How to use Google Looker Studio

You may have heard of Google Looker Studio. It’s a fantastic tool for creating interactive dashboards and highly visual reports in the most detailed and specific way possible.

Think of it as a shorthand for showcasing the ultimate in relevant PPC campaign statistics to your clients and coworkers. (Did we mention it’s free?)

Ready to elevate your PPC campaign management? Read on to discover all that Google Looker Studio has to offer:

• What is Google Looker Studio?
• What are the benefits?
• What are the cons?
• Tips for making the best of it 

What is Google Looker Studio?

In a nutshell, Looker Studio is a powerful, upgraded version of the old Google Analytics dashboard. It’s where you can create reports and interactive dashboards with specific metrics for advanced analytics at speed. 

One of the most useful features of this tool is the ability to take data from multiple sources. You’ve also got seamless sharing options for clients and coworkers alike. Speeding up the efficiency, professionalism and polish of your workflow.

Looker Studio uses SQL for data modelling and provides a user-friendly interface for data exploration and visualisation. So you can basically pick it up and run with it. No intensive training required.

What are the benefits?

Let’s dig down into more of the benefits and features of this powerful tool.

Seamless integration
You can quickly connect your Looker Studio with over 920 connectors. This includes key connectors in the Google Cloud Platform such as Google Analytics, Google Ads and BigQuery. But also includes advanced non-Google related connectors like Facebook Ads, Shopify Customer Events and PayPal.

This enables real-time data analysis from an unprecedented number of sources, that you’d otherwise have to log into multiple accounts to access. Once you have this data, you can pull in metrics from different sources side by side, giving clarity to your data like never before.

Advanced analytics
Looker Studio includes some really top of the range analytics tools, including predictive modelling and machine learning integration. This takes your data to the next level. Consider how overwhelming it can be to sift through every single data point in your latest campaign. You need overviews, with only the metrics that you want to see.

This is where Looker Studio is particularly useful. Pair your specific metrics and data with its predictive modelling and see what you can discover.

Customisable
Consider how overwhelming it would be to sift through every single data point in your latest campaign. You need overviews, with only the metrics that you want to see.

Looker Studio includes customizable dashboards and reports with interactive elements, such as filters and drill-downs, which all help enhance data visualisation and your understanding of your data.

Eliminate the wasted time and focus on only the most important metrics. Your campaign management will be more efficient, and your clients will instantly be able to see the results of your hard work.

Collaborative
This tool is totally collaborative, allowing teams to work together on data analysis projects and share insights easily. You have full control over who can view your report and what they are able to do with it. For example, you could share the report with a client with View permissions, and share it with Edit permissions with the rest of your team.

LookML
Looker Studio has its own modelling language called LookML. It provides flexibility and scalability for data modelling and reporting.

It’s a simplified way to write SQL queries, meaning marketers can write specific data modelling queries without an extensive knowledge of SQL. You can also reuse modules written in LookML in multiple queries.

What are the cons?

No PPC tool is entirely perfect, so it’s worth considering the limitations of Looker Studio.

Time-consuming
It may be speedy to use once you know how, but it will take time to learn how to get the best out of this precise platform. There is a steeper learning curve compared to other data visualisation tools, especially for beginners without SQL knowledge, if you’re looking to dive into LookML’s features.

Support 
The online space is dominated with plenty of articles designed to help you out with any Looker Studio issues. There are also some web-chat style support options available. But ultimately it can be tricky to get answers if you have a specific issue that hasn’t already been detailed in any existing articles or blog posts.

Tips for making the best of it

Let’s finish up with some tips and tricks to getting the most out of Looker Studio.

Become an expert
It’s worth picking up a new skill, and learning how to write queries In LookML and SQL to maximise the platform’s capabilities. This is taking Looker Studio to an even more precise and powerful level.

Head to the source
Google already has a lot of documentation written by their experts on everything to do with Looker Studio, so head straight to the source for the most direct and efficient resources. This is also the best place to go for the most up to date explanations and lessons on brand new features and updates.

Connect
Leverage integrations with other Google Cloud services, such as BigQuery and Google Sheets, for seamless data connectivity. It’s worth experimenting with over time, as you may find that certain connectors are more useful for different clients.

Keep updated
Google Looker, like any platform, has updates from time to time. Take a moment to stay one step ahead and learn the specifics of these updates. This keeps your management style relevant and looks great to clients too.

Google Looker Studio is a powerful data visualisation and analytics platform that offers speedy integration with the Google Cloud Platform and advanced analytics capabilities. If used to its full potential, it can unlock useful data collection and analysis opportunities for your data sets, taking your campaign management to the next level.

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