How to Make a Pareto Chart in Google Analytics
A small number of your landing pages probably drive a majority of your website's conversions. This is the Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 rule, in action - and a Pareto chart is the best way to visualize it. This tutorial will show you exactly how to get the data you need from Google Analytics 4, how to do Pareto Analysis, and bring it into a Google Sheet to build a clear, powerful Pareto chart.
What is a Pareto Chart and Why Should You Bother?
The Pareto chart combines a bar chart and a line graph into one view. The bars display individual values for a given category (like sessions for each landing page) and are always sorted in descending order. The line graph shows the cumulative percentage, visually capturing how much the top categories contribute to the overall total.
The whole point is to identify the "vital few" from the "trivial many." Basically, 20% of the inputs generally cause 80% of the outcomes. For marketers analyzing their data in GA, this principle appears constantly. A few of its main implications might be:
20% of your marketing channels generate 80% of your lead acquisitions
20% of your blog articles generate 80% of your website traffic
20% of your landing pages bring in most of your sales
20% of your products account for most of your store revenue
When you know which pages, blogs, products, or channels are over-contributing, you can make smarter, faster decisions for maximum impact: either doubling down on what works for your business by diverting resources to the top 20%, or investigating your other efforts to improve their performance.
It's Not Native to GA4 - Here are Your Workarounds for this Type of Analysis
There's no native "build a Pareto Chart" feature in Google Analytics for now, which I'll have to warn you about ahead of time. It's actually a multiple-step procedure that requires using external applications: one to pull the raw information, second to do analysis/visualization. Don’t worry - this is doable with Google Sheets with just a few step-by-step instructions. Let's start!
Your Step-by-Step Guide to Create a Pareto Chart from Google Analytics 4 Data
Here we’ll review in detail how to accomplish this, starting with pulling information out of GA and processing and visualizing the data from within Google Sheets.
Step #1 - Getting the Raw Information out of Google Analytics 4
Since this type of chart is not supported inside GA4 yet, step 1 will involve exporting all important information to a Google Sheet for the next step. We’ll need to make an Exploration Report where the dimensions and metrics we want will be displayed. Let's use the case for finding the top landing pages that have most of the sessions.
Log into your GA4 Account.
Select Exploration > Free Form Exploration > new blank Exploration button to start your first new Exploration.
Then import dimensions and metrics to the report. For dimension, we want Landing Pages and 'query+query string', and for metric, ‘Sessions’. Click the + icons next to each of the dimensions & metrics headings you see, then find the items via a "search" to be selected and click the 'import' button to finish.
Now to apply. Double-click both the dimension and metrics from the variables pane:
Landing page + query string,
Sessions.
It should pull the report. It might not look clean right away. We can tidy it up.
For cleaning the report: search 'show rows' and then choose the number for your results. Maybe 50? Next to this is a “Cell type” dropdown, it should say text or something similar. We just need it to be a “bar chart”.
Sort by session: go next to the Rows section, click sort and choose 'session' then 'descending order'. That reloads your table to be cleaner and more visually appealing.
Now you're ready to send this new information to Google Sheets so you can start your work. At the top left corner, under the date, you should see an 'export' icon. Click it and choose Google Sheets. This will open up the information in Google Sheets and the hard GA work is over!
Now all your data is ready in Google Sheets! Let's proceed with prepping data here to be re-worked for the new visualizations.
Step Two - Prepping Data in the Sheets
Now, what GA gives you here in the spreadsheet might feel messy, but let’s prepare for this chart. Just follow my lead. You'll have something that's called ‘EXPLORER output tab.' This should all look familiar from what we just made from our Google Analytics exploration. We'll do the following:
Remove All Unnecessary Rows and Columns
I always go to ‘edit' and then 'clean unneeded rows first'. It will be rows one and seven in the spreadsheet. Right-click over the row headers on the left side of the screen and click 'DELETE'. You should now have just a few things left: Landing Pages + query string & sessions. Delete anything else by highlighting columns and selecting delete. A and C for example.
Sorting the Data by Descending Order
Google Analytics probably exported your session data already in the order, but checking doesn’t hurt, so I will explain:
Highlight the entire dataset of both Col A & B.
From there, go to Data Menu and choose to ‘sort range’...
Sort by Session, from Z-A or 'descending'.
Add Your Percentage and Cumulative Percentage Columns
The two new columns have to be calculated. Click inside of column C to make new columns labeled 'Percentage' and D for 'Cumulative Percentage'.
The first is easy. The cell in column C is just equal to C1. Then for cell two and below, add cells together with its top cell, so the next will equal =SUM($D$1:D2) and so on. Drag the formula down to fill the column.
Finally, Format Your Two New Columns as Percentages
Highlight the two whole columns, go to Format menu > Number and select 'percent'.
Step 2 is all finished! Now we can create your Pareto Chart in Google Sheets.
Creating Your Pareto Chart in Google Sheets
Select the columns 'Landing Page and Query String', the Session column, and the 'Cumulative Percent' column. Hold the 'Control' or 'Command' key to choose multiple columns and select.
Once the columns are highlighted, navigate to "Insert > Chart".
Edit Your Chart
Google Sheets might not create a Pareto chart for you on the first try, so go up to the screen to get into the ‘Chart Editor’. In the setup tab, select “combo chart” from the menu or chart types dropdown.
Check the X and Y axes. X should be Landing Page, and your series for Y should be sessions and cumulative percent.
From 'customize tab’, choose to select the Y axes dropdown now and select Right axes. The line for your cumulative % now overlays on the bar chart. It's perfect.
And just like that, you've made a Pareto chart with Google Analytics data.
But What About Automating Reports?
You've just successfully made yourself a Pareto chart. But here's a problem: the data is stale as soon as it's exported from GA.
Any time you want an update, or to see performance over different periods, you have to repeat every step all over again.
Manual reporting like this is time-consuming and becomes repetitive very fast for those with bigger reporting requirements, especially when answers are what the business is seeking to get faster and make decisions quicker. But it is now at least something you know.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, Pareto charting Google Analytics data doesn't always work because it's not a native feature in the platform. It also requires more work on our behalf because it's not automated, so it's more manual work which is something all businesses nowadays are looking to avoid, especially with the new technologies now available.
This is where our tools come in, such as our Graphed AI platform for any marketers or data analysts looking to do what took us long to perform together in minutes, not to mention how it connects to all data sources: GA, Shopify, and more.
You now have an AI assistant analysis tool to answer questions such as, "Show me my Pareto chart using my Shopify product sales this quarter." Graphed just makes these charts for you with live data instead of stale data reports. We even remove manual steps as you don't export, recalculate, or anything again.
I'd say come try our AI data tool at: Graphed to join the next revolution in marketing analytics.