30 second summary:
- Clients and senior management want insights and not data
- As SEOs and digital marketers we spend hours swimming in data, but how do you get smart with your reports?
- Alex Medaward helps you use the features of Google Data Studio to transform boring and confusing data into meaningful, presentable and interactive reports that your customers will appreciate
Google Data Studio is a powerful and versatile reporting tool that can be used to create in-depth and visually appealing reports for your clients.
The “old school” way of creating reports and sharing analytics with clients typically involves the long and tedious process of manually downloading analytics and research data, then filtering and formatting the data in a spreadsheet, creating of visual elements from scratch and typing in detailed information.
A few hours later, you have a lot of data that you need to make presentable and easy for customers to understand.
With Google Data Studioyou can easily create visually appealing and easy to understand reports.
You can even match all your colors and fonts to give your reports a more refined look.
It is easy to see, whether you are an agency or freelancethat the old way of reporting not only takes time but is also subject to further confusion and questions from customers.
So much so that you could even limit reporting entirely to top customers or preservatives above a certain threshold.
Google Data Studio offers a much easier and faster way to create and even automate reports.
With Google Data Studio, you have a free and versatile dashboard to turn boring and confusing data into meaningful, presentable, and interactive reports that your customers will love.
With Google Data Studio, you can easily create visually appealing and easy to understand reports. You can even match all your colors and fonts to give your reports a more refined look.
This way, you can spend more time on strategy and analysesand less time for data processing.
1. Report almost everything
First, Google Data Studio allows you to connect to a variety of Origin of the dataincluding Google Sheets, Google Analytics and Google Ads.
By focusing on Google Analytics data, Google Data Studio gives you the ability to generate reports on almost anything that comes to your mind from your client’s website.
This includes the website trafficconversions, e-commerce transactionsand even custom events.
The possibilities are endless!
Featured connectors from Google and partners
- Google Ads
- Google statistics
- Google search console
- Youtube analysis
- Facebook Ads
- Google trends
- Tic knock
- SEMRush
- Mailchimp
- DCM (360 Campaign Management)
- SA360
- DV 360 (Display and Video)
- And over 600 more
2) Add custom charts and graphs that impress
Another great feature of Google Data Studio is the ability to create custom charts and graphs.
This can be extremely useful for conveying complex information in an easy-to-understand visual format.
Your customers will surely appreciate being able to see the data they care about most presented in a visually appealing way.
Create interactive and filterable reports
Another great feature of Google Data Studio is the ability to create interactive and filterable reports.
This means your customers can easily filter the data they want to see and interact with reports in a way that makes sense to them.
This is a huge step up from traditional relationships!
3) Share and control access smoothly
Gone are the days of having to send large, bulky Excel files back and forth between you and your customers.
With Google Data Studio, you can easily share reports with your customers in just a few clicks. You can also limit the data your customers have access to, so that they only see the information that is relevant to them.
Google Data Studio offers several ways to share relationships with your customers.
Reports can be easily exported as PDFs, images or shared directly via Google Drive. This allows your customers to easily access their reports from anywhere and at any time.
With just a few clicks, you can share your reports with anyone, privately or via a link, without having to worry about large files or compatibility issues.
Do you need to give someone edit access? No problem.
Google Data Studio makes it easy to add and remove users from your reports.
Don’t worry about the price – it’s free!
One of the best things about Google Data Studio is that it’s free!
Your customers will not be charged for accessing their reports, regardless of how often they view or download them.
This makes Google Data Studio an extremely convenient solution for creating and sharing reports.
4. Use templates made for you
Google Data Studio offers a variety of templates that you can use to create your reports.
These templates are great for getting started or for quickly creating reports.
All you have to do is select the template you want to use and then customize it according to your needs. It really is that simple.
There are currently over 100 templates available, with more being added all the time.
Whether you’re looking for a simple report template or something more complex, Google Data Studio has you covered.
Templates Include:
5. Add a custom branding for you (and your customers)
One of the best things about Google Data Studio is that you can easily add your own branding to your reports.
This is a great way to make your relationships stand out and to show your customers that you take yours seriously business.
With Google Data Studio, you can easily add your own logo, color scheme, and even custom fonts. This makes it easy to create reports that are truly unique and that reflect your brand.
6. Answer questions early with integrated insights
It’s not always possible to be available to answer your customers’ questions 24 hours a day. But with Google Data Studio, you can!
Google Data Studio offers the ability to add built-in insights to your reports.
Worried that your customers don’t understand something?
With Google Data Studio, you can add text or video annotations to your reports. This is a great way to explain complex concepts or to provide additional information that may be useful to your customers.
7. Make your relationships stand out with powerful channel comparisons
Get the full picture with a 360 degree view!
Google Data Studio gives you the ability to see all your data in one place.
This is a great way to get a complete picture of your business and to identify any areas for improvement.
Easily connect to multiple data sources, including Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Facebook and more.
You can then use this data to create reports that show your business performance across all channels.
This is a great way to identify any areas for improvement and to make sure your customers are getting the most out of their data.
8. Save time by automating the reporting process
Emails, text messages, and social media posts can be a great way to keep your customers updated about your business. But what if there was an easier way?
You can easily automate and schedule reports.
This is a great way to make sure your customers always have the most up-to-date stats.
Embed on your website
Google Data Studio makes it easy to create reports that can be embedded in your website.
There are a number of reasons why embedding a Google Data Studio report on your website can be beneficial to your customers.
First, it can help increase transparency and trust.
By displaying reports on your website, you give your customers easy access to all the data they need in one place under your brand.
Second, assuming your customer is sharing your relationship with relevant stakeholders, they will share your website link instead of a Google link.
This can in turn improve traffic to your website and increase the likelihood of them coming back.
9. Get important feedback from your customers
Additionally, by embedding a Google Form Survey URL at the end of the Google Data Studio report, you can collect valuable feedback from your customers.
This can help you identify any areas for improvement and ensure you are providing the best possible service to your customers.
Final thoughts
This is a powerful reporting tool that can be used to create amazing reports for your customers.
By taking advantage of the features and tips listed above, you can create truly unique reports that will impress your customers.
Alex Medawar is Senior Media Manager of Performics and creator of Alex Medawar.com. As a digital media expert, Alex Medawar focuses on B2B paid search campaign management and strategy for global brands in the tech space. Using a data-driven approach, Alex believes that both small and large businesses can speak to their audiences and deliver results in the digital media landscape.
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