Last Updated: November 24, 2022

Following are some best practices for creating a report in Google Data Studio:

#1 Understand who your report is meant for

Before you create and send any report always ask yourself the following three questions:

• Why I am reporting, what I am reporting? I am reporting because …..
• How does this affect the recipient(s)? I am presenting this report to the board of directors because ……
• What actions recipient(s) should take on the basis of this report? I am presenting this report so that he takes this action ………

For example, when you choose to report ‘bounce rate’ to a CEO, what actions do you want him to take?

• Do you want him to optimize the marketing campaigns and reduce the bounce rate?
• Do you want him to fire the marketing manager because he is responsible for bringing crappy traffic to the website?

If you can’t think of any action that the CEO should take on the basis of the bounce rate then why you are reporting him the bounce rate?

As we move up in an organization hierarchy (esp. in big companies) we tend not to bug senior management with minute details.

Minute details are for the managers (because they have to manage the campaigns) or for the colleagues (because they are directly working on optimizing the campaigns).

So we should avoid presenting tactical dashboards (like copy-paste versions of Google Analytics screenshots) to senior management and present them only business bottom line impacting insight, possibly in a few lines of plain English.

My step-by-step blueprint for using Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio)

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#2 Keep it short and simple

I can’t put enough stress on the importance of simplicity. If your reports are not easy to understand then they won’t have any impact. It is as simple as that.

Stay away from using industry jargon and ambiguous words as much as possible.

If you can’t avoid using a technical term then explain it first each time you use it. Do not assume people already know about it because you trained them once.

It took me several days before I could successfully retain the definition of a bounce rate in my memory when I first started to play with web analytics.

So these technical terms are not as easy to remember as you may think esp. for the people who know little to nothing about web analytics.

Present less fluff and more substance. If your reports are ten pages long then no one is going to read them let alone take any action.

#3 Use a report template whenever you can to create a new report

If you create a new report from scratch then you would need to spend a lot of time creating the layout and format of your report.

You would need to spend a lot of time creating and bringing individual report components (like tables, scorecards, charts, etc) together in a way that is visually appealing and at the same time make your report meaningful and easy to understand.

However, if you use a report template, then you just need to do two things (most of the time):

1. Change the data source
2. Do some minor cosmetic changes to the report (like change the name of the report, add your company logo, etc).

#4 Avoid pulling data directly from a data platform into your reports

A rookie mistake that most Data Studio users make is pulling data directly from a data platform into Data Studio and then trying to manipulate it there.

Wasting time and money on buying and using Looker studio connectors.

Looker Studio is not meant for data manipulation. It is not a spreadsheet or data warehouse.

It is especially true for large data sets.

Manipulating data in a spreadsheet (like Google Sheets) or data warehouse (like BigQuery) is much easier than manipulating data in Looker Studio.

When you choose to manipulate data in Looker Studio, you make it unnecessarily hard to use.

That is why we first pull the data from a data platform into a spreadsheet or data warehouse and manipulate the data there, and only after that use that data in Looker Studio.

I pull data from Google Analytics, Facebook ads, Google Ads etc., into Google Sheets. Then manipulate the data before sending it to Looker studio.

I may use BigQuery. But most of the time, Google Sheets works just fine.

I do not buy and use ‘N’ connectors to pull data from ‘N’ data platforms.

I don’t need to worry about whether a data platform specific connector is available or working correctly.

I am already a long-time user of Zapier, which is like a swiss army knife for connectors.

Zapier provides 5k+ integrations. So I would unlikely ever need to buy a connector.

#5 Avoid charting data for the current day in your reports

By default, Google Data Studio uses UTC standard time. 

If your data set doesn’t use UTC, you may see discrepancies when charting data for the current day (due to differences between UTC and your timezone).

Such discrepancies increase significantly when you live farthest from London (like in Australia, New Zealand, etc.) where the time difference between UTC and your timezone is pretty big.

So if you live in Australia and you pull the data for the current day (from the data set which uses a different timezone say ‘UTC’) in Data Studio, it may not show you any data for ‘today’. 

Moreover, I don’t see any real benefit of analyzing an incomplete data set. So avoid charting data for the current day in Data Studio.

#6 Avoid using functions and calculated fields in your reports

I don’t use Looker studio functions and calculated fields.

Using functions in calculated fields can greatly increase the load time of your reports in the Looker Studio.

Even using calculated fields can greatly increase the load time of your Looker Studio reports.

I don’t do data blending in Looker studio.

If I want to blend data, it would either be in Google Sheets or BigQuery.

If you want to manipulate data, do it in Google Sheets or BigQuery. Do not use Looker studio for that purpose.

#7 Distribute related charts across multiple pages

By default, a Google Data Studio report is made up of only one page. But you can add multiple pages to a Data Studio report. Additional pages provide a mechanism to reduce the complexity of any given page. 

It could be tempting to add all of your charts and other components onto one page. 

However, spreading out your report across multiple pages helps in minimizing the complexity of any given page. It makes your report much easier to consume. 

#8 Using Connectors

Data Studio reports allow you to connect to multiple data sources and collect and combine data in a single report. This way you can analyze your marketing activities across various platforms and channels.

This is done by using Data Studio connectors that provide a mechanism to pull data from the specific data platform

There are 21 Google connectors and 487 partner connectors. You can also create your own connector if you want

You can easily connect to various data platforms by simply providing the necessary connection parameters and credentials.

#9 Adding date range to reports

Adding a date range control to your reports gives the report viewers more accessibility as they can select the date range for which they wanted to view the performance.

You can add date range control to your report by following the steps below.

Step-1: In the Data Studio report toolbar, click on ‘Add control’.

Step-2: Select the date range control and place on the reporting canvass.

#10 Adding data controls to reports

Data control play a very important role in Data Studio if you have similar reporting features spread across different accounts. For example, you can have a single Data Studio report for multiple websites that uses Google Analytics or Google Ads. A data control gives your report viewers freedom to check the performance of various data sources

You can add date range control to your report by following the steps below.

Step-1: In the Data Studio report toolbar, click on ‘Add control’.

Step-2: Select the data range control and place it on the reporting canvass.

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