Looker Studio mixing allows you to create charts, tables, and controls primarily based on a number of information sources. However there may be way more to blends than the definition implies. On this sequence of weblog posts, we’re going to go over the basics of mixing in addition to cowl some superior use circumstances.
Why mix information?
The mixing characteristic opens a world of prospects for efficient evaluation of knowledge. You possibly can improve your reviews with further information from different sources, for instance, add buyer data from a CRM database to your ecommerce transactions reviews or analyze effectiveness of your advert spend by including product gross sales particulars to your advert impression and click on reviews. However, along with enriching your information with extra fields, it’s also possible to do issues in any other case unattainable with a single information supply. One instance is mixing the identical information supply with itself. This one easy trick means that you can create calculated metrics primarily based on a subset of the identical unique metric. That is most helpful when working with customized occasions and can be useful in different use circumstances. Say you’ve got a pageview report filtered to a particular part of your web site, for instance solely product element pages. You need to present product pageviews by class in addition to what p.c of all web site pageviews it represents. You could possibly use a “P.c of Whole” comparability calculation subject, however as a result of this report is filtered to solely embrace product pages, this may solely let you know proportion of complete pageviews of product pages, and never your complete web site. With mixing, this turns into attainable.
When do you have to NOT mix?
Mixing is just not attainable when you’ve got greater than 5 information sources. Presently, Looker Studio solely means that you can mix as much as 5 information sources. When you’ve got extra advanced necessities, you will have to do some prep work of mixing a few of your information sources earlier than you add them to your mix or discover a totally different reporting and visualization device that doesn’t have this limitation.
Blends may lead to a really massive dataset if the info sources you’re mixing are massive and you aren’t retrieving a subset of that information. This will both decelerate your reviews or break your dashboards fully if the ensuing dataset is just too massive for the device to course of. Google strongly advises that mixing must be used primarily to create subsets of unique information.
You also needs to assume twice about mixing when you want to evaluate your metrics to a distinct time vary, comparable to earlier yr or earlier month. In circumstances when there’s a “null” worth in one of many blended desk rows, no comparability values shall be displayed for any of the rows, even for these the place the deltas do exist. Google is conscious of this limitation and recommends that you don’t present any comparability metrics when your information is anticipated to incorporate null values. There’s a potential workaround for this that we are going to get into within the subsequent weblog put up.
Mixing Execs and Cons
Execs
- Higher efficiency insights that let you evaluate your KPIs between totally different information subsets or throughout different time intervals or visualize information from a number of platforms in a single chart as an alternative of getting to take a look at them facet by facet.
- Quicker reviews, since you may show all needed metrics in a single mixed desk, decreasing the variety of tables that have to be refreshed every time you alter a date vary.
- Versatile reporting metrics, with advanced calculations and comparisons that might in any other case require you to control your information offline.
Cons
- Restricted variety of sources, if you want to be a part of greater than 5 sources of knowledge you’ll have to look elsewhere.
- Aggregation points when working with customized fields from a number of sources of knowledge.
- Blended information sources with rows containing null values require calculated metrics.
Conclusion
Google Knowledge Studio has lengthy been a go-to device for information analysts and entrepreneurs alike, and now Looker Studio is positioned to proceed to function the most effective free instruments on the market for simple information visualization. It’s not with out its points, however like with any advanced device, there are attainable options for any downside. In upcoming weblog posts, we’ll find out about various kinds of mixing in addition to dive deeper into a number of the inventive tips for extra advanced reporting eventualities. If you’re on the lookout for assist with creating new Looker Studio reviews or sustaining your present dashboards, please attain out to information@morevisibility.com.
