Why this matters
Every Monday someone opens Google Analytics, takes screenshots and pastes them into an email for the team meeting. It takes half an hour, the numbers are stale by Wednesday, and nobody can click into them.
Looker Studio (Google now calls it Data Studio again) is free and connects straight to GA4. Build the report once and everyone opens the same link with live numbers. In this module you connect GA4 and put the three headline numbers at the top.
What you’ll build
A private Looker Studio report connected to your GA4 property, with a name people recognise.
Three scorecards at the top: Active users, Sessions and Engagement rate for the last 28 days.
What you need
- Nothing to start the practiceThe practice is built from real Data Studio screens with every number blurred and does not touch any account.
- A Google account that can read a GA4 property, to do it for realThe Viewer role in GA4 is enough. No property yet? Google offers a free GA4 demo account (Google Merchandise Store).
Concepts
2 ideas you’ll use in the practice.
Report, data source, connector
A report is the page people look at. A data source is its saved connection to the data, and a connector is the kind of connection (Google Analytics, Google Sheets, BigQuery and so on).
The first time you use the Google Analytics connector, Data Studio asks you to Authorize it to read your Analytics accounts. That is a one-time permission on your own Google account.
Scorecards: the headline
A scorecard shows one metric as one big number for the date range. Three to five are enough: Active users (people), Sessions (visits) and Engagement rate (visits that lasted over 10 seconds, saw two or more pages or included a key event).
The report is private when you create it. Anyone you later share it with sees its numbers even without their own GA4 access, so share on purpose.
Practice
Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.
Do it for real
Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.
Quick check
3 questions to check you’ve got it.
1. What does a scorecard show?
- One metric as one big number
- A line per day
- A list of pages
Show the answer
One metric as one big number. A scorecard is one number for the date range: the headline of the report.
2. Who can see the report right after you create it?
- Only you, until you share it
- Everyone in your GA4 property
- Anyone with the address
Show the answer
Only you, until you share it. New reports are private. Sharing is a separate, deliberate step.
3. Where do you pick which GA4 website the report reads?
- In the Google Analytics connector: account, then property
- In GA4 Admin
- In the scorecard style tab
Show the answer
In the Google Analytics connector: account, then property. The connector lists your accounts and their properties; you pick one and click Add.