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Google Data Studio is a visual communication tool that you can use. Google Data Studio can present visualizations of various data sources in one screen which we often refer to as a dashboard. The ultimate goal of using Google Data Studio is to become a communicator of the data presented.
One of the reasons for choosing Google Data Studio is its ability to accommodate several data sources, especially those available in Google. You can use almost any data available in Google such as Google Analytics, AdWords, Search Console, Big Query and many more. Google Data Studio can be said to be easy to learn and implement for visualization.
What is Google Data Studio?
Google Data Studio is a free tool to use. The only way to incur a fee is if there are costs associated with accessing your data sources. For example, BigQuery charges a fee for multiple requests. for this session it will not happen.
To get started, all you need is a Google Account that you already have. In this tutorial, we will use data sources provided by Google Data Studio.
Note that you may have to accept some terms and conditions before making your first report. For some reason, this process can be a bit cumbersome. If at first you don't succeed, refresh your account and start it again.
Data Studio is a part of Google Drive - like Docs, Sheets, or Slides. Google Data Studio looks similar to docs google. The following view lists Data Studio documents only. You should be doing the organizing in Google Drive as opposed to Data Studio itself.
One difference to note is that instead of a single document type, Data Studio has two. There are Reports and Data Sources. In this tutorial, we will manipulate reports, and use the sample data sources provided by default.
Make First Report Using Google Data Studio
Make sure you view the Reports section as opposed to the Data Sources section. You should see Reports by default. Click the familiar “+” button in the lower right corner to make the ball roll! If everything goes according to plan, you should have a blank canvas.
Connecting Google Data Source
Before you can add any graphs to your report sheet, Google Data Studio needs to know where the data is located. Fortunately, Data Studio comes with several sample data sources to help you get started with the visualization. Each has a name starting with "[Sample]". For now, select "[Sample] Google Analytics Data"
Let's Get our Hand Dirty
We will create a simple chart using the sample data set found on the Google Store Website by month page and will compare it with the following year in the same month. will appear as follows:
Time Series Chart
Time Series is a form of data with time series. Its main characteristic lies on the x-axis which is the unit of time. In Google Data Studio, a chart is not only defined by how it looks. In fact, there are several ways to create something that looks like a column chart.
Google Data Studio selects a few defaults that make sense to you (mapping Sessions by Date). Next, we'll look at how to adjust these options so you don't get stuck with the default appearance.
Dimensions and metrics
The dimensions and metrics in Data Studio are conceptually the same as the dimensions and metrics in Google Analytics. If you use Google Analytics as the data source, the same dimensions and metrics will be available to you in Data Studio.
Metrics are numbers, and dimensions allow you to slice and cut those numbers in different ways. Pageviews and Session are both metrics. The Default Channel Landing Pages and Pages and Groupings are dimensions.
One of the advantages about Data Studio is that it also accommodates interactivity. Let's say you present this chart to the board of directors, who are interested not only in the trends in the overall session but also in the channel from which the sessions started. we can create a different chart for each channel - and in some cases, that might be a suitable visualization.
Interactivity
This pictograph (like an inverted pyramid) represents the filter control. just like a chart or text box, you can put it anywhere as you wish. And, like any other component, you can configure user filtered dimensions and metrics. Note that filters do filter on dimensions, not metrics - metrics are just an aesthetic option.