<p>Hello, I'm <strong>Borja Pérez</strong>; you may remind me of other posts about <strong>Looker Studio</strong> such as <a href='/blog/que-es-un-looker-studio-y-en-que-puede-ayudarte'><strong>“What is a Looker Studio and how can it help you</strong></a>?” or, also, movies such as <strong>“Two minus three, negative fun”</strong> or “<strong>Lead paint; delicious, but deadly”.</strong></p> <p>If you have come this far, the first thing is to thank you for your infinite patience (the previous post needed a well-filled coffee to be read from start to finish) and the second thing is to <strong>encourage you to use this platform that will not make you look poor, but with which you will save precious time.</strong></p> <p><strong>Think of it this way, the beginnings aren't easy, but once you have the template set up, you'll most likely feel as <a href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4lV7NNAMJs'><strong>if you're covered in gold (14 carats).</strong></a></strong></p> <p>And that's right: start seeing how <strong>Looker Studio</strong> works right from the start. Well, almost, we skipped the origin of time because we have a lot of trouble</p>. <h2>Step 1 - Report creation</h2>
<h3><strong>What does it consist of?</strong></h3>
<p><a href='http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlDX3RXrwos'>Easy: we need to generate a first report where our data sources are present in the form of graphs, tables, controls or articles of sea shit that they said in Top Secret.</a></p>
<h3><strong>How do we do it?</strong></h3>
<p>With this one they won't give me the Nobel Prize this year either, but here it goes:</p>
<ol>
<li>Connect via a computer and your favorite browser to <a href='https://lookerstudio.google.com'>https://lookerstudio.google.com</a>(with the username and password of your Google account, of course). </li>
<li>Click on the “create” button.</li>
<li>Select the “report” option.</li>
</ol>
<figure></figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/03/[email protected]'><h2>Step 2 - Data Entry</h2>
<p>Once the report has been opened, the first decision must be made:</p>
<h3><strong>What font do we want to add?</strong></h3>
<p><em><strong>Note</strong>: In this first tutorial, and to make things easier, we are going to add a first and only source to deal with, but one of the best points of <strong>Looker Studio</strong> is that it allows you to mix data from different places and share it as we had here.</em></p>
<h3><strong>How do we add the source?</strong></h3>
<ol>
<li><strong>We searched the list</strong> for our trusted provider for this purpose, <strong>Welov</strong> in this case (FOR WHATEVER).</li>
<li><strong>We click</strong> on the connector to be able to add the first source.</li>
<li><strong>We choose the project</strong> (which will match the one we have in <strong>app.welov.com</strong>) and click on “next”. </li>
<li><strong>We choose the profile</strong> (the social network that will serve as a source for the data) and click on (oh, surprise!) “next”.</li>
<li><strong>We choose the type of metrics</strong>: profile only, dimensions only or “all metrics”. We'll mess with this later, but we're left with the third option to make things easier</li>.
<li><strong>We click</strong> on “add”.</li>
</ol>
<figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/03/[email protected]'/><figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/03/[email protected]'/></figure></figure><h2>Step 3 - <a href='http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENrRF90JzHQ'>To know him is to love</a> him</h2>
<p>Let's make a composition of place: <strong>where are we and what cork does all the functions we see do</strong>?</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Title of the report</strong>: Cotton is not deceiving. This functionality is used to nominate our document. Just delete the predefined name and enter the one you want. Here are some suggestions: “machine report, megacrack, escalope, ocean liner, earthquake...”</li>.
<li><strong>Menu bars</strong>: at this point you will find the same thing as in any desktop program or app: from a place to open a new document to a part dedicated to editing, another to help... we will focus on this point in future posts.</li>
<li><strong>Toolbar:</strong> we're going to break this down a little bit later in this same article.</li>
<li><strong>Properties column:</strong> the same thing, now let's go with it.</li>
<li><strong>Data column:</strong> You'll have to wait your turn, but you'll also go through a detailed analysis.</li>
</ol>
<figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/03/[email protected]'/></figure><h2><strong>Step 4 - Tool menu (undo, page and data)</strong></h2>
<ol>
<li><strong>Undo and Redo:</strong> They need little presentation and are still as useful as ever. Oh, they also work with keyboard shortcuts (Crtl -o command- + Z</li>).
<li><strong>Selection mode:</strong> the typical button used to move from the magnifying glass (next point), the creator of shapes or lines to the cursor with which to select the elements.</li>
<li><strong>Magnifying glass:</strong> with which we can zoom in on our report and move with the cursor. There are also keyboard shortcuts (they are indicated in the same menu and are adapted to your computer's operating system</li>).
<li><strong>Add page:</strong> with this functionality, we opened one of the Pandora boxes that we will see in future posts, but now suffice it to say that it allows us to create an extra page within our report and, with this, a navigation menu per page and a bookmark will be activated so that we know where we are (numbers 6 and 7 in the following screenshot).</li>
<li><strong>Add data:</strong> Do you remember the 2nd step? Well, this reactivates the same menu. Useful if you want to add a new source of data to your report on the fly</li>.
</ol>
<figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/06/[email protected]'/></figure><h2><strong>Step 5 - Tool menu (graphics)</strong></h2>
<p>What kind of graphics can we add? (we'll dive deeper into this in future posts</p>):
<ul>
<li><strong>Table (three types):</strong> normal; with bars to represent the data; and with heat maps. We can assemble them with dimensions and metrics</li>.
<li><strong>Results table:</strong> oriented to metrics only and with two types of visualizations available: with abbreviated results or not.</li>
<li><strong>Time series (three types):</strong> normal line; minigraphic (for short time series); and softened.</li>
<li><strong>Bars (horizontal and vertical of three types):</strong> normal; stacked (each metric adds more height to each column); and 100% stacked (the same as the previous ones, but starting from a maximum height).</li>
<li><strong>Circulars.</strong> The usual cake graphics in two modes: normal and ring</li>.
<li><strong>Google Maps:</strong> focused on working with metrics that have to do with location (e.g. followers by country). There are four types: bubbles, which express data with this type of visualization; choropletic (candidate to receive the “2023 award for the best name for a graphic” and which works by painting each country in one color using the data as a guide); heat map; and lines (which is useful for marking areas with a route,</li> such as roads).
<li><strong>Geographic map:</strong> similar to the previous ones, but without the features of Google Maps; that is, without being able to zoom, click on a specific area, etc.</li>
<li><strong>Lines:</strong> ideal for making combinations between several metrics that operate under the same dimension (date, for example). There are two types: bars and lines or just lines. With more options in both cases: combination of series and bars stacked (or not) and series smoothed (or</li> not).
<li><strong>Areas:</strong> these are time series that show the data with a shadow that helps you understand it. Three types: simple, with stacked areas and 100% stacked</li>.
<li><strong>Dispersion:</strong> useful for showing the relationship between variables. To do this, they use circles whose circumference expresses the value of that data within a time series. Two types: bubbles and dispersion itself (only the time series is taken into account to visualize the data</li>).
<li><strong>Dynamic table:</strong> similar to the first ones, but they allow you to link data to each other and add dimensions to the Y axis. The typology is the same as in simple tables: normal, with bars and heat map.</li>
<li><strong>Bullet:</strong> ideal for showing a metric that has an objective and its behavior over time.</li>
</ul>
<figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/03/[email protected]'/></figure><h2>Step 6 - Tool menu (community components and visualizations)</h2>
<p>This tailor's drawer <strong>is made up of graphics; controllers</strong> (we'll get to that immediately); and <strong>other tools that companies and people create so that everyone who wants us can use them in our</strong> reports. There are heat maps, popups, temporary controllers. We will dedicate his own post to this, of course</p>.
<figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/03/[email protected]'/></figure><h2>Step 7 - Tool menu (controls)</h2>
<p>They allow you to interact with data in three ways: <strong>filtering; defining a period of time; or exchanging the data shown in a graph with others</strong>. We will see it in detail in later posts.
Now, just explain that <strong>there can be a control that affects an entire report or only one metric or graph</strong>. Or combine these two functions as you like.</p>
<figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/03/[email protected]'/></figure><h2>Step 8 - Tool menu (shapes, text and design).</h2>
<ol>
<li><strong>URL insertion:</strong> with this option you can include files uploaded to the cloud (directly from Google Drive, for example) so that they appear embedded in your report and, beware, that there is the possibility of operating with them as if you had them open in a tab.</li>
<li><strong>Image:</strong> you can add an image to your report (logos, photos; but also backgrounds, graphics you already have made...) from a URL or from your computer.</li>
<li><strong>Text:</strong> little to explain, right?</li>
<li><strong>Lines:</strong> simple; with arrows and curved connectors; and angular (for joining two tables, graphs or data).</li>
<li><strong>Shapes:</strong> to include squares, circles and rectangles in your reports and provide them with all kinds of style settings.</li>
<li><strong>Theme and design:</strong> This function is used to configure the theme that will govern the entire report. You can choose an already predefined one; create it from scratch; or edit any of the presets in colors, typography, filters, color for the highlights... we'll come back to this in another post</li>.
</ol>
<figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/03/[email protected]'/></figure><h2>Step 9 - Property column</h2>
<p>This is the place where each graph is configured, <strong>both in terms of metrics, dimensions and time ranges and in terms of style</strong> (colors, data labels...).
The more complicated the graphic or control, the greater the configuration capacity: <strong>adding more metrics, more dimensions, temporal comparisons, some filter...</strong></p>
<figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/03/[email protected]'/></figure><h2>10th step - data column</h2>
<p>Can you directly choose the dimensions and metrics in the previous column? You can. <strong>But that means you know what you're looking for and that you locate it by name.</strong> This would be ideal if all social networks had a common nomenclature, but since they are inspired by the Tower of Babel and what for some are “new posts”, for others are called “new posts”... <strong>it will take you a while to be clear about what you need</strong> (not long, you start seeing The <strong>Matrix</strong> much earlier than you think</p>).
<p>How do we resolve this contradiction? With the data column. <strong>In it, the metrics are organized by segments</strong> (posts, profiles and dimensions) and - for whatever the redundancy - dimensions available by each source. <strong>There is also a search engine, but it's much easier to scroll at the speed of</strong> <a href='http://https://makeagif.com/gif/conocemos-a-jose-bono-la-calculadora-humana-13tv-HnxvrK'><strong>José Bono</strong>, <strong>the calculating man</strong></a>, and find your <strong>Holy Grail</strong> from the data in what is said to be “the sky is bare”</p>.
<figure><img src='https://digitalpress.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/rnfrd3o/2023/06/[email protected]'/></figure><p>And that's all for this first post. I hope that everything has been more or less clear and, if not, <strong>give a whistle to the people who support this sacrosanct house who know that they are better than all the good things in the world</strong></p>. <blockquote><strong>Note</strong>: No <strong>Looker Studio</strong> report was damaged in the making of this post.</blockquote>
