While GA4 offers a feature-rich admin interface, many users find the reports hard to navigate or wish they could quickly view just the metrics that matter. The solution is Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio), a free BI tool provided by Google.
With Looker Studio, you can visualize GA4 data with charts and tables and create auto-updating dashboards at no cost. This article walks you through connecting Google Data Studio (now Looker Studio) to GA4, building reports, and sharing them with your team.
Looker Studio is Google's free BI tool, previously known as Google Data Studio. It was rebranded in 2022. It connects to various data sources and lets you create visually appealing dashboard reports with charts and tables.
Anyone with a Google account can use it for free. Beyond GA4, it supports Google Search Console, Google Ads, YouTube, Google Sheets, BigQuery, and over 1,000 data sources including third-party connectors.
GA4's standard reports are primarily table-based, but Looker Studio lets you present data in bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, scorecards, and more. Creating intuitive reports makes them ideal for sharing with non-technical team members and executives.
Looker Studio reports automatically refresh when GA4 data updates. This eliminates weekly or monthly Excel report creation tasks, ensuring you always see the latest data. The time saved can be redirected to data analysis and strategy development.
GA4's Exploration reports are limited by data retention periods (maximum 14 months), but Looker Studio has no such restriction. This enables historical comparisons and long-term trend analysis, making it ideal as a monitoring dashboard.
You can combine GA4 with Google Search Console, Google Ads, and other data sources in a single report. Viewing access data, search performance, and ad results on one screen makes it easier to understand the effectiveness of your overall marketing efforts.
Share reports by simply sending a URL. You can set view-only or edit permissions, allowing safe data sharing across your organization. Real-time collaborative editing is also supported.
To visualize GA4 data in Looker Studio, you first need to connect GA4 as a data source. Follow these steps.
First, access Looker Studio (lookerstudio.google.com) with the Google account that has access to your GA4 property. If this is your first time, complete the initial setup including country, company name, and terms of service agreement.
Next, click the "+ Create" button in the top left and select "Report." When the data source selection screen appears, choose "Google Analytics." Select your GA4 account and property, then click "Add" to complete the connection.
During connection, you'll configure the data credentials setting. "Owner's credentials" allows users without GA4 access to view the report. "Viewer's credentials" requires each viewer to have their own GA4 permissions. Choose "Owner's credentials" for broad sharing, or select based on your security requirements.
Before building, decide which metrics to show and who the audience is. Common structures include a site summary page, traffic source analysis page, page performance page, and conversion analysis page. Planning upfront ensures efficient report creation.
Scorecards display a single metric prominently. Place key KPIs like Users, Sessions, Pageviews, and Engagement Rate as scorecards at the top of your report. Set a comparison period to automatically show period-over-period changes.
Use line or bar charts to show daily, weekly, or monthly trends for Users and Sessions. Simply set Date as the dimension and Active Users or Sessions as the metric. These charts help identify seasonal patterns and campaign impact.
Use table components to view detailed per-page performance or per-channel session data. Set "Page path and screen class" as the dimension with "Views," "Active users," and "Engagement rate" as metrics to create a complete page performance table.
Pie charts are perfect for visualizing proportions. Set Device Category as the dimension to see the desktop/mobile/tablet split at a glance. Similarly, displaying traffic channel proportions in a pie chart is highly effective.
Adding a Date Range control lets viewers switch analysis periods on their own. Go to "Add a control" and select "Date range control," then place it at the top of your report. Setting the default to "Last 28 days" or "Last 30 days" is recommended.
If building from scratch feels overwhelming, templates are the way to go. The official Looker Studio template gallery offers numerous GA4-compatible templates, and many third-party free templates are also available.
To use a template, make a copy to your own Looker Studio account, then swap the data source to your GA4 property. Your report instantly populates with your own data. From there, customize metrics and design to match your needs for a professional report in minimal time.
Sharing works just like Google Docs or Google Sheets. Click the "Share" button in the top right to grant "Viewer" or "Editor" permissions by email address.
You can also use "Get link" to generate a URL and make it accessible to anyone with the link. Simply paste the URL into your internal portal or Slack to give your entire team access to the latest data anytime. Scheduled PDF delivery via email is also available.
Understanding when to use GA4's native reports versus Looker Studio is key. GA4's standard and Exploration reports excel at hypothesis testing and deep-dive analysis, while Looker Studio shines for ongoing monitoring and team dashboards. Use both tools based on your objectives.
Keep report information focused and digestible. For executives, provide a KPI summary only. For marketing teams, include detailed page-level and traffic source data. Segmenting reports by audience is effective.
Integrating Google Search Console and Google Ads data into the same report creates a comprehensive marketing dashboard covering everything from search traffic to on-site behavior and ad performance.
Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a powerful free tool for visualizing GA4 data in clear, auto-updating dashboard reports. Data that's hard to parse in GA4's admin interface becomes accessible to everyone through Looker Studio visualization.
Start by connecting GA4 as a data source, then combine scorecards, charts, and tables to build your report. Templates make it possible for beginners to create professional dashboards quickly. To drive data-informed decision-making across your team, start with a basic summary report today.
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