How to Use Advanced Card in Power BI

Power BI's card visual is the go-to for highlighting key performance indicators (KPIs), but its classic version was always a bit... plain. The new advanced card visual, however, is a game-changer, allowing you to pack more context, comparison, and style into a single, compact visualization. This guide will walk you through exactly how to use the advanced card to create clean, insightful, and data-rich KPI displays in your Power BI reports.

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Power BI's New Card Visual: What’s the Big Deal?

If you've spent any time in Power BI, you're familiar with the standard card visual. It's solid for showing a single, big number like total revenue or website sessions. But what if you wanted to see total revenue and last year's revenue? Or your sales target? You'd have to create multiple cards, wasting valuable report space and making direct comparisons clunky.

The original card visual was a one-trick pony. This new version isn't just an update, it's a completely reimagined tool that lets you:

• Display multiple values on a single card.
• Add "reference labels" for context, like targets, goals, or prior-period comparisons.
• Apply advanced conditional formatting to nearly every element.
• Include dynamic images and icons based on your data.
• Customize layouts, shapes, fonts, and accents in ways you couldn't before.

Essentially, Power BI took one of its blandest visuals and turned it into one of its most flexible. Let's see how to put it to work.

Getting Started: Creating Your First Advanced Card

Creating an advanced card is as simple as adding any other visual. You can find it in the Visualizations pane - look for the card icon with a small lightning bolt or sparkline on it. This distinguishes it from the classic card visual.

Once you click it and add it to your report canvas, the real fun begins in the settings.

Step 1: Populate Your Data Fields

Instead of just one "Fields" bucket, the new card visual has sub-sections that bring its new features to life. Select your card visual, and in the "Data" section of the Visualizations pane, you'll see a slightly different setup.

• Data: This is where your primary metric(s) go. Unlike the old card, you can drag multiple measures into this field. For example, you could add 'Total Sales', 'Customer Count', and 'Average Order Value' all to the same card.
• Image (URL): A powerful new field. If you have a measure that returns an image URL (like a dynamic SVG icon), you can drop it here to display an image on your card.
• Tooltip: You can add extra data fields here that will only appear when a user hovers over the card, providing additional context without cluttering the main view.

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Step 2: Take Control in the Formatting Pane

Here's where the advanced card really separates itself. The formatting options are extensive. Let's break down the most impactful settings found under the "Format visual" tab.

Shape and Layout

Under the "Shape" dropdown, you can change the card from a standard rectangle to have rounded corners or even customized corners. A subtle change, but rounded corners can significantly soften the look of a dashboard and help it feel more modern.

The "Layout" section lets you control the orientation and alignment of your multiple values if you've added more than one to the "Data" field. You can stack them vertically or arrange them in a horizontal grid, giving you control over how your information is grouped.

Callout

The "Callout" is a term for the main number displayed on your card. If you've only added one metric, these settings control that primary value. If you've added multiple, a dropdown titled "Series" will appear, letting you format each number independently. This is a crucial feature, as it means 'Total Sales' can have different font or color settings than 'Customer Count' on the same card.

Here you can control:

• Font family, size, color, and style (bold, italic).
• Display units (None, Thousands, Millions, etc.).
• Alignment.

There's also a powerful toggle here for an "On/Off" switch that you can tie to a measure, allowing you to dynamically show or hide a specific value based on a condition - like only showing a regional sales figure if a specific region is selected in a filter.

Reference Labels

Reference labels are arguably the best new feature. They let you add contextual data points right below your main callout value. This is where you would place targets, year-over-year comparisons, or any other data that gives the main KPI its meaning.

To use them:

1. Navigate to the "Reference labels" section in the formatting pane.
2. Click "Add data" and select secondary fields from your data model.
3. For each label you add, you can customize its content, title, font, color, and more.

For example, if your Callout value is "Total Sales," you could add your DAX measure for "Sales Target" as a reference label. The card will then display the sales number in large font and the target right below it in a smaller font, all within the same visual. No more trying to perfectly align separate card visuals!

Accents and Images

Finally, the "Accent" bar (or glow, button style under 'Cards') gives you another layer of visual cues. This is just a simple design element, like a colored border or bar, but you can use conditional formatting on its color. Imagine setting the accent bar to turn red if performance is below target or green if it's exceeded. It’s an immediate, intuitive signal to your audience.

The "Image" section works with the image field mentioned earlier. You can control the image's position (left, right, top, bottom), size, and padding. This is perfect for showing product images, employee photos, or dynamic KPI icons.

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Practical Use Cases for the Advanced Card Visual

Theory is great, but let's see how these features solve real-world reporting problems.

Example 1: Sales KPI - Revenue vs. Target

This is an ideal showcase for Reference Labels. Instead of two separate cards, we’ll build one view that shows real-time performance against goals.

1. Main Data: Drag your 'Total Revenue' measure into the "Data" field.
2. Reference Label: Go to Format visual > Reference labels. Click 'Select data' and choose your 'Sales Target' measure.
3. Customize Label: In the reference label options, you'll see your target measure listed. Select it, and under the "Content" section, click the fx button next to the font color.
4. Add Conditional Formatting:

• Set the format style to "Rules."
• Base it on a new measure you create, like [Revenue vs Target %] = ([Total Revenue] - [Sales Target]) / [Sales Target].
• Add a rule: If [Revenue vs Target %] is less than 0, make the color red.
• Add another rule: If [Revenue vs Target %] is greater than or equal to 0, make the color green.

Now, your card displays your total revenue, and underneath it, your sales target dynamically changes color to instantly communicate whether you are on track or falling behind.

Example 2: Multi-Metric Marketing Card

Let's create a compact overview of key website metrics perfect for a marketing dashboard. No need for three or four separate cards anymore.

1. Main Data: Drag ['Total Sessions'], ['Total Users'], and ['New Users %'] into the "Data" field.
2. Layout: Go to Format visual > Layout. Choose the "Grid" orientation. You'll probably want a 2x2 grid for three or four metrics. Adjust the vertical and horizontal spacing to give the numbers some room to breathe.
3. Format Each Series: Go to "Callout." In the "Series" dropdown, you can now select each measure individually to format it.
4. Best Practice: Keep the labels for each value clear and concise. By default, Power BI uses the measure name as the label. In the "Label" formatting section, you may want to clean up long names or add custom titles like "Website Visits" instead of 'SUM of GA_Sessions_table[Sessions]'.

The result is a single card that acts as a mini-dashboard for your website traffic, neatly organized and space-efficient.

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Example 3: Adding Dynamic KPI Icons with DAX and URLs

This advanced trick uses SVGs to display up or down arrows based on performance. It's an amazingly professional touch.

First, create a new DAX measure for the icon logic. We need a measure that returns the URL of a SVG icon based on a condition. There are many sources for SVG icon code online.

KPI_Icon =
VAR Performance = [Your Performance Metric] // e.g., Year-over-Year Growth %

  // Simple Up Arrow SVG encoded for browsers
VAR UpArrowURL = "data:image/svg+xml,utf8,<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 24 24' fill='green'><path d='M7 14l5-5 5 5z'/></svg>"

  // Simple Down Arrow SVG encoded for browsers
VAR DownArrowURL = "data:image/svg+xml,utf8,<svg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' viewBox='0 0 24 24' fill='red'><path d='M7 10l5 5 5-5z'/></svg>"

RETURN
IF(Performance > 0, UpArrowURL, DownArrowURL)

Make sure to set the Data Category for this new measure to "Image URL" in the "Measure tools" ribbon.

Next, back on your advanced card:

1. Drag your primary measure (e.g., Year over Year Growth) into the "Data" field.
2. Drag your new KPI_Icon measure into the "Image (URL)" field.
3. Use the formatting options under "Image" to position it (e.g., to the right of the value) and adjust the size.

Voila! Your card now displays a dynamic icon that automatically updates with your data - a green up-arrow when YoY growth is positive, and a red down-arrow when it's negative.

Tips for Designing Effective Advanced Cards

• Don't Over-Clutter: Just because you can add ten metrics, ten reference labels, and an image doesn't mean you should. A card's primary purpose is at-a-glance information. Stick to one central KPI with one or two key context points.
• Maintain Consistency: If you use multiple cards on a report, keep their styling consistent. Use the same corner rounding, fonts, and general layout to create a polished and cohesive user experience.
• Tell a Story: Think about what comparison is most useful. Is it target vs. actual? Is it this period versus the last one? Is it performance against a company-wide average? Use the reference labels to provide the most relevant story for the viewer.
• Use Blank Space: Increase the padding within the card's options to give your numbers and text room to breathe. Well-used white (or blank) space is one of the most effective principles of good design - it improves readability and reduces cognitive load on the user.

Final Thoughts

The advanced card is an incredibly welcome upgrade in Power BI, turning a basic necessity into a powerful storytelling tool. By creatively combining callouts, reference labels, and conditional formatting, you can build KPI cards that are more informative and intuitive than ever before, elevating your reports from simple data dumps to professional, actionable dashboards.

Building these sophisticated visuals in tools like Power BI is a craft that takes time to learn and even more time to perfect with each new report. At Graphed, we've designed a platform that strips away that complexity. Instead of wrestling with formatting panes and DAX measures, you can create real-time sales and marketing dashboards just by describing what you want to see. We connect directly to your data sources and use AI to automatically generate the reports you've asked for, turning hours of configuration into a few seconds of conversation. If you’d love to get straight to insights without the setup, you should check out Graphed.