Google Data Studio

Connecting data sources

Google's own products, such as Analytics, Search Console, Google Ads, and YouTube, are fairly straightforward to bring into Data Studio reporting. Connecting to Google's BigQuery data warehouse and Sheets spreadsheets is just as smooth. Data Studio also offers a ready-made connector for MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. Google Sheets can be used to bring in data from other sources too, but you'll run into practical issues once data volumes grow larger.

Third-party integrations let you bring in almost any data considered necessary for Data Studio reporting. The most common marketing data sources brought in through separate connectors are social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, ad management tools such as Adform, and CRM and automation systems such as HubSpot and Salesforce. Data is also often needed from areas such as finance, time tracking, product management and development, and customer service.

Kaivo, built by QuickBI, has ready-made integrations for most of the systems whose data is typically needed in reports. Even if a connector doesn't exist yet, one can be built for almost any data source. QuickBI recommends implementing data integrations through a data warehouse. A BigQuery data warehouse pairs especially well with Data Studio. The synergy between Google products makes this an easy-to-adopt, effective combination for collecting, storing, and analyzing data.

Ease of use

Data Studio is designed to work both for the "average" user, such as a marketing assistant, and for a somewhat more demanding business analyst. Users with a good grasp of business analytics and a bit of technical understanding get the most out of its available features. No real coding skills are needed to use Data Studio once the necessary data integrations are in place.

Building dashboards and reports in Data Studio is relatively easy and intuitive. Visualizations are built by choosing a presentation format from ready-made chart templates and picking the desired metrics from the data source's fields. Tables and charts can have interactive controls and filters applied to them. Reports usually include at least the ability to change the date range, and options such as geographic filtering or breaking data out by channel let report viewers explore and interpret the data from different angles with just a couple of clicks.

Visualizations

Data Studio works largely through a handy drag-and-drop approach, so it's easy to build clear, even striking visualizations with it. Charts snap neatly to a background grid. Dashboards look a bit like PowerPoint slides, and reports can be single-page presentations just as easily as multi-page collections.

Besides bar, line, and pie charts and other basics familiar from Excel, Data Studio offers visualization types such as gauge, waterfall, and candlestick charts. Google has also received various chart and report templates from partners for use in Data Studio, and particularly useful ones worth mentioning are the Gantt chart for presenting a project or campaign plan, and the funnel chart for depicting a sales or marketing funnel.

Data processing

Originally, Data Studio couldn't define relationships between different data sources at all. Data blending with a single join type (left outer join) was released in 2018, and since February 2022 it has been possible to use several different join conditions when combining multiple sources. A single chart can combine data from up to five data sources, and each Google Sheet file, for example, counts as its own source.

Today, data can be prepared by changing the blending rules, disabling columns, creating custom fields and renaming them, and so on. Filters and segments can be built and set as defaults for reports and dashboards. On top of that, report viewers can be given the ability to apply their own filters and constraints, letting them analyze the data brought into the report from several different angles.

Data Studio doesn't currently offer advanced modeling features or what-if style analysis.

Sharing and collaboration

Easy report sharing is one of Data Studio's strengths. Sharing works largely the same way as sharing Google Drive documents. You give the people you choose permission to view or edit the dashboard or report, then share a link or send an email invitation. Because the report lives online and the data keeps refreshing, users always see up-to-date information. Reports can also be downloaded as PDFs, and automatic, scheduled email distribution is available too.

Embeds

Embedding Data Studio reports on websites and other HTML-based applications works via an iframe. Visibility settings for a report are configured on the Data Studio side: reports set to public are visible to everyone even when embedded, while reports restricted to specific people, groups, or domains are visible only to those parties, who need to be signed in to their Google account. Embedded reports can't be edited directly; they're always in view mode. However, you can click through to open the report in Data Studio itself, where editing is possible if the user's permissions allow it. Date range controls and other filters included in the report remain available as usual within embeds too.

Interface

Google naturally recommends Chrome as your browser, but Data Studio also works with Firefox and Safari. Other browsers haven't been tested and aren't recommended for editing reports and data sources. Editing also requires a Google account.

Security

Naturally, Data Studio uses Google's authentication protocol, and you can raise the security level further with Google's two-factor authentication. Access to data can now also be restricted at the row level by adding a field containing users' email addresses and creating a filter that uses that field.

An audit log is available with Google Workspace and Cloud Identity accounts. The log shows who in the organization did what and when, for example viewing a report, creating or editing a report, or connecting a new data source.