How to Make a Stacked Bar Chart in Google Analytics

Building a stacked bar chart directly within Google Analytics isn't an option, which can be frustrating when you want to show how different segments contribute to a whole. Thankfully, there are two excellent workarounds using other free Google tools. This tutorial will walk you through exactly how to create real-time stacked bar charts using Google Analytics data with Looker Studio and a manual method using Google Sheets.

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Why Stacked Bar Charts Are So Useful for Website Data

Standard bar charts are great for comparing totals, like seeing which month had the most traffic. But a stacked bar chart does more, it shows you a total and the composition of that total in a single, easy-to-read visual. This 'part-to-whole' relationship is perfect for answering more nuanced questions about your website's performance.

Imagine you want to see your total website sessions each month for the last quarter. A simple bar chart works for that. But what if you also want to know what percentage of that traffic came from Mobile vs. Desktop vs. Tablet in each of those months?

A stacked bar chart nails this by showing you:

• One bar for each month, where the total height of the bar represents total sessions.
• Segments within each bar, color-coded to show the specific contribution of each device category.

This allows you to spot important trends at a glance. For instance, you might see that while overall traffic is growing, the proportion of mobile traffic is growing much faster and now makes up the majority of your visitors. This kind of insight is invaluable for a marketer.

Common uses for stacked bar charts with GA4 data include:

• Sessions by Channel and Device: See your overall traffic from channels like Organic Search, Paid, Social, Direct, etc., and see what portion of each channel's traffic is mobile or desktop.
• Conversions by Landing Page and Country: See which landing pages drive the most conversions and see the geographic breakdown of those conversions.
• New Users by Source and Time of Day: Understand which sources bring in the most new users and see if they tend to arrive during specific times of day.

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Create Stacked Bar Charts with Looker Studio

Google Analytics 4's built-in reports don't have this visualization directly available. That's why we need to look outside the tool's native environment. Looker Studio, part of Google's data visualization toolset, is one of the best ways to easily and effectively show this data.

Steps to Create a Stacked Bar Chart with Looker Studio

1. Connect your data source: Connect Looker Studio to your GA4 data source.
2. Build your report: Create a new report and select the 'Bar Chart' visualization option.
3. Configure the chart: Add metrics and dimensions to visualize your GA4 data effectively.

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Example: Visualizing Sessions by Channel and Device

To see your traffic broken down by channel and device type over the past six months, configure the chart to show sessions from each channel color-coded by device type.

Create Stacked Bar Charts with Google Sheets

If you prefer a manual method or need customization, Google Sheets offers another excellent option.

Steps for Using Google Sheets

1. Export your GA4 data: Export the necessary GA4 data to a CSV file.
2. Import the data: Open the CSV file in Google Sheets.
3. Create a stacked bar chart: Highlight your dataset, then select 'Insert' → 'Chart' and choose 'Stacked Bar Chart'. Customize as needed.

Final Thoughts

While Google Analytics doesn't provide a direct method to create stacked bar charts, using tools like Looker Studio and Google Sheets can effectively visualize your analytics data. This approach allows you to gain valuable insights and make data-driven decisions.