How to Visualize Data in Google Sheets

Transforming rows of numbers into a visual story is one of the quickest ways to find meaningful insights in your data. Instead of scanning a spreadsheet, a well-made chart reveals trends, comparisons, and outliers at a glance. This guide will walk you through exactly how to visualize data in Google Sheets, from creating your first simple graph to customizing it like a pro.

First, Prepare Your Data for Charting

Before you even think about creating a chart, the most important step is to make sure your data is structured properly. A clean dataset is the foundation of a clear visualization. If your data is messy, your chart will be confusing or just plain wrong.

Follow these quick rules to set your data up for success:

• Use a simple table format: Organize your data into columns and rows. Each column should represent a variable (like "Date," "Sales Amount," or "Marketing Channel"), and each row should be a single record.
• Include clear headers: The first row of your table should contain distinct, descriptive headers for each column. Google Sheets will automatically use these headers as labels in your chart.
• Ensure consistency: Make sure your formatting is consistent. For example, if you're listing countries, don't mix "USA," "U.S.A.," and "United States." Clean this up first to prevent your chart from treating them as separate categories.
• Handle blank cells: Blank cells can cause gaps or errors in your charts. Decide if they should be filled with zeros or if the rows should be removed entirely, depending on your context.

With a dataset like this, Google Sheets can instantly understand the relationships between the columns.

How to Create a Chart in Google Sheets: The Basics

Once your data is clean and organized, creating a chart takes just a few clicks. Google Sheets does a great job of guessing the best chart type for your data, but you can easily change it afterward.

Step 1: Select Your Data

Click and drag your mouse to highlight the cells you want to include in your chart. In our example above, we'd select the range A1:C7 to include the headers and all the data.

Step 2: Insert the Chart

With your data selected, navigate to the top menu and click Insert > Chart. Google Sheets will instantly analyze your selected data and pop in a recommended chart right onto your spreadsheet.

Step 3: Use the Chart Editor

When you create a chart, the Chart editor sidebar automatically appears. This is where all the customization happens. It has two main tabs: Setup and Customize.

• The Setup tab is for changing the core components of the chart: the chart type, the data range, and which columns are used for the axes and series.
• The Customize tab is for changing the look and feel: colors, titles, fonts, gridlines, and other visual elements.

Let's dive into some of the most common chart types you can create.

Common Chart Types in Google Sheets (and When to Use Them)

Choosing the right chart type is essential for telling a clear story. Different charts are designed to answer different questions. Here are the most common ones and what they're best at.

1. Line Chart

Use it for: Seeing trends over time. If you have "Date," "Month," or "Year" as one of your columns, a line chart is almost always the right choice.

Example: Tracking monthly website traffic, stock prices over a year, or sales performance quarter over quarter.

How to create a line chart:

1. Select your date/time column and the numerical data column you want to track (e.g., 'Month' and 'Sales Revenue').
2. Go to Insert > Chart. Google Sheets will likely suggest a line chart.
3. If not, in the Chart editor, go to the Setup tab and select "Line chart" from the Chart type dropdown.

2. Column or Bar Chart

Use it for: Comparing values across different categories. Both charts do the same thing, but column charts use vertical bars and bar charts use horizontal bars.

Example: Comparing sales between different products, traffic from different marketing channels (e.g., Organic, Social, PPC), or survey responses by category.

How to create a column chart:

1. Select your category column and your numerical data column (e.g., 'Marketing Channel' and 'Visitors').
2. Click Insert > Chart. A column chart is a very common recommendation.
3. Under the Setup tab, you can choose "Column chart" or switch to "Bar chart" if you have long category labels that are easier to read horizontally.

3. Pie Chart

Use it for: Showing parts of a whole, usually represented as percentages. Always make sure your parts add up to 100%.

Example: The percentage breakdown of a marketing budget, demographic distribution of customers, or market share for different competitors.

How to create a pie chart:

1. Select your category column and its corresponding percentage or value column.
2. Navigate to Insert > Chart.
3. In the Setup tab, select "Pie chart" from the dropdown menu.

Pro Tip: Pie charts become hard to read when you have more than 5 or 6 categories. If you have too many slices, a bar chart is a much better choice for comparing the values clearly.

4. Scatter Chart

Use it for: Showing the relationship or correlation between two different numerical variables.

Example: Does increased ad spend actually lead to more sales? A scatter chart could have Ad Spend on the X-axis and Sales Revenue on the Y-axis. Each point would represent a time period (e.g., a month), showing how both variables behaved.

How to create a scatter chart:

1. Select the two numerical columns you want to compare (e.g., 'Ad Spend' and 'Sales Revenue').
2. Go to Insert > Chart.
3. In the Chart editor, select "Scatter chart."

What you're often looking for in a scatter plot is a pattern. If the points generally move up and to the right, it suggests a positive correlation.

Customizing Your Charts for Style and Clarity

A default chart gets the job done, but a few simple customizations can make it significantly easier for your audience to understand. Use the Customize tab in the Chart editor to fine-tune your visualization.

Here are the most common adjustments to make:

Chart & Axis Titles

Your chart needs a clear, descriptive title. Click on the Chart & axis titles accordion. Here you can type in your Chart title, subtitle, horizontal axis title, and vertical axis title. Don't assume people know what the numbers on a chart mean, label everything!

Series

The "Series" refers to the data being plotted (the bars, lines, or pie slices). Under this section, you can change the color of your data, add data labels to show the specific values on the chart, or add a trendline to line and scatter charts to help visualize the overall pattern.

Legend

The legend explains what each color or symbol on the chart represents. You can change its position (top, bottom, right, left) or its font styling. If you only have one data series, you can often remove the legend entirely to save space.

Gridlines & Ticks

Under the Horizontal and Vertical axis sections, you'll see options for Gridlines and ticks. Adding major gridlines can make it easier for people to trace a point on the chart back to its value on an axis. Just be careful not to add too many, as this can clutter the chart.

An Advanced Trick: Creating a Dynamic Chart with a Dropdown Menu

If you have a lot of data, you can create an interactive chart where the user can choose which data to display from a dropdown menu. This is easier than it sounds!

1. First, create a Data Validation dropdown. Let’s say you have three products - Product A, Product B, and Product C - with sales for each month.
2. Use a filter formula to pull data based on the dropdown.
3. Create a chart based on the filtered data. Now, just highlight your filtered data range and click Insert > Chart. Your chart will automatically update whenever you choose a different product from the dropdown menu, giving you an easy-to-use interactive dashboard.

Final Thoughts

That's everything you need to start turning boring spreadsheet data into insightful visuals with Google Sheets. By getting your data structure right, choosing the appropriate chart type for your goal, and making a few thoughtful customizations, you can start communicating insights far more effectively than with numbers alone.

The process in Google Sheets is fantastic, but it can get time-consuming when your data lives across multiple platforms like Google Analytics, Shopify, and your ad accounts. We built Graphed to solve this by creating a single source of truth for all your marketing and sales data. You can connect your platforms once, then use plain English to ask questions like "create a chart comparing Facebook Ads ROI vs Google Ads ROI for last month." We instantly build a live, updating dashboard for you - no more manual data cleaning, file exporting, or chart building required.