower your customer acquisition cost and increase the value of each customer
Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides a huge help for eCommerce store owners, integrating seamlessly with our eCommerce Data Studio templates. It provides valuable insights such as the behaviour of new and existing customers, which traffic source generates the most revenue and which of your products are most popular. This is extremely actionable information that can be used to double down on your strong points to significantly increase revenue.
Checkout Funnel
Optimising your checkout funnel is a great way to increase overall revenue. Our eCommerce templates provide exact data showcasing where your visitors are dropping off at each stage. A lot of people adding to cart but not many making purchases? This dashboard will allow you to identify problem points like this and then optimise accordingly.
Conclusion
Hopefully you’ve obtained significant value on this comprehensive guide about the five best Google Data Studio templates for search marketers. These excellent templates on AdWords, site traffic, SEO, social media and eCommerce all provide actionable information that can take your business to the next level. You will gain a much deeper insight into the existing strengths and weaknesses of your business, allowing you to optimise your strategies going forward. More than just the numbers, you receive strong insights into how customer behaviour on your site. When implemented effectively, this information gives you a significant advantage over competitors in your industry.
