Google Data Studio dashboarding tool

There are lots of data visualization tools available that allow you to create beautiful reports and dashboards in no time.

Some well-known tools are for example Tableau, PowerBI or SAP Analytics cloud. The beauty of these tools is that they can connect to a large number of data sources and they contain a lot of features and functionality to create advanced dashboards or reports. The disadvantage of these tools is that they are often a bit pricey (the type of license often determines the functionality you get) and the learning process often takes a bit longer.

For companies that do not want to spend much on expensive licenses there is a nice alternative, namely Google Data Studio. Google Data Studio is the data visualization tool from Google. This tool is perfectly suited to create beautiful interactive dashboards. In terms of functionality it is not as extensive as, for example, Tableau or PowerBI, but that also makes it much quicker to use. The tool is also completely online, so you do not need special software for it. And best of all: it is free!

In this blog we will show you some features of the tool. If you are excited about what you see, please feel free to contact us.

Most data sources are supported by Google Data Studio. Google has a set of connectors that they manage themselves. With these connectors you can retrieve data from Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Spreadsheets, but also for example from MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

Furthermore, you can also use the partner connectors. The possibilities here are really great. Think for example of JSON and OData or data from Twitter and Facebook. You can of course add different data sources to your report and combine them in Google Data Studio. 

All standard visualizations are present and you can also tweak them to your own taste. Think for example of

• Tables and pivot tables
• Bar and column charts
• Line graphs
• Bar and column charts combined with line graphs
• Your data combined with Google maps!
• And much more

If your desired visualization is not among them, you can always have a look at the visualizations made by the community, or you can build it yourself!

The standard filter components that we are used to seeing on websites or dashboards are also present in Google Data Studio.

For example, you can use date selectors or dropdown menus. But also for example input fields or selection boxes. All filters can be customized. For example, you can specify that a filter should filter the entire report, or just a certain page or section.

The possibilities are actually too many to list in a blog, so we created a demo dashboard and shared it with you. Feel free to play with it and feel free to contact us with any questions!