Google Data Studio Basics

This article covers my fifth- week review of studying Digital Analytics Minidegree at CXL Institute. What is CXL Institute?

CXL Institute is a paid training program institute and it provides mini degrees and online certification courses in marketing. All the programs at CXL Institute are taught by industry leaders and top marketers which makes this perform the best place for team marketing.

CXL Institute providing Minidegrees in 5 scopes of Digital Marketing and they are:

1. Conversion Optimization
2. Customer Acquisition
3. Digital Analytics
4. Digital Psychology and Persuasion
5. Growth Marketing

CXL Institute currently has 48 online courses divided into CRO & UX, Analytics, and Marketing. In this article and my upcoming articles, I`ll be focusing on one segment that I am currently learning and that is Google Data Studio ( namely building charts, using color, dates, filters, controls, and segments, calculated fields, blends and etc). And I'm using these features when I have to make a report for my clients.

What is Google Data Studio and how to use it?

For most digital marketers Analytics has always been a challenge. It can be frustrating, daunting, and, quite frankly, difficult to understand and interpret for ordinary people. In other cases, marketers don't even send back metrics from their consumers because they're just not sure where to start–partially due to knowledge complexity and data that's hard to grasp. To make it worse, there was really no convenient way to give their local SMB clients a summary that was easy to read and understand how their platform or campaigns were doing. If you are like most companies that offer analytics reports to customers, this usually means downloading data from Google Analytics laboriously and placing it into Excel spreadsheets to build charts from there.

Google now allows you to create reports that even your clients will understand — thanks to Google Data Studio.

What is Google Data Studio?

Google Data Studio (in beta) provides you with everything you need to transform your client's analytics data into information-friendly, easy-to-understand data visualization reports. Reports are easy to read, easy to share, and can even be personalized to each customer. You can pick how you want the data to be viewed — bar graphs, maps, line graphs, etc.

One interesting thing about Data Studio is that you can bring in more than just data from Google Analytics–you can also import data from Facebook, as long as you put the information into a Google File. (That's correct. Any reporting details you have on your Google Sheet can be downloaded from Google Data Studio — and your beautiful reports!) If you can upload your data to Google Sheets, it may appear on your Google Sheet.

Even the reports are interactive, and when there is an update to the source of the data, the updated / new information will automatically appear on any reports that reference the source. In addition, the reports are shareable, so you can allow people to access the reports and/or allow them to make adjustments.

Google Data Studio uses the same tools like Google Docs and Google Sheets, and all you need to do is click the Sharing button to let your customers or other team members view or edit the files.

How to get into Google Data Studio

To access Google Data Studio, visit https:/www.google.com/analytics/data-studio, and sign in using the login information provided by Google Analytics. If you are using the free edition of Google Analytics right now, you'll get a restricted edition of Data Studio.

When you log-in first. You'll see some sample reports that will give you a clear understanding of how the reports look and feel, and what types of details you can bring into your custom reports once you get started. Go through each of these sample reports so that you can see all of the choices.

Google also provides you with a YouTube video that you can watch to get a quick overview of the tool, and it gives you a walk-through on how to connect your data sources and create your first report.

You can see Reports and Data Sources at the upper left corner of your homepage. Reports let you create visualizations of reports and data. Data Sources are reusable components that link a report to your data, such as Google Analytics, Google Sheets, Google AdWords, etc.

How to Use Google Data Studio

Step 1: Connect to your data sources. There are 17 Native Data Connectors available. Data Studio allows you to connect to a growing number of data sources.

Step 2: Visualize your data. Now it's time to fill up your canvas with beautiful charts that tell the story you want your audience to share. You can also work on a project together! Many of you will know about this option already in Google Docs or Google Sheets.

Step 3: Share your project. The last step is to share your beautiful charts and visualizations with your colleagues or clients.

Let's talk about some tips.

Tip 1. Duplicate your page

There are two easy ways to add several pages to your report or dashboard in Data Studio: 1.Add a new page 2.Duplicate your page

Tip 2: Name Your Pages

On default, your page gets the name page 1, page 2, or copy of page 1, etc. Since you have the option of renaming your pages, I highly suggest that you do so. It is an extra indicator of what's actually in your report or dashboard on a specific website.

Here's a shorter example:

Tip 3: Add Filter Controls

Another great, must-use feature in Google Data Studio is the filter control.

There are four types of filters in Google Data Studio:

1.Report-Level

2. Filter Control

3. Widget/(chart)- level Filters

4.Segments (GA)

Report-Level Filters 

Example use cases:

● Organic Search report

● Mobile-only reporting

● Specific subdomain/website

● Exclude an OS, e.g. Linux or Blackberry

Widget-Level Filters

Created by report admin/editor: 

Segments

In GA, you can also apply a segment:

● Synced or not

● Must create a segment in GA

● Once you create it in GA, it automagically appears in Data Studio (if in doubt, hard refresh)  

Filter Controls

Two types:

1. Drop-down Filter Control

2. Interactive Charts

Adds a drop-down so that report users can filter the data

Put your filter controls in a commonplace on every report, to train your users on where to find them. 

If you’re the type of person who likes working with spreadsheets, you might not think that Data Studio is a big deal. But for the huge number of us who hate spreadsheets, this is a godsend. (Finally! You can take a look at your analytics data — and it makes sense.)

Now, when you’re talking to your local clients, you can easily show them the results of your efforts in an easy-to-understand, brandable report! By sharing these reports with your clients, they will be able to see how your digital marketing efforts are paying off — which is definitely good for your business.