Looker Studio · Google Data Studio
Free dashboards that don't look free.
Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is Google's free dashboarding tool. Connects to GA4, Search Console, Google Ads, BigQuery, Sheets, SQL databases, and 800+ other data sources. Drag-and-drop report builder. Share with unlimited viewers. Replaces €10-100k/year BI tools for most SMB reporting needs.
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Marketing Dashboard · April 2026Live · auto-refresh 60s
Sessions · 30d
45,218
+12.4%
vs previous 30d
Conversions · 30d
1,292
+18.2%
vs previous 30d
Revenue · 30d
€25,602
-3.1%
vs previous 30d
Sessions · daily
Last 30 days
Traffic source
Organic Search
42%Paid Search
28%Direct
18%Social
12%Sessions by county · Ireland
Top: Dublin 18,42010 counties shown
Top pages · last 30d
Path
Sessions
Bounce
Conv.
/
12,420
42%
2.8%
/services/seo
4,820
38%
4.2%
/blog/core-web-vitals-2026
3,640
52%
1.8%
/platforms/wordpress
2,810
45%
3.4%
/contact
1,940
28%
12.1%
The dashboards we build most
Five reports that cover 80% of SMB analytics needs.
Executive summary (1 page)
Revenue, sessions, conversions, top sources, YoY comparison. The weekly email view for leadership. Everything fits on one A4 screen.
SEO performance report
GSC + GA4 joined. Queries, rankings, landing pages, CTR trends, Core Web Vitals. Monthly SEO review standard.
Paid media performance
Google Ads + Meta Ads + TikTok combined. ACOS, ROAS, blended CAC, funnel conversions. Daily ad-ops view.
E-commerce funnel
Product views → add to cart → checkout → purchase. Drop-off rates per step. Channel attribution. Essential for Shopify stores.
Customer LTV by cohort
Monthly cohorts, retention curves, LTV progression. Requires BigQuery backend. The report that changes strategic decisions.
Client reporting template
Branded, client-specific report auto-refreshing monthly. No more copy-paste into PowerPoint. Freeze view at month-end for archive.
The connector ecosystem
800+ connectors — here are the ones that actually matter.
Native & free
Google Analytics 4
Search Console
Google Ads
YouTube Analytics
BigQuery
Google Sheets
Campaign Manager 360
Official free partners
Meta Ads (basic)
TikTok Ads
LinkedIn Ads
Salesforce reports
MySQL / PostgreSQL
Airtable
Paid partner connectors
Supermetrics (~€40/mo per connector)
Funnel.io (aggregation + warehouse)
Windsor.ai
Power My Analytics
Custom / community
Custom API via Apps Script
Data via BigQuery scheduled queries
Community Connectors (use with care)
File upload for one-offs
Our advice for new clients: start with native connectors (GA4 + Google Ads + GSC). That covers 80% of reporting. Add Supermetrics only when you genuinely need Meta / TikTok / LinkedIn in the same report. For warehouse-backed reporting, invest in BigQuery — it's the pro backbone.
Building a good dashboard
The 6 principles behind reports people actually read.
01
One page is enough
Executives won't scroll. If it needs 3 pages, make 3 dashboards. Page 1 fits A4 landscape. Details live in drill-through pages.
02
Start with the decision
What will this dashboard cause someone to do? If no action follows, remove the dashboard. Every widget earns its place.
03
Comparison is the whole point
"Sessions = 45k" is useless. "Sessions = 45k, +12% vs prev 30d" tells a story. Always pair current vs benchmark.
04
Date range control at the top
Let users change the window themselves. Default to last-30-days; allow custom. A dashboard stuck on one period ages badly.
05
Colour with meaning, not decoration
Green = good, red = alert, amber = attention. Don't use rainbow palettes "because the chart allows it". Colour conveys information.
06
Data source + last update always visible
"Data from GA4 · Last refresh 12 min ago" in every report footer. Trust requires provenance + freshness.
Honest limits
Where Looker Studio falls short.
Data sampling on large datasets
GA4 connector samples data on reports covering >10M events. Reality distorted, not reflected. Workaround: BigQuery backend (pulls full unsampled data).
Limited calculated-field power
Formulas OK for basic math. For complex logic (cohort analysis, window functions), you'll hit walls. Push heavy transforms to SQL in BigQuery, expose result as a datasource.
Performance at scale
Dashboards with 20+ widgets + large datasets load slowly. Split into multiple reports. Pre-aggregate data in BigQuery. Don't try to render 500k rows client-side.
No write-back / alerting
Read-only. Can't trigger actions, send alerts, write back to source. For alerts use Google Alerts + scheduled email sends of the report; for actions use Zapier triggered on BigQuery.
Versioning + collaboration weak
No history; if someone breaks the report, you're manually rebuilding. Solve via regular "export as file" backups + freeze-view snapshots at month-end.
Power-BI / Tableau feature gap
For advanced analyst workflows (drill-through filters, DAX equivalents, advanced joins), paid BI tools still lead. Looker Studio wins on price + simplicity, not feature depth.
Frequently asked
Looker Studio questions.
Yes — dashboard builds are €800-3,500 flat depending on complexity + connectors needed. Executive summary (GA4 only): lower end. Multi-connector blended report with BigQuery backend: higher end. Ongoing maintenance as part of SEO/PPC retainer.
Stop making dashboards in PowerPoint.
45-minute call. Share what you'd want to know weekly from your marketing data; we'll map it to a Looker Studio dashboard spec — data sources, widgets, layout, refresh cadence. Flat-fee build afterwards.