Google Data Studio has proven it is worth being the finest tool providing unparalleled features that the world of analytics was longing for. The extraordinary features like data connectors, interactive reports have enabled creating automated & engaging reports. With the customizable dashboards reporting has been bliss with the visually beautiful reports. Data Studio has provided a creative solution that turn your data into informational, easy-to-understand reports through visualization.
With the reports being easily pulled in effective visual charts & graphs, it helps to derive critical insights more easily than ever. Thus, providing more productive time for you to drive more meaningful and actionable insights. Since comparing data from different channels is possible with GDS, it allows to compare performance between different channels and provides flexibility to the reporting process.
You will now be spending less time handling data in spreadsheets and more time analyzing data to get actionable insights with this amazing tool.
Data studio has plenty of features that can take your reporting to next level, here are a few elements that you should know & can include in every report to enhance your reports.
Blending Data with Left Outer Join
Most of us have already used data studio using its basic features to automate reports by consolidating your different sources that are visually powerful dashboards. You will find a lot of information to blend data sources when you are creating reports that involve comparing and analyzing data from different channels, but sometimes the data isn’t same as in your source. Don't worry, there is an explanation for that as well!
You can use something as simple as 'Date' in Dimension to combine sources accurately. However, the process becomes a bit complex and confusing if you want to blend data sources and use a metric that's available in only one of the data sources. The source with the required additional metric should always in the left while blending. As the Google Data Studio's data blending feature only allows for blending through a Left Outer Join operation.
This necessarily means the resulting values will only include metrics and rows that appear in the left-most data source in the blend.
5 calculated field formulas for every report
Calculated fields are the same as any formulas you have used with excel. You can create custom formulas to create calculated fields, the formula will perform actions on other existing fields in the data source to create new virtual metrics/columns.
Creating new metrics
Create your own metrics by simply adding the formula for your metric into the calculated field. For example, to pull branded queries in report.
REGEXP_Match(Query,”.*brandname1.*| .*brandname2.*| .*brandname3.*”)
Case Statement
Classifying, comparing and analyzing data can be a tedious job that takes a lot of time, the 'Case statements' are the most efficient way to classify data and compare data for you. The below example groups the site data, that can be analyzed further for YoY/MoM comparisons.
CASE
WHEN CONTAINS_TEXT(Landing Page,"/home") THEN "Total Organic Visits - Home"
WHEN CONTAINS_TEXT(Landing Page,"/women") THEN "Total Organic Visits – Women"
WHEN CONTAINS_TEXT(Landing Page,"/products") THEN "Total Organic Visits -Product Pages"
WHEN CONTAINS_TEXT(Landing Page,"/blog") THEN "Total Organic Visits - Blog"
ELSE "Other"
END
Since the 'case statement' is created as a metric you'll be able to reuse the report as required.
Creating % Change Columns with Sorting/Filter Enable
Measuring change gives an understanding of the performance, the difference between the old and the new value when expressed in the percentage provides a clear understanding while comparing values over time. The Google Data Studio has included a simple to implement feature that calculates percent change over time.
Since it is an in-built feature there's a limitation with implementing sort to any column that's calculating the percentage change. However, you can always create a 'calculated filed' that does the same job for you and overcome the limitation with sort and filter.
(New Value – Old Value)/Old Value * select display value as percent
Removing Query Parameters
Suppose you have multiple parameterized URLs created for a page then you have a quick and ensured solution that can count for metric values without making changes to the actual data in the data source. The '//' double slash in Google Data Studio is an escape to this formula to remove? parameters:
REGEXP_REPLACE (Landing Page, '\\?.+',"")
Advanced Date Range
The advanced date range feature allows you to customize dates to create flexible rolling dates for your dashboard. The dates can be configured for the current date range you would want to set up in the dashboard and you can also set a comparison date. Both the current & comparison date will roll to automatically setup your dashboard for the next report.
For example, you can create date ranges such as "last 15 days from yesterday," or "last 20 weeks from last week" or compare the "current 30 days to the last 30 days, aligned by day of the week."
Once you see the options to select a start & end date in the advanced settings. You can customize the rolling dates as required.
Graphs & table view mode features
The ability of the data studio to create interactive & engaging reports adds more power to the tool with the visual representation of data.
The feature is simple to add and enhances the reports by just selecting the 'Apply Filter' checkbox in interactions. Checking this box allows the viewer of the report to click on the chart and apply that dimension as a filter to other charts on the page.
Interactions > Apply Filter
Device Types: Desktop | Mobile | Tablet
Device Types: Desktop
Device Types: Mobile
Interactions > Enable Sorting
Create interactive reports by enabling sort on your charts, drive meaningful insights by using sort by on any metrics added to the report.
Hopefully, these features will help you transform your customizable reports into beautiful dashboards and there are a lot of more interesting features the Google Data Studio provides to add in your reports. Discover the best options for your reports as you implement these features on your creative dashboards.
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