Google Analytics 4 and Looker Studio: Enhance Your Data Analysis

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Looker Studio serve distinct purposes despite sharing some functionalities. GA4 is a measurement tool that tracks activity on your website and apps, providing reports in tables and charts along with advanced analysis features called Explorations. It helps monitor traffic, understand user behavior, and investigate results. Setting it up requires technical knowledge, such as installing a tracking code (gtag.js) on your website.

Looker Studio, on the other hand, is a Business Intelligence (BI) tool known for its visualization capabilities. It allows you to recreate many GA4 reports and analyses but excels in customization. Looker Studio empowers you to tell a story with your data by performing calculations, manipulating text, designing charts, and applying colors and styles. This makes data presentation engaging and easy to understand, even allowing viewers to interact with it.

There are multiple ways to connect Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Looker Studio:

1. Using a Looker Studio Connector: This is the easiest method. Looker Studio offers free and paid connectors. The free Analytics connector provided by Google is the most common. Here are the steps:

   • Sign in to Looker Studio using your email with the right credentials.
   • Click 'Create' or the 'Blank report' card.
   • Select the Google Analytics connector.
   • Select your account and property.
   • Click 'Add' and then 'Add To Report'.
   • Wait a few seconds, and your GA4 data will become available.
   • Use the Data panel to build customized charts and reports by dragging and dropping dimensions (e.g., device type, landing page) and metrics (e.g., sessions, conversions).

2. Using Google Sheets: This method acts as a bridge between GA4 and Looker Studio, helping to avoid API quota limits and speeding up report creation. You can export GA4 data to Google Sheets and then use Google Sheets as the data source for Looker Studio reports.

Yes, you can use Looker Studio with GA4, and it is highly recommended to get a clear vision of your business and enrich how you present your data. You can use Looker Studio with GA4 via a connector, which connects Looker Studio to your GA4 account where you can select the property you’d like to visualize. Both tools complement one another, providing comprehensive insights: GA4 provides the raw data, and Looker Studio transforms it into visually appealing reports.

Here are ways to export GA4 data to Google Sheets:

1. Export a Report: Google Analytics exports up to 5,000 rows when you download a report as a CSV. You can upload your CSV file to Looker Studio using the File Upload connector or import it into Google Sheets and format it.

2. Export Standard Reports:

   • In GA4, click the share icon.
   • Click 'Download file'.
   • Click 'Download CSV'.
   • Import your CSV file into Google Sheets and format it.
   • Use the Google Sheets Connector in Looker Studio to add the data to your report.

3. Export Explorations:

   • In your Exploration, click 'Export data'.
   • Select 'Google Sheets'.
   • In the new window, click 'Import the data'.
   • Format your data in Google Sheets and use the Google Sheets Connector in Looker Studio.

Yes, you can personalize dashboards in GA4 by arranging and editing them just like your standard reports. However, these dashboards will focus more on rearranging existing reports and lack Looker Studio’s advanced features. This means you won’t be able to combine data from multiple sources, use interactive filtering, or apply conditional formatting like color-coding performance metrics. Think of them as familiar report layouts but without the deeper customization options of Looker Studio.