Google Looker Studio for Data Analysts

Free, browser-based BI — connecting data sources, calculated fields, data blending, community visualisations, and sharing live reports.

LOOKER STUDIO BUILDING BLOCKS

Data Source
  └── Connects to: Google Sheets, BigQuery, GA4, Ads, CSV upload,
      MySQL/PostgreSQL (via Partner Connectors), 800+ third-party sources
  └── Defines field types (Dimension vs Metric) and calculated fields
  └── Can be shared across multiple reports (Reusable) or report-only

Report
  └── One or more Pages (like slides or tabs)
  └── Each page contains Components:
      ├── Charts (bar, line, pie, scatter, geo map, table, gauge…)
      ├── Scorecards (single KPI values)
      ├── Controls (date range picker, filter dropdowns, search box)
      ├── Text / Image / Shapes (static design elements)
      └── Embed (YouTube, Google Sheets, external URL)

Viewer Mode  →  read-only, can interact with filters/date controls
Edit Mode    →  full canvas editing, add/remove components

1. In a new report, click "Add data" → Google Sheets
2. Select your spreadsheet and sheet tab
3. Looker Studio auto-detects:
   - Text columns  → Dimension (blue)
   - Number columns → Metric (green)
   - Date columns  → Date dimension

IMPORTANT: Your Sheet should have headers in Row 1 with no merged cells.
If Looker Studio misidentifies a column type, click the field in the
Data Source editor and change the type manually.

Date format Looker Studio reads correctly:
  YYYY-MM-DD     → Date
  YYYYMMDD       → Date (set type to "Date" manually)
  DD/MM/YYYY     → may need type override — verify

1. Add data → BigQuery → select project → dataset → table
2. Looker Studio queries BigQuery live — no extract needed
3. For large tables, add a date range filter at report level to limit
   the data scanned (BigQuery bills per TB scanned)
4. Custom Query option: write your own SQL to pre-aggregate before display

-- Example custom BigQuery query for Looker Studio:
SELECT
  DATE_TRUNC(order_date, MONTH)  AS month,
  region,
  SUM(revenue)                   AS total_revenue,
  COUNT(DISTINCT customer_id)    AS unique_customers
FROM `project.dataset.orders`
WHERE order_date >= DATE_SUB(CURRENT_DATE(), INTERVAL 12 MONTH)
GROUP BY 1, 2

Add data → File Upload → upload CSV
→ Creates a static snapshot (does NOT auto-refresh)
→ Good for one-off reports or data that doesn't change
→ For live data, use Google Sheets instead and import the CSV there

// Profit margin
Revenue - Cost

// Margin %
(Revenue - Cost) / Revenue

// Classify sessions by bounce rate
CASE
  WHEN Bounce_Rate > 0.7 THEN "High Bounce"
  WHEN Bounce_Rate > 0.4 THEN "Medium"
  ELSE "Low Bounce"
END

// Flag orders above threshold
IF Revenue > 50000 THEN "Large Order" ELSE "Standard" END

// Safe division (avoid divide-by-zero)
IF Sessions = 0 THEN 0 ELSE Conversions / Sessions END

// Extract year from a date field
YEAR(Order_Date)

// Month name
FORMAT_DATETIME("%B", Order_Date)        -- "January", "February"...

// Quarter label
CONCAT("Q", QUARTER(Order_Date))         -- "Q1", "Q2"...

// Week number
WEEK(Order_Date)

// Days since order
DATE_DIFF(TODAY(), Order_Date)

// Clean and combine text
UPPER(TRIM(Region))
CONCAT(First_Name, " ", Last_Name)

// Extract domain from email
REGEXP_EXTRACT(Email, r'@(.+)')

// Running total — use a Table chart with these settings:
// Add Revenue as a metric → right-click → "Show cumulative values"

// Period-over-period % change — use date comparison:
// Report → Edit → Date range → Comparison date range → Previous period
// Looker Studio adds % change automatically to Scorecards and Tables

// Cohort-style: days since first event
DATE_DIFF(Event_Date, First_Visit_Date)

EXAMPLE: Blend Google Ads spend with revenue from Google Sheets

Primary source:   Google Ads (Campaign, Impressions, Clicks, Cost)
Secondary source: Google Sheets (Campaign, Revenue, Conversions)
Join key:         Campaign (must be the same values in both sources)

Result in one table:
  Campaign | Impressions | Clicks | Cost | Revenue | ROAS

HOW TO SET UP:
1. Add both data sources to your report
2. Click a chart → in the Data panel, find "Blend Data"
3. Choose primary source, add secondary, set the join key
4. Select metrics from each source — Looker Studio joins them automatically

LIMITATIONS:
- Only LEFT JOIN (no inner, right, or full outer)
- Join key must match exactly (case-sensitive — use LOWER() on both sides)
- Aggregation happens before the join — you cannot join row-level data
- Max 5 sources per blend

HOW TO ADD A COMMUNITY VISUALISATION:
Insert → Community visualizations and components
  → Browse gallery or paste component URL
  → Select data source and configure fields

NOTE: Community visualisations load from external servers.
For sensitive internal data, prefer built-in charts or self-hosted components.

Share → Manage access:

View access (recommended for stakeholders):
  → Anyone with the link can view — they see live data, can use controls,
    but cannot edit the report or see the data source configuration

Edit access (for your team only):
  → Allows adding/editing charts, changing data connections

Download / schedule email delivery:
  → Share → Schedule email delivery → pick recipients, frequency, format
  → Recipients get a PDF snapshot on a schedule (daily, weekly, monthly)
  → Good for automated weekly exec reports

Embed in a website:
  → File → Embed report → copy the <iframe> code
  → Paste into any website, Notion page, Confluence, or internal portal
  → Viewers do not need a Google account to view embedded reports
    (if "Anyone with the link" access is enabled)

AGENCY / FREELANCER PATTERN:

1. Build a template report connected to a "demo" Google Sheet
2. When a new client onboards:
   a. Make a copy of the report (File → Make a copy)
   b. Change the data source connection to the client's Sheet
      Resource → Manage added data sources → Edit → change Sheet
   c. Share the copy with the client

This approach lets you build polished templates once and deploy them in
minutes for each client. The Data Control widget takes this further:
add it to the report and clients can self-serve their own Sheet.