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In this tutorial for beginners, we take a look at the Looker Studio (Formerly Google Data Studio) – one of the most popular services for visualizing data – and show you step-by-step how to use it to build informative, understandable, and more importantly, actionable reports based on data from various sources, including sales revenue.
Please note, that Looker Studio (previously Google Data Studio) is different from another software tool called Looker. Here is a detailed and complete comparison of Lookers by Google.
Note:* This post was originally published in August 2020 as the Google Data Studio tutorial and was completely updated in April 2025 for accuracy and comprehensiveness on marketing analytics.*
Google Data Studio, originally launched in 2016, became a popular tool for marketers and analysts to visualize and share data. In 2022, Google rebranded it as Looker Studio after acquiring Looker in 2020. This change aimed to unify Google’s business intelligence offerings under a single brand.
Despite the new name and logo, the core functionality remains intact free, cloud-based dashboard and report creation. For advanced needs, Google also introduced Looker Studio Pro, a paid version designed for enterprise-level users. Looker Studio Pro includes Google Cloud support, enhancing department-level business intelligence and system administration.
Looker Studio Pro adds enhanced enterprise capabilities for $9 per user per project per month. Additionally, Looker Studio Pro offers technical support for large teams with multiple users, ensuring smooth collaboration and troubleshooting.
Let’s begin with an overview of Looker Studio. It’s an ideal tool for beginners looking to create dynamic and interactive reports. Looker Studio enables you to import data from various platforms, including Google services like Google Ads, BigQuery, Google Analytics 4, Google Sheets, and YouTube Analytics, along with non-Google tools.
This platform allows you to visualize your data using charts like bar charts, tables, and diagrams and to track key performance indicators (KPIs) or other metrics in real-time. Additionally, looker studio functions as a powerful data visualization tool that enables users to create customized performance reports and visual dashboards, syncing data from various sources to make analysis and presentation easier.
To connect various data sources to Looker Studio, you can use the ‘add data’ option in the toolbar. Creating reports within Looker Studio is intuitive, similar to early learning experiences with drawing software, where you familiarize yourself with various tools and settings.
Even the free version provides the ability to share reports with colleagues, shareholders or clients. You’re also in the driver’s seat - managing the access rights, giving the editing permissions. In addition, you can use pre built report templates or make a template of a report so that others can copy and apply their data to your ready-made visuals.
Looker Studio( formerly Google Data Studio) is an excellent service that allows you to visualize data** and get fresh, automatically updated reports**, avoiding the limitations of the number of widgets in Google Analytics 4 Dashboards.
Here are some of the other core benefits:
However, Looker Studio is mostly a data visualization tool, which is why you should first collect data using third-party tools to get reports based on non-Google data sources.
Also, the data blending capabilities are too limited, so you’d likely use and external tool for data preparation.
While Looker Studio and Google Sheets both serve as powerful tools for data handling and analysis, they are designed for different purposes and use cases. Looker Studio should not be seen as a direct replacement for Google Sheets. If Google Sheets meets your needs, there might be no reason to switch to Looker Studio.
Below is a comparison of the key differences between Looker Studio and Google Sheets:
In summary, Looker Studio is the better choice if your needs revolve around creating visually rich, interactive reports.
However, Google Sheets remains an excellent tool for day-to-day data entry, simple calculations, and basic analysis.
Getting started with Looker Studio(formerly Google Data Studio) is easy and straightforward. To begin, users need to sign in with their Google account and navigate to the Looker Studio homepage.
From there, they can create a new report or dashboard. Looker Studio offers a variety of report templates and pre-built dashboards to help users get started quickly. Users can also connect to almost all the data sources, such as Google Analytics or Google Sheets, and start visualizing their data in just a few clicks.
The Looker Studio interface is intuitive and user-friendly. The main components of the interface include the report editor, data panel, and properties panel. This is where users can add data, create and edit their reports, while the data panel allows them to connect to their data sources and manage their data.
The properties panel provides options for customizing the appearance and behavior of the report. Looker Studio also offers a range of tools and features, including data modeling, data control, and interactive dashboards, to help users create powerful and insightful reports.
To start using Looker Studio, log in using a Google account. You can create a free Gmail account if you don’t have one yet
Once logged in, navigate to the Looker Studio website at lookerstudio.google.com. This is your gateway to exploring Looker Studio.
Let’s explore the Looker Studio starting page and its primary navigation elements:
Left Menu: Offers quick access to create new reports, data sources, or explore features. It also allows you to view reports shared with you, manage your own reports, and access deleted reports in the trash.
Toolbar Menu: This menu includes options to view all your reports, manage your data sources, and explore charts and data without changing existing reports. The data panel helps in managing and organizing various data types such as dimensions and metrics, allowing users to customize charts effectively.
Search Bar: Positioned at the top, it enables you to quickly find reports by searching for their names.
Template Gallery: This panel provides a starting point for new dashboards, offering a choice between starting from scratch or using pre-made templates. Selecting Looker Studio templates is a foundational step when starting to use Looker Studio, as it highlights options for customization to cater to specific reporting styles and audiences. More templates can be found by clicking ‘Template Gallery” at the top-right corner of this section. The theme and layout panel offers customization options with Theme and Layout tabs to enhance the aesthetic and optimize the appearance of your reports.
Report List: Located below the Template Gallery, this area displays your reports and allows sorting by name, owner, or last opened date, helping you organize and access your work efficiently.
Before you dive into report creation, you need to set up a source of data that you will use in the report. Understanding the distinction between your original data and what Looker Studio uses is key:
Looker Studio has evolved significantly in terms of data sources. Initially, it supported only a limited number of Google-based data connectors. However, it now boasts an extensive range of over 1,000 partner connectors, many of which are paid services.
These partner connectors allow users to integrate all the data from both Google and non-Google applications and sources, including popular platforms like LinkedIn and PayPal. This expansion has made it easier for users to manage and report on diverse datasets effectively.
In the context of Looker Studio, a data source is a repository or location from which Looker Studio retrieves your data. This repository could be a database management system, a set of spreadsheets, a cloud-based data storage system, or any other system that stores and manages data. Users are required to grant access to data sources to establish connections and sync data effectively.
The structure and system of these data sources can vary, but their goal remains consistent: to house data that Looker Studio can analyze.“A data source in Looker Studio is the foundational rock of data analysis. It’s like the library that stocks the books (data) you need for your research (analysis). Looker Studio supports over 800 data sources, including third-party services like Facebook and LinkedIn Ads.
Looker Studio's is flexible when working with multiple data sources. So it's easy to visualize from multiple sources on separate charts, tables or reports. This functionality proves valuable in collaborative projects, enabling diverse team members to access different data sources within the same report, or just within the same Looker Studio account.
Additionally, data control plays a crucial role in managing how data is filtered and displayed in dashboards, enhancing the customization and usability of reports.
However, the data blending capabilities are pretty low. That is why preparing your datasets carefully before you connect them to Looker Studio is important. Specifically, you need to ensure that your datasets are correctly formatted, cleaned, and structured to display data in reports and widgets effectively. This pre-processing shields against inaccurate data representations, which could lead to misguided decision-making.
Initially, Looker Studio supported only a handful of Google-based data sources. However, the platform has significantly evolved. Now, you can use third-party connectors to access a wide range of non-Google services like LinkedIn, PayPal, Facebook, Twitter, HubSpot, and more through third-party connectors. It’s important to note that most of these third-party connectors are not free. Additionally, using your own data when customizing templates in Looker Studio allows for personalized reports that cater to specific audience needs.
In summary, Looker Studio’s ability to integrate with diverse data sources and connectors makes it a great tool for creating detailed and dynamic reports, catering to various data visualization needs.
To link your data source to Looker Studio, you need a data connector. This connector acts as a bridge between a source and a Looker Studio so you can access and use your data. Looker Studio supports an extensive range of over 1,000 partner connectors available for data synchronization.
Data connector as a bridge. It connects Looker Studio to all of the data available from the data sources enabling smooth, automatically updated data flow.
The best part is that setting up a connectors in Looker Studio is as easy as pie. But more on that later.
Once a connector to a data source is established, you can add a dataset. The report canvas serves as the initial workspace for creating reports after connecting a data source.
A dataset is a collection of related data points. It’s a table, or multiple tables, filled with rows and columns of data that have some shared characteristics or themes.
The quality and organization of your dataset significantly influence the accuracy of your analysis. By working with a well-structured dataset, you can:
The data source keeps the connection credentials and tracks all the datasets involved in that connection.
In Looker Studio, there is a foundation of utilizing two fundamental components: metrics and dimensions. These elements are essential for building the elements for actually transforming raw data into insightful visualizations. It is important to set dimensions and metrics in the setup tab to ensure that the data displayed is accurate and aligns with the user's intent.
Here’s a breakdown of what metrics and dimensions represent in Looker Studio:
Metrics are numerical values used to measure or quantify data. They are derived by applying aggregation functions like COUNT(), SUM(), AVG(), etc., either explicitly or implicitly, to your dataset. Metrics provide quantitative insights into your data and are typically represented as numbers. Examples of metrics include counts, sums, percentages, durations, and currency values.
Dimensions, however, encompass the attributes or characteristics that describe and categorize your data. They provide context to your metrics by offering names, descriptions, or other identifying features of the data you’re measuring or counting. Dimensions are used to group and categorize your data in charts and reports. Examples of dimensions include categories like Country, Age, Product ID, Date, or Campaign Name.
In simpler terms, dimensions help organize your data into meaningful groups or categories, while metrics provide the numerical values that quantify aspects of those categories.
Together, metrics and dimensions enable you to create informative and visually appealing dashboards in Looker Studio by effectively summarizing and presenting your data.
Here is a step by step guide looker studio tutorial on how you can create Looker Studio reports. It is important to plan and structure your data before starting to create a report in Looker Studio.
To begin your report creation process, first, ensure you're in view mode, then start by navigating to the Looker Studio home page.
When connecting a data source, it is crucial to consider data security by controlling access levels to ensure that only authorized individuals can view or edit reports.
3. Next, give the necessary Google BigQuery permissions to access your data.
4. Select the desired account, project and a dataset.
5. In the top right corner, select the "Connect" button. This will automatically import all the information into Looker Studio.
Use the same procedure, to connect the other data sources.
Once you've connected to BigQuery, it's time to start creating reports in Looker Studio. To initiate a new report, click the Create Blank Report button and choose from built-in templates or start from a blank report to customize your reporting experience.
Looker Studio provides different visual elements like charts, graphs, diagrams:
All visual elements are divided into three groups:
To use these visual elements, you need to:1. Click the "Create Blank Report" button to access the untitled report page and start exploring your analytical ideas.
2. Add a visual element. Just indicate which element you want to add and select the area in which you want to add it.
For example, say you've selected a pie chart. Here's what you can do with it:
The first bullet point is intuitive, but the second needs a little explaining. Here's the list of elements you can work with:
Once you've completed all the steps and fine-tuned the settings, you'll have a visual dashboard ready. Below is an example of what such a dashboard might look like:
Your report is ready, you’re satisfied with the outcome, and now it’s time to gather feedback from your colleagues. Go ahead and share it with your team.
There are two ways to do this:
1. In the File menu, choose Share.
2. In the upper right corner, click the Share button.
Choose whichever method you prefer. Then add the emails of your colleagues, click Share and the report link is already in their inboxes. You can also schedule report deliver to the emails of the stakeholders or your clients, or allow them to download report copies for offline access.
Looker Studio offers a range of controls and interactive features to help users create engaging and dynamic reports. These include date range controls, drop-down lists, and filters, which allow users to interact with their data and drill down into specific details.
Looker Studio also supports multiple pages and report templates, making it easy to create complex and customized reports. Additionally, users can schedule email delivery of their reports, making it easy to share insights with stakeholders and team members.
Designing a report in Looker Studio is easy and flexible. Users can choose from a variety of report templates and pre-built dashboards, or create their own custom reports from scratch. Looker Studio offers a range of visualization options, including bar charts, pie charts, and geo charts, to help users display their data in a clear and meaningful way.
Users can also customize the appearance and behavior of their reports using the properties panel, and add interactive elements such as filters using the date range for date range controls to make their reports more engaging and dynamic.
Our short Looker Studio tutorial for beginners starts with these 3 simple steps above. But earlier, we’ve mentioned that Looker Studio has very limited data blending capabilities, so understanding report structure is crucial for effective visualization .
That is why, it’s important to note, that if you want to visualize from multiple sources:
Integrating marketing data from various sources is crucial for comprehensive analysis and effective reporting.
You need to prepare data for your reporting in Looker Studio in advance.
The easiest way to do so is to prepare data for your report in a cloud data warehouse, for example in Google BigQuery in 3 simple steps.
To collect all information from different services automatically and get rid of busy work, use OWOX BI Pipeline. At least you'll need to import Cost data from advertising services, collect website user behavior data with OWOX BI Streaming or setup native GA4 BigQuery export
NOTE: When directly connecting GA4 to Looker Studio, you can run into limitations of data sampling or quota limitations.
To configure cost data import to Google BigQuery with OWOX BI, everything you need is to provide access to advertising platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Bing/Microsoft Ads, Criteo), then provide access to your BigQuery project and all of the data are going to be automatically uploaded (and updated) every day.
In addition, you can use OWOX BI to collect information from CRM/ERP systems, call-tracking, or third-party applications to BigQuery so you'll have the opportunity to compare costs and revenue as well as track important metrics for your business.
Once you've collected all your figures in Google BigQuery, it's time to transform your data into intuitive smart reports.
The data from different data sources is siloed. BigQuery is a cloud-based data warehouse, perfect for storing raw data, however, it requires SQL knowledge to manipulate the data and blend. Looker Studio can transform raw data into analytics-ready data, enabling users to create customized performance reports and visual dashboards.
The good news is, that we’ve already prepared all of the necessary no-code SQL templates that you can apply without any changes in OWOX BI and get your advertising costs merged, GA4 events collected into sessions, attribute paid expenses to sessions, attribution models applied and so much more.
Once you’ve collected the data and transformed raw data into analytics-ready data, you can prepare your data for reporting - create a dataset with all the necessary information you need for a specific report (or a set of reports). Applying report-level controls and filters ensures consistent data interpretation across all charts and pages of a report.
For example, we’ve prepared a template for Google Looker Studio with over 50 reports in one for measuring and optimizing all of the main marketing metrics and KPIs.
When you sign up for a free trial of OWOX BI, you’ll get access to no-code transformation templates to not only do the basic data manipulations but also to get all of the reports datasets for Google Looker Studio prepared for you.
Use these advanced tips to streamline your workflow, improve report quality, and get more out of Looker Studio:
Google Looker Studio is a visualization service only. To automatically run more complex calculations and build dashboards based on them, you can use OWOX BI products.
For comprehensive guidance on creating dashboards, you can refer to a google looker studio tutorial.
Below are examples of reports built with OWOX BI.
Here you can see how user behavior differs depending on the product category and traffic source:
On the following screen, you’ll be able to see how conversions are distributed based on page type and traffic source. You can also customize the list of sources using a filter:
Want to see more examples? Go to our section with Google Looker Studio dashboard templates by OWOX BI.
If you have any questions concerning marketing problems you want to solve, book a demo, and our specialists will assist you with any questions or issues.
