How to Create a Google Looker Studio Dashboard

Building a dashboard in Google Looker Studio can seem like a major technical hurdle, but it's really about taking one small step at a time. The powerful, free tool lets you turn dull spreadsheet data into clear, interactive reports. This guide will walk you through creating your very first Looker Studio dashboard, covering everything from connecting your first data source to adding useful interactive filters.

What Exactly is Google Looker Studio?

Google Looker Studio (formerly known as Google Data Studio) is a free B.I. (business intelligence) and data visualization tool that lets you build interactive dashboards and reports. Think of it as a blank canvas where you can pull in data from various sources - like Google Analytics, Google Sheets, Google Ads, and more - and display it using charts, graphs, tables, and maps.

Why is it so popular? Three main reasons:

• It's Free: Unlike many premium BI tools like Power BI or Tableau that require expensive licenses, Looker Studio is completely free. This makes it incredibly accessible for small businesses, freelancers, and marketers.
• It Connects Directly to Google Products: If you use Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Search Console, or Google Sheets, Looker Studio connects to them seamlessly. This "native" integration saves you a ton of time on data exporting and cleaning.
• It Centralizes Your Reporting: Instead of hopping between five different platforms to get your numbers, you can consolidate your key metrics into one unified dashboard. This gives you a clear, high-level view of your business performance.

Your First Looker Studio Dashboard: A Step-by-Step Guide

Let's build a simple website performance dashboard. For this example, we'll use Google Analytics as our data source, since it's one of the most common connections everyone needs.

Step 1: Create a New Report and Explore the Canvas

First, navigate to lookerstudio.google.com and log in with your Google account. In the top left corner, click the big button that says + Create, then select Report.

You’ll be immediately prompted to add data to your report. Before we do that, let's get familiar with what you're seeing:

• The Canvas: This is the large white space in the middle. It’s where you'll be dragging and dropping your charts to build your dashboard.
• The Toolbar: At the top, you'll see options like "Add a page," "Add data," "Add a chart," and "Add a control." This is your main toolkit.
• The Properties Panel: On the right side, you'll see a panel that changes based on what you have selected. If you click on a chart, this panel will let you manage its data (metrics, dimensions) and styling (colors, fonts).

Step 2: Connect Your Data Source (Using Google Analytics)

Since this is a new report, Looker Studio will open a panel to connect your first data source. You'll see a list of "Google Connectors" and "Partner Connectors."

1. Find and select the Google Analytics connector.
2. Looker Studio will ask for permission to access your Google Analytics data. Click AUTHORIZE and follow the prompts.
3. Once connected, you'll see a list of your available Google Analytics accounts. Choose the Account, Property, and View (for Universal Analytics) or Property (for GA4) you want to pull data from. For this example, let's use a GA4 property.
4. After selecting your property, click the Add button in the bottom right corner.

That's it! Your Google Analytics data is now linked to this report. Looker Studio will automatically create a basic table chart for you as a starting point, which you can keep or delete.

Step 3: Add Your First Charts and Scorecards

A dashboard is no good without visuals. Let's add a few essential charts to track website performance.

Add Scorecards for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Scorecards are perfect for showing big, important numbers at a glance. Let’s create some for Total Users, Engaged Sessions, and Conversions.

1. From the top toolbar, click Add a chart and select Scorecard.
2. A scorecard will appear on your canvas. By default, it might be something random like "Views."
3. With the scorecard selected, look at the Properties Panel on the right. Under the Setup tab, find the field labeled Metric.
4. Click on the metric and search for "Total users." Select it from the list.
5. Repeat this process two more times: add another scorecard and set its metric to "Engaged sessions," then a third one and set its metric to "Conversions."

You can drag these scorecards to the top of your report for a nice header section. You now have a clear, top-line view of your most important metrics.

Add a Time Series Chart for Trends

Now let's see how our user traffic is trending over time.

1. In the toolbar, go to Add a chart and select Time series chart.
2. Place the chart on your canvas. Looker Studio is usually smart enough to set the Dimension to a date field automatically.
3. In the Properties Panel, check the settings. The Dimension should be "Date." For the Metric, let's stick with "Total users."

This chart will now show day-by-day (or week-by-week) changes in the number of users visiting your site.

Add a Pie Chart for Traffic Sources

Where are your users coming from? A pie chart (or donut chart) is great for showing these portions.

1. Go to Add a chart and click Pie chart.
2. Drag it onto your report canvas.
3. In the Properties Panel, set the Dimension to "Session source / medium." This will show you the breakdown of your traffic by channels like google / organic, direct / (none), and facebook / cpc.
4. Set the Metric to "Total users" to size the slices of the pie based on the user count from each source.

Step 4: Style and Customize Your Dashboard

A good dashboard should be easy to read and reflect your company's branding. Looker Studio's styling options are in the Style tab of the Properties Panel.

• Set a Theme: Instead of styling each chart individually, click on a blank part of the canvas to see the "Theme and Layout" panel emerge on the right. You can select pre-made themes or customize colors and fonts to create your own.
• Add a Header: Use the Rectangle tool from the toolbar to draw a colored banner across the top of your report. Then, use the Text tool to add a title like "Website Performance Dashboard." You can also use the Image tool to upload your company logo.
• Clean Up Your Charts: Click on any chart, go to the Style tab, and start customizing. You can change text colors, remove grid lines, round the corners of your charts, and more. A few small tweaks can make a huge difference in readability.

Step 5: Make Your Dashboard Interactive with Controls

The real power of Looker Studio comes from its interactivity. Let's add two essential Controls so anyone viewing the report can filter the data themselves.

1. Add a Date Range Control: From the toolbar, select Add a control, and then Date range control. Place it in the top right corner of your report header. Now, viewers can select a date range (like "Last 28 Days" or "This Quarter") and all the charts connected to that data source will update automatically.
2. Add a Filter Control: Select Add a control again, and this time choose Drop-down list. Place it next to your date range control. In the Properties panel for this new control, set the Control field to "Session source / medium." This will create a clickable dropdown that lets users filter the entire report to see data from only one traffic source at a time.

Sharing and Automating Your Dashboard

Once you’re happy with how your dashboard looks and functions, it's time to share it. Click the blue Share button in the top right to open your sharing options:

• Invite people: Grant access to specific team members or clients by entering their email addresses. You can decide if they have "Viewer" rights (can see and filter the data) or "Editor" rights (can make changes).
• Get report link: This is the easiest way to share a view-only version. Change the permissions from "Restricted" to "Unlisted" or "Public" to generate a URL anyone with the link can open.
• Schedule email delivery: Set up a recurring email that sends a PDF of your dashboard to stakeholders every Monday morning, or on the first of the month. This automates your reporting process and keeps everyone in the loop.
• Embed report: Need to add this dashboard to a private website or intranet page? This option gives you an HTML iframe code you can copy and paste.

Final Thoughts

You've now learned how to connect a data source, add and customize charts, introduce interactive filters, and share your final deliverable. Looker Studio has a learning curve, but building your first report breaks the process down into manageable pieces and is the best way to get started.

Even with simple tools, this process can eat up precious hours that marketers and business owners don't have. Many of us at Graphed remember spending entire mornings wrangling data in tools like Looker Studio just to answer basic questions. That experience is why we built our platform to automate the entire process. Just connect your data sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Facebook Ads, and then ask for what you need in plain English - no manual chart building or data configuration required.