How to Add Tooltip in Looker Studio

Adding a tooltip to your Looker Studio report is a simple way to make your dashboards more interactive and insightful. Instead of cluttering your charts with extra labels, tooltips provide context and additional data points right when your user needs them, appearing only when they hover over a specific part of a chart. This article will walk you through exactly how to set up and use tooltips to enhance your reports.

What Exactly Is a Tooltip?

A tooltip is the small informational box that pops up when you mouse over a data point on a chart. Think of it as a hidden layer of data that adds depth to your visualizations without taking up extra space on the dashboard. It’s a core feature of interactive data visualization for a reason.

For example, you might have a global map showing total website users by country. The map itself gives you a great high-level view. But with tooltips, a user could hover over the bubble for the United States and instantly see more detailed metrics, like:

• Total Users: 150,000
• Number of Sessions: 320,000
• Engagement Rate: 65%
• Conversions: 4,500

This approach keeps the primary visualization clean and focused on a single key metric (like total users), while making deeper, more granular information easily accessible. Tooltips allow you to answer the user's next logical question before they even have to ask it, turning a static report into an exploratory tool.

Before You Begin: Prep Your Data Source

Great tooltips start with a well-prepared data source. The information you want to display in the tooltip needs to be available in the data you've connected to Looker Studio. Before you start building, think about what primary and secondary information you want to show.

• Primary Metrics/Dimensions: These are the fields that define the main chart components. For a bar chart showing sales by region, your primary dimension is Region and your primary metric is Sales.
• Secondary Metrics/Dimensions: This is the extra contextual data you want to display in the tooltip. For that same sales chart, secondary metrics could include Profit, Number of Orders, or Average Order Value.

Make sure all the fields you want to use—both for the main chart and for the tooltip—are present in your connected data set. It’s also a good idea to rename fields with user-friendly names (e.g., changing ga_total_users to Total Users), as these names are what will appear in your tooltips and chart legends.

How to Add Tooltips in Looker Studio (Step-by-Step)

The method for adding a tooltip can vary slightly depending on the type of chart you're using. Some charts, like Google Maps, have a dedicated field for tooltips, while others automatically include all added metrics in the tooltip by default. We'll cover both scenarios.

Method 1: Using a Dedicated Tooltip Field (Google Maps Example)

The Google Maps chart is one of the best examples of a component with a specific, dedicated field for a tooltip dimension, making it very straightforward to set up.

Step 1: Add a Google Maps Chart to your Report

From the toolbar, select Add a chart and choose Google Maps. Drag it onto your report canvas and resize it as you see fit. Choose your geo-based data source, such as a Google Analytics 4 property that contains location data.

Step 2: Configure the Map’s Primary Fields

With the map selected, the properties panel will appear on the right. In the Setup tab, configure the following fields:

• Location: Drag your geographical dimension here. This could be Country, Region, City, or Latitude, Longitude. For this example, we’ll use Country.
• Size: Drag the primary metric here. This metric will determine the size of the bubble or filled area on the map. Let’s use Total users.

At this point, your map is functional. You have bubbles over each country, sized according to the number of users from that country. If you hover over a bubble now, the tooltip will show the Country and the Total user count.

Step 3: Add a Tooltip Dimension

This is where the magic happens. In the properties panel, you'll see a field named Tooltip. This field is specifically for adding an extra dimension that will only appear on hover.

Drag a new dimension you want to show into the Tooltip field. For instance, drag Default Channel Group here. Now you have a map showing users by country, but the tooltip will also show the top channel driving traffic for that specific country.

Step 4: View and Test Your Tooltip

Click the View button in the top right corner of Looker Studio to interact with your report. Now, when you hover over a country on the map, the tooltip will display not just the country and user count, but also the top channel group. You’ve successfully added a layer of context without cluttering the map itself.

Method 2: Automatic Tooltips in Other Charts (Bar Chart Example)

Most other charts, like bar, line, and pie charts, don't have a dedicated "Tooltip" field for dimensions. Instead, they automatically add all metrics associated with the chart to the tooltip. It’s an implicit, but still very powerful, feature.

Step 1: Set Up Your Primary Dimension and Metric

Create a simple Bar Chart. In the Setup panel, drag your primary dimension (e.g., Device Category) into the Dimension field. Then, drag your primary metric (e.g., Total users) into the Metric field. Your chart now shows the number of users across Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet.

If you hover over any bar, the tooltip shows just the Device Category and the Total users.

Step 2: Add Secondary Metrics to Generate the Tooltip

To add more information to the tooltip, simply drag additional metrics into the Metric section of the Setup panel. You can add as many as you need.

Let’s add metrics for Sessions and Engagement rate. Drag both of these fields into the metrics area, underneath Total users.

Step 3: View Your Enhanced Tooltip

Switch to View mode again. Now, when you hover over the "Mobile" bar, the tooltip shows:

• Device Category: Mobile
• Total users: 20,450
• Sessions: 23,100
• Engagement rate: 58.7%

This works for almost any chart. By adding more metrics to your chart's configuration, you build a more robust and informative tooltip, allowing users to drill down without leaving the primary view.

Best Practices for Effective Tooltips

Now that you know how to add them, here are a few tips to make your tooltips as helpful as possible for your audience.

• Keep it Relevant: The information in the tooltip should be directly related to the data point being hovered over. It should provide relevant context or answer a follow-up question.
• Don’t Overload It: While it's tempting to add dozens of metrics, a cluttered tooltip defeats the purpose. Focus on the 3-5 most important secondary metrics to keep it scannable and useful.
• Use Clean Naming Conventions: Double-check your field names. A tooltip that reads "avg_session_duration_sec" is far less intuitive than one that reads "Avg. Session Duration". Take a minute to rename fields in the data source setup for a more professional finish.
• Check Your Formatting: Make sure your metrics are formatted correctly. Percentages should be shown as percentages, currency should have the right symbol, and large numbers should have commas. You can adjust this by clicking the data type icon (e.g., 123, %) next to the field in the properties panel.

Final Thoughts

Tooltips are an essential feature in Looker Studio for building clean, powerful, and user-friendly dashboards. By providing contextual information on demand, you can create reports that encourage exploration and deeper understanding without overwhelming your audience with data right from the start.

Creating interactive dashboards in tools like Looker Studio is powerful, but pulling, formatting, and configuring data from multiple sources can quickly become a full-time job. With Graphed, we’ve automated this entire process. You can connect sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, and your CRM in one click. Then, simply ask for the report you need in plain English - like "create a map chart showing users by country, with the top traffic source in the tooltip" - and we build the live, interactive dashboard for you in seconds.