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This happened a little while ago. In my previous article, I talked about participating in data utilization events and obtaining certifications, but this time I'll write about creating dashboards in Looker Studio.

At first, I was a little intimidated, but once I started putting the data into graphs, I was surprised to find that new questions and interests arose, such as, "Why is this trend occurring?" As I experimented with different approaches, trying to figure out "What kind of data do I need to delve deeper?", I found myself completely engrossed in the process.

However, it's true that it can feel daunting at first. So, this time, I'd like to share some tips on how we at our company use dashboards in a lighthearted way, hoping it will be helpful for those who feel that "data utilization is too difficult."

I hope that this article will encourage even one more person to think, "I don't need to be so apprehensive," or "Maybe we should try it too," and to approach data more casually.

What exactly is "Looker Studio"?

As many of you may already know, Looker Studio is a business intelligence (BI) tool provided by Google.

You can consolidate data scattered across various management screens, such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Google Search Console, into a single dashboard.

It allows users to create reports using drag-and-drop operations while also offering customization options, making it widely used by everyone from beginners to experts.

It's free to use, so if this article has piqued your interest, please feel free to try it out.

https://lookerstudio.google.com/overview

The ideal is a place where "you can find everything you need to know."

We track website access trends on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, and also provide detailed reports specializing in various areas, such as "event reports," "search reports," and "traffic reports."

Ideally, we want to be able to seamlessly perform everything from grasping the overall picture to conducting in-depth analysis within Looker Studio.

...While that sounds a bit better when put into words, the reality is that we're pretty much "groping in the dark."

Behind the scenes of dashboard creation

I started off with something safe: compiling weekly and monthly reports.

Basically, we create dashboards by linking data tables such as GA4.

• Weekly Report

  It can be used to understand the growth rate compared to the previous week and recent changes, such as "What was the initial response to the article that was just published?" and "What are the trending keywords this week?".

• Monthly and Annual Reports

  We use graphs showing trends over the past six months and year-on-year comparisons to check the overall growth status of the site. We also use this as a "fixed-point observation" tool to review the site's health over a medium to long term, including changes in device ratios and the proportion of new and returning visitors.

All reports utilize the rich visual capabilities of Looker Studio to allow for an intuitive understanding of the situation.

I've put together a brief summary of how I'm using it.

① Use of scorecards and graphs

Key indicators are displayed prominently on the "scorecard," and by placing them alongside comparison targets, outliers can be easily identified.

Access trends are summarized using either a line graph or a time period graph, allowing users to visually track access patterns.

② Multifaceted visualization

Visualize device ratios and new/returning customers using pie charts and other methods. Changes in percentages, which are difficult to visualize with simple numerical lists, can be seen at a glance.

③ Detailed data table

We also create lists that extract only the items we want to see, such as engagement time per page path.

Now that the basic reports are in place, we're also trying to integrate with BigQuery to conduct "deeper analysis."

For example, "visualizing page navigation within a site," which was difficult to achieve with standard features.

By organizing the data stored in BigQuery and importing it into Looker Studio's "Sankey Chart," we were able to intuitively understand the behavior within the site.

We are currently in the process of automating this query and setting up a pipeline to ensure that the latest data is always reflected.

Regarding the visualizations, they're not yet as good as the GA4 screen, so we're continuing to work on that as well.

In addition, we can use "data integration," which links different data tables, to track changes in average search rankings for each keyword, or to create a list of the top 10 most popular topics in each country...

Because I'm letting my curiosity get the better of me and cramming in all sorts of things I think "might be interesting to know," to be honest, I'm struggling to make the dashboard neat and tidy.

This dashboard is actually used in our weekly regular meetings.

For our company, which puts a lot of effort into article production, the "Top 10 Popular Articles" list is a particularly interesting topic.

It's genuinely gratifying to see, in numbers, that an article you've written is being read, and it's also fascinating to see how popular topics are in different countries—for example, "It's not that popular domestically, but it's being read a lot overseas."

summary

We are currently working hard to improve the accuracy of all of them, but right now we are prioritizing "looking for seeds of new discoveries by manipulating the data but a trying to get 100% correct answers."

Instead of grappling with numbers with a serious expression, open the dashboard with a light heart and ask, "How are the results this week?"

Even such a casual approach constitutes a valid form of "data utilization."

* All data used is handled appropriately in accordance with our privacy policy, as statistical information using IDs that do not identify individuals.