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12 Essential Data Studio Visualizations for Paid Search Marketers via @amyppc

12 Essential Data Studio Visualizations for Paid Search Marketers via @amyppc

Ask any group of marketers what tools you should use for reporting, and you’re sure to hear an emphatic “Data Studio!”

Google’s free visualization and reporting tool has been around since 2016, and has only gotten better over time, with feature updates and improvements rolled out every month.

While Data Studio makes it easy to connect to data sources and automate reporting, you still need to decide which visualizations and information will be most useful for your audience.

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If you’re struggling with “blank page syndrome” on an empty Data Studio canvas, you can use the examples in this article for chart inspiration and guidance.

Design for Your Audience

Keep in mind that most clients and leadership teams are not as familiar with the nuances of paid marketing as the specialists they employ to manage it.

Insights that seem obvious to you can be completely unclear to someone less experienced.

Take extra steps to:

  • Spell out acronyms, use headings and microcopy.
  • Define technical words.
  • Enhance pre-attentive attributes like color and shape.
  • Look for ways to help your clients understand the meaning of the numbers they’re reviewing.

Basic Google Ads Visualizations for Client Reports

These visualizations are easy to create and provide clear, high-value data and insights.

If you’re brand new to Data Studio, check out this Beginner’s Guide for how to set up your first report so you can easily follow these instructions and recommendations.

1. KPI Scorecards

Scorecards are a staple of most digital marketing reports and dashboards – and for good reason.

They help your clients quickly see the performance of key metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators).

data studio scorecard visualization with microcopydata studio scorecard visualization with microcopy

You can create scorecards for almost any metric you want to showcase.

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I recommend arranging them in order of importance (KPIs like conversion data towards the beginning, traffic data toward the end).

Add comparison metrics, and adjust the color in the Style panel (shown below) so an increase in a metric like CPC doesn’t have a green “up” arrow.

set color of comparison metrics in data studio style panelset color of comparison metrics in data studio style panel

Here’s a quick overview of the metrics and dimensions you need to put this visualization together:

How to Create Scorecards

  • Data Range Dimension: Month
  • Metric: Use one key metric per scorecard
  • Comparison Data Range: Choose previous period, previous year or custom

2. Attention-Grabbing Tables

You don’t need a Search Engine Journal article to tell you what a table is. But the tables you can build in Data Studio aren’t the bare-bones Excel charts you used to send to clients.

data studio table with bar charts and heat mapsdata studio table with bar charts and heat maps

By using built-in features like color, bar charts, heatmaps, time comparisons, and targets, you can quickly draw attention to the most important elements of the table.

You can control each metric’s formatting from the Style panel. In this example, Column #1 displays both bars and compact numbers, with a target value of 50:

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customize data studio table in style panelcustomize data studio table in style panel

How to Create Tables

  • Dimension: Campaigns (shown); Accounts, channels, ad groups or other segments will work
  • Metrics: Choose metrics that contribute to the story you’re telling; remove non-essential metrics

3. Conversion Type Breakout

Some metrics are like Lego blocks, clearly defined and consistent. A click is a click is a click.

Some metrics are like Play-Doh, defined by the imagination of the user. A conversion is a sale – no wait! Now it’s also a page view.

Don’t let inconsistently defined conversions skew your reports; clearly show which conversion types are contributing to the total.

Here’s a stacked column chart that illustrates the breakout of conversion types over time:

stacked column chart of conversions by typestacked column chart of conversions by type

And here’s the same data in a stacked area chart for a different visualization:

area chart of conversions by typearea chart of conversions by type

How to Create Conversion Type Charts

  • Dimension: Month
  • Breakdown Dimension: Segment Conversion Type Name
  • Metric: Conversions
  • Sort: Month

4. Local Actions – Click Type Breakout

When you’re running location extensions and local search ads, conversions get even more complicated.

Google rolls metrics like website visits and menu views into “All Conversions,” which can create reporting headaches for marketers.

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Clicks on location extensions still accrue cost even if they don’t contribute to standard conversion targets.

How do you demonstrate the value of local actions without inflating your conversion numbers?

My favorite solution is to create a “value add” visualization that shows the breakout of click types.

Clients can easily see that these non-converting clicks are driving phone calls, chats, and other interactions that are important for their business:

data studio click types with iconsdata studio click types with icons

Adding icons is optional, but helps to communicate a variety of activity in what are admittedly confusing names for click types.

How to Create Click Type Breakout Charts

  • Dimension: Click Type
  • Metric: Clicks (shown); You can also use All Conv, CPC or Cost metrics
  • Sort: Clicks

Intermediate Google Ads Visualizations for Client Reports

Now that you’ve got the hang of how to prepare these visualizations, let’s look at more advanced examples.

These take a bit more effort to set up, but once you learn the skill you’ll be able to apply it to all your charts and reports.

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5. Top Ad Placements

This placement visualization is a client favorite.

Not only does it list the name of the site or channel where the ad appeared; it also allows your clients to click the active URLs so they can review the websites that are serving their ads.

table of placements with active URLstable of placements with active URLs

What makes this table complicated? Data Studio doesn’t have fields for placement data.

To create this chart, you’ll need to export your placement details from Google Ads to Google Sheets, then connect Google Sheets as a new data source in your report.

This tutorial walks you through all the steps, including how to add a data source.

gif showing steps to add placement urls to data studiogif showing steps to add placement urls to data studio

How to Create a Top Ad Placements Chart

  • Dimension: Placement
  • Dimension: Placement URL
  • Metrics: Conv. Value & Cost (shown); Just about any metrics can work well here
  • Sort: Conv. Value

6. YouTube Ads Performance

Clients love to understand and experience how their ads are performing, so this visualization is another favorite.

Rather than a table listing performance data of video titles or ad names, you can let people watch the ad directly from the report:

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embedded video ads in data studio reportembedded video ads in data studio report

Adding the video is easy; simply embed the YouTube URL.

To recreate the tables so they are each unique to the video, you’ll need to create a filter for each table.

data studio video table filterdata studio video table filter

How to Create a YouTube Ads Performance Visualization

  • Embed YouTube video
  • Dimension: (none applied; video filter used)
  • Metrics: Video views, Video view rate, YouTube earned views, View-thru conversions (shown); Many other
  • YouTube metrics are available, including watch rate

7. Micro Comparison Bar Charts

Data Studio’s built-in date comparisons are helpful, but limited.

You can compare two periods (such as month over month or year over year), but there’s no way to compare all three.

These micro bar charts solve that problem, making it easy to see the three time periods at a glance:

report with YoY and MoM datareport with YoY and MoM data

If you’re wondering about the MoM and YoY scorecard comparisons, it’s a little formatting hack explained here.

To create the microbar charts, you essentially need to “stage” the dimensions to only pull select months. This can be done using Google Sheets as a source, or creating a filter in Data Studio to hard-code months that are displayed.

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You can watch the YouTube tutorial on how to create micro bar charts with Google Sheets.

How to Create Micro Bar Charts

  • Dimension: Month or Year Month
  • Metrics: Your KPIs, one per chart
  • Sort: Month

Search Landscape Visualizations for Client Reports

To understand the causes and impact of paid search performance, it helps to examine external factors. These visualizations provide deeper context by looking at greater trends and activity.

8. Google Trends Data

When this month’s performance is significantly different than last month’s, clients want to know why. Did something change in the account, or was there a larger trend at play?

Google Trends can help you show the impact of seasonality, news cycles, and other events on your ad performance.

google trends datagoogle trends data

Google Trends doesn’t have a direct connector, but you can download the data to Google Sheets or use workarounds like strategiq.co’s gtrends.app.

How to Create a Google Trends Chart

  • Connect your data source
  • Dimension: Year Month
  • Metrics: Brand and Category search terms (shown); Any metrics are fine
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9. Google Analytics Channel Breakout

Even if paid search is your entire focus, it probably isn’t all your client is concerned about.

Including Google Analytics data for reference can be helpful to show the relationship between channels and previous time periods.

This chart shows revenue, revenue per order, and average order value by channel.

It also displays comparison to the previous month, and makes it easy to see each channel’s contribution to total revenue as a percentage.

data studio table showing comparison metricsdata studio table showing comparison metrics

Paid search enjoyed a 40% revenue increase month over month. But before we congratulate ourselves too much, we can see from this chart that most channels experienced a similar uptick.

A new addition for comparison visualizations is the treemap. While it doesn’t (yet) display metric values without hovering, it does better show the relationship between larger and smaller contributors.

datastudio treemapdatastudio treemap

How to Create a Google Analytics Chart (Table or Treemap)

  • Use Google Analytics as a data source
  • Dimension: Default Channel Grouping
  • Metrics: Revenue, Revenue as percent of total, Revenue per order, Average Order Value
  • Sort: Revenue
  • Time Comparison (for table): Previous period
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10. Auction Insights Scatter Plot

Of all the visualizations shared in this article, this Auction Insights chart is the most temperamental.

For starters, your company’s domain is represented by a (null) value, and it’s downhill from there.

But if you can get it to work, it’s a nice visual companion to a table that communicates several key competitive metrics at a glance.

We’ve also been able to access detailed competitor data that’s not available from the interface or downloads.

This chart shows the relationship between impression share, outranking share, and average position of multiple competitors all at once:

12 Essential Data Studio Visualizations for Paid Search Marketers12 Essential Data Studio Visualizations for Paid Search MarketersThere are other (more stable) ways to create Auction Insights charts, but I find this formatting makes it the easiest to interpret.

How to Create the Auction Insights Chart

  • Dimension: Auction Insights Scatter Plot
  • Metric X: Avg. Position for Auction
  • Metric Y: Outranking Share
  • Bubble Size: Impression Share
  • Sort: Avg. Position for Auction (Ascending)
  • Note: Chart shown uses Reverse X and Reverse Y Axis, with a minimum X axis value set to 1.
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Google Ads Visualizations for Internal Reports

Not all of the Data Studio visualizations you build should be client-facing.

You need your own tools for monitoring and management on a daily basis. And when you’re your own audience, you don’t have to be as fussy about the presentation.

These visualizations are great for internal reporting to help you identify and take action on performance in real-time.

11. Pacing Bullet Charts

The Google Ads interface gives you a lot of useful data, but it doesn’t help you see how you’re pacing against specific targets.

A Data Studio dashboard can show you daily averages, pacing to target, month to date pacing and more:

bullet charts for account pacingbullet charts for account pacing

To build this dashboard, you’ll need to create some calculated fields if you’re pulling data directly from Google Ads.

If you’re using Google Sheets for your data source, you can do the calculations there. Because of current limitations with date ranges, these calculated fields can be complicated.

How to Create This Pacing Dashboard

  • Date: Table (Dimension: Day, Date Range: Today)
  • Month Completed: Scorecard (Calculated field or Google Sheets)
  • Bullet Charts: Based on your goals and targets
  • Additional Scorecards: Calculated fields or Google Sheets
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12. Zoom-In / Zoom-Out Time Series Charts

One of the challenges for paid search marketers is needing to be in the weeds with granular data, without overlooking high-level trends.

If you need to see the big and the small at the same time, you can add multiple snapshots of the same metrics to a dashboard in Data Studio.

This group of time series charts shows cost and conversion value for 30 days, 90 days, and 12 months. The top filter controls the ad group being reviewed:

data studio - 3 time series charts with ad group filterdata studio - 3 time series charts with ad group filter

While volume is decreasing in the short term, it’s been steadily increasing over time.

There’s nothing wrong with using a similar layout in a client report, but I suggest offering a curated view to provide a specific answer, rather than including a filter control and putting the burden on your client to dig into the data and discover answers.

How to Create Time Series Ranges

  • Dimension: 1=Day, 2=Week, 3=Month
  • Metrics: Cost, All conv value (shown); Any metrics can be used

Conclusion

Data visualizations help you tell a story; they aren’t just for decoration or report filler.

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The more comfortable you become building meaningful charts and graphs, the better you can interpret data and help others do the same.

More Resources:


Image Credits

Featured Image: Created by author, July 2019

All screenshots taken by author, July 2019

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