How to Make a Combo Chart in Excel

A combo chart in Excel is one of the most effective ways to tell a clear story when you're working with different types of data. If you’ve ever tried to plot dollar amounts and percentages on the same chart, you know a standard bar or line chart just doesn’t work. This article gives you a step-by-step guide to creating and customizing a powerful combo chart in Excel to compare two different data sets in a single, easy-to-read visual.

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What Exactly Is a Combo Chart?

A combination chart, or combo chart, is a single chart that visualizes your data using two or more chart types. The most common combination is a column chart and a line chart. This is incredibly useful when you want to compare values that are on completely different scales.

For example, imagine you want to show your company's monthly sales revenue (which is in tens of thousands of dollars) alongside a customer satisfaction score (a percentage from 0-100%). If you put both on a standard column chart, the customer satisfaction columns would be so tiny you wouldn't even be able to see them.

The solution is the combo chart, which solves this problem by introducing a secondary axis. This gives you a primary vertical axis (Y-axis) on the left for one data set (like sales revenue) and a secondary vertical axis on the right for the other (like the satisfaction percentage). You can display the sales as columns corresponding to the left axis and the scores as a line corresponding to the right axis, all plotted against the same horizontal axis (X-axis), such as months or quarters.

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When Should You Use a Combo Chart?

Combo charts are surprisingly versatile. They aren't just for showing values with different scales, they excel at illustrating a relationship between two different metrics. Here are a few common scenarios where a combo chart is the perfect tool:

• Tracking Performance Against a Goal: Visualize actual sales figures (columns) against a monthly sales target (line). This instantly shows which months you hit your target and by how much.
• Comparing Different Units of Measurement: A classic use case is showing sales revenue ($) with the number of units sold (a whole number). This can help you spot if you're selling more units at a lower price point or vice versa.
• Analyzing Marketing Campaign Data: Compare Ad Spend ($) as columns with the Click-Through-Rate (%) as a line. This helps you see if increased spending is leading to more effective ads or diminishing returns.
• Highlighting Correlation: Show the relationship between website sessions (columns) and the conversion rate (line) over time. Are traffic spikes leading to more conversions, or is your conversion rate dropping when user volume gets too high?

Essentially, if you have two distinct data series that tell a more complete story when shown together, a combo chart is likely your best bet.

Preparing Your Data for a Combo Chart

Before you can build the chart, your data needs to be organized properly. Good data preparation makes the charting process smooth and painless. A poorly organized table will almost always lead to a broken or nonsensical chart.

For a combo chart, you need at least three columns:

1. A column for your categories (the X-axis), like months, years, product names, or campaign names.
2. A column for your first numerical data series (the primary Y-axis).
3. A column for your second numerical data series (the secondary Y-axis).

Here’s a simple data table laid out perfectly for a combo chart showing monthly sales revenue versus profit margin percentage:

Example Data Structure:


Key Data Tips:

• Clear Headers: Make sure each column has a descriptive header (e.g., "Month," "Sales Revenue," "Profit Margin %"). Excel will use these to automatically create legends and labels.
• Consistent Data Types: Ensure the values in your numerical columns are formatted correctly. Keep money values formatted as currency and percentages as percentages.
• No Empty Rows or Columns: Arrange your data in a simple, continuous block. Blank rows or columns within your data range can confuse Excel's chart generator.

How to Make a Combo Chart in Excel: Step-by-Step

Once your data is clean and organized, creating the chart itself takes just a few clicks. We'll use the example data from the previous section.

Step 1: Select Your Data

Click and drag your cursor to highlight the entire range of data you want to include in your chart, including the headers. In our example, you would select cells A1 through C13.


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Step 2: Go to the Chart Insertion Menu

With your data selected, navigate to the Insert tab on the Excel ribbon. In the Charts section, don't just pick a column or line chart. Instead, click on the small down arrow for “Insert Combo Chart.”

You can choose one of the predefined options, but it's often better to select “Create Custom Combo Chart…” at the bottom for more control.


Alternatively, you can click on “Recommended Charts,” go to the “All Charts” tab, and select “Combo” from the list on the left.

Step 3: Configure Your Chart Series

This is where the magic happens. The "Insert Chart" window will pop up, with the combo chart options pre-selected. Here, you'll see a section to customize each of your data series:

• Chart Type: For each series ("Sales Revenue" and "Profit Margin %"), you can choose the chart type from a dropdown menu. Let’s keep "Sales Revenue" as a Clustered Column and change "Profit Margin %" to a Line.
• Secondary Axis: This is the most important part. Because "Sales Revenue" is in dollars and "Profit Margin" is a percentage, they need different scales. Check the box next to "Profit Margin %" in the Secondary Axis column.

Excel will show you a live preview of what the chart will look like as you make changes.


Step 4: Create and Place Your Chart

Once you are happy with the setup, click OK. Excel will instantly generate the combo chart and place it on your worksheet. You can click and drag the chart to move it or use the corners to resize it as needed.

Customizing Your Combo Chart for Maximum Impact

The default chart Excel creates is functional, but a few quick customizations can make it far easier to understand and more professional-looking.

1. Add a Clear Chart Title

First, give your chart a descriptive title. Click on "Chart Title" at the top and type something specific, like "Monthly Sales Performance vs. Profit Margin." A good title tells the reader what they are looking at before they even examine the axes.

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2. Label Your Axes

Since a combo chart has two different Y-axes, you must label both. If the labels don't appear automatically:

• Click anywhere on your chart to bring up the “Chart Design” and “Format” tabs.
• In the "Chart Design" tab, click "Add Chart Element" > "Axis Titles".
• Choose "Primary Vertical" to add a title for the left axis (e.g., "Sales Revenue ($)").
• Choose "Secondary Vertical" to add a title for the right axis (e.g., "Profit Margin (%)").

3. Adjust Colors and Formatting

The default colors can be bland. To change them:

• For Columns: Right-click on one of the columns, select "Format Data Series," and use the "Fill & Line" (paint bucket icon) options to change the column color.
• For the Line: Right-click on the line, select "Format Data Series," and you can change the line color, thickness, and even add markers to each data point to make it stand out. Using contrasting colors can help differentiate the two data series.

4. Add Data Labels

Sometimes, it’s helpful to see the exact values for each point on the chart. To add them, right-click on the columns or the line and select "Add Data Labels." You can then format these labels (e.g., position, font size) to ensure they are readable and don’t clutter the chart.

After a few adjustments, your final chart will be clean, professional, and tell a powerful story at a glance.


Final Thoughts

Mastering the combo chart in Excel opens up a new level of data storytelling, allowing you to elegantly compare different metrics like revenue and growth rates in a single visual. Once you've set up your data correctly, the creation process is just a few quick clicks away from delivering a powerful and clear report.

While Excel is great for these tasks, a lot of time is still spent exporting data and manually recreating the same reports every week or month. At Graphed, we've automated this entire process. You can connect your data sources - like Shopify, Google Analytics, or Salesforce - and then create real-time, interactive dashboards just by describing what you want to see. Instead of wrangling cells in a spreadsheet, you can simply ask, "Show me a chart of last quarter's sales vs. profit margin by month," and get a live dashboard that updates automatically.