Create Executive Level Reports with Google Data Studio

By RafterOne
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Google Data Studio is a powerful cloud based application for reporting and visualizing data from a variety of data sources. It makes it easy to create interactive, visually appealing dashboards in just a few clicks. With Data Studio, you can easily monitor your website performance and make informed decisions about your marketing and business strategies.

But what can it do for you that your newly adopted and celebrated Google Analytics 4 (GA4) cannot? The customization reporting dashboard within GA4 is certainly more user friendly and dynamic compared to its predecessor Universal Analytics and meets many users’ comprehensive and visual reporting needs.

Google Data Studio takes things to the next level by allowing you to create reports and customized dashboards with a higher level of aesthetic design in a fraction of the time. Combine the two analytics powerhouses and you’ve got a home run in the data game. By utilizing the connection of your GA4 account to Data Studio, you’ll create better visualization, more comprehensive executive level reports and deeper analysis.

Let’s explore the unique capabilities of Data Studio and the benefits of integrating GA4 and Data Studio.

Unique Google Data Studio Capabilities

Data Studio allows you to organize, visualize, and explore your data above and beyond what’s available in Google Analytics 4. This makes Data Studio a more powerful and versatile tool for data visualization than GA4. And, with its user-friendly nature, its proven a great tool for users who do not have a lot of experience navigating GA4.

Data Source and Selection

Data Studio supports users to link various data sources such as Google Analytics 4, Google BigQuery, Google Ads, Youtube and more. One data source, that GA4 does not offer, is Google Sheets. Users can input data from Google Sheets to Data Studio with ease. For example, a user with a set of goals outlined within a Google Sheets document can import them directly into Data Studio. Those goals can then be compared to the data coming in from GA4 for benchmarking purposes.

When it comes to data selection, Data Studio allows users to pick and choose which types of metrics they want to view within a report or dashboard, making it easier to create visuals that are tailored to your specific needs, goals, and audiences.

Visualizations

Speaking of great selection, Google Data Studio offers a wider range of visualization options for users to explore than GA4. From simple bar, line, and pie charts to complex geo-location maps, users can create visualizations that best represent their data.

  • The Geo-Location Map, for example, allows users to view data on a map, allowing them to see how their data is being captured geographically.
  • With the Bubble Chart, users can compare multiple variables at once and determine correlations between them.
  • The Area Chart is great for tracking time-series data and seeing trends over time, while the Pivot Table allows users to quickly summarize large amounts of data.
  • One of the most popular types of Data Studio visualizations is the Bar Chart. Bar charts are helpful for comparing values across different categories, such as sales volume by region or product type. They are also useful for visualizing changes over time, such as total sales, average sales per customer, or customer retention rate.
  • Line Graphs are also prominent in Data Studio visualizations. This type of chart is ideal for displaying trends over time. For example, you can use a line graph to show total sales for a given period or compare sales between different regions or products.
  • Pie Charts are another type of visualization that are frequently used in Data Studio. Pie charts provide a way to easily compare the proportions of different categories in your data. For instance, you can use a pie chart to show the percentage of sales volume by product type or the number of customers by region.

Report Types

Google Data Studio offers dynamic report type options that will specifically display the data insights you most care about and tell stories about your business that can help drive future success.

For example, you can use Sales Reports to understand sales related key performance indicators (KPI) like revenue, average revenue per customer, profit, and return on investment (ROI). Or utilize Marketing Reports to look at more in-depth metrics like CLTV, CAC, and ASP. Customer Reports can be used to analyze performance unique to your customer base and look at things like customer retention, churn, and customer satisfaction. Traffic Reports allow you to understand website engagement such as traffic sources, page views, and visitor behavior, while Conversion Reports give visibility into conversion rates, bounce rates, and average visit duration. 

Personalized Dashboards

Dashboards are especially useful for quickly summarizing data from multiple sources with a collection of visualizations. Data Studio lets you create from-scratch or template-based dashboards that display a variety of different charts, reports, and visualizations on a single page. This allows users to see top level, executive metrics all in one place without having to navigate to different pages or reports. Dashboards allow a snapshot view for users to quickly analyze data across different metrics and variables. Data Studio reports and dashboards can be customized by theme and layout to give you a more personalized look and feel.

Automation

One of the most significant benefits of using Google Data Studio is that it offers seamless automated reporting. With this coveted, time saving feature, you can set up and save reports or dashboards that will pull in data automatically. Once you have a dashboard setup that will provide ongoing value, you can simply change the date range to auto-populate the metrics for that timeframe. No need reinvent the wheel month to month.

Rev Up Your Executive Level Reporting

While GA4 is an incredible analytics tool, it’s not as robust as Data Studio when it comes to visual reporting. Businesses across every vertical can easily unlock the analytics insights to make strategic decisions utilizing any type of data. It offers a wide range of attractive display and analysis options using visualizations, automated reporting, and a drag-and-drop interface, pulling all the metrics you need from all the sources you have.

Interested in learning how you can make the most of your data? The experts on our Digital Experience team are here to help. Let’s connect.