{"id":126632,"date":"2019-05-14T14:20:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T14:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=126632"},"modified":"2020-02-24T06:35:57","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T06:35:57","slug":"google-data-studio-updates-april-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/05\/14\/google-data-studio-updates-april-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"A summary of Google Data Studio: Updates from April 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

April was a big month for Google Data Studio (GDS), with Google<\/a> introducing some significant product updates<\/a><\/strong> to this already robust reporting tool.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

For those not familiar with GDS, it is a free dashboard-style reporting tool that Google<\/a> rolled out in June 2016. With Data Studio, users can connect to various data sources to visualize, and share data from a variety of web-based platforms. <\/span><\/p>\n

GDS supports native integrations with most Google<\/a> products including Analytics<\/a>, Google Ads<\/a>, Search Ads 360 (formerly Doubleclick Search), Google<\/a> Sheets, YouTube Analytics<\/a>, and Google<\/a> BigQuery. <\/span><\/p>\n

GDS supports connectors that users can purchase to import data from over one hundred third-party sources such as Bing Ads, Amazon Ads<\/a>, and <\/span>many others<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sample<\/p>\n

Source: Google<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Google introduces BigQuery BI Engine for integration with GDS<\/h2>\n

BigQuery is Google\u2019s<\/a> massive enterprise data warehouse. It enables extremely fast SQL queries by using the same technology that powers Google<\/a> Search. Per Google<\/a>,<\/p>\n

“Every day, customers upload petabytes of new data into BigQuery, our exabyte-scale, serverless data warehouse, and the volume of data analyzed has grown by over 300 percent in just the last year.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"BigQuery<\/p>\n

Source: Google<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Enhanced data drill-down capabilities<\/h2>\n

You can now reveal additional levels of detail in a single chart using GDS\u2019s enhanced data drill down (or drill up) capabilities. <\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll need to enable this feature in each specific GDS chart and, once enabled, you can drill down from a higher level of detail to a lower one (for example, country to a city). You can also drill up from a lower level of detail to a higher one (for example, city to the country). You must be in \u201cView\u201d mode to drill up or drill down (as opposed to the \u201cEdit\u201d mode).<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example of drilling-up in a chart that uses Google\u2019s<\/a> sample data in GDS.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"GDS<\/p>\n

Source: Google<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

To drill-up by year, right click on the chart in “View” mode and select \u201cDrill up\u201d as shown below.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"GDS<\/p>\n

Visit the Data Studio Help website<\/a> for detailed instructions on how to leverage this feature.<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Improved formatting of tables<\/h2>\n

GDS now allows for more user-friendly and intuitive table formatting. This includes the ability to distribute columns evenly with just one click (by right-clicking the table), resizing only one column by dragging the column\u2019s divider, and changing the justification of table contents to left, right, or center via the “Style” properties panel in \u201cEdit\u201d mode.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Example<\/p>\n

Source: Google<\/em><\/p>\n

Detailed instructions on how to access this feature are located <\/span>here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

4. The ability to hide pages in “View” mode<\/h2>\n

GDS users can now <\/span>hide pages<\/span><\/a> in “View” mode by right clicking on the specific page (accessed via the top submenu), clicking on the three vertical dots to the right of the page name, and selecting “Hide page in view mode”. This feature comes in handy when you\u2019ve got pages you don\u2019t want your client (or anyone) to see when presenting the GDS report.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Source: Google<\/em><\/p>\n

5. Page canvas size enhancements<\/h2>\n

Users can now customize each page\u2019s size with a new feature that was rolled out on March 21<\/span>st<\/span> (we\u2019re sneaking this into the April update because it\u2019s a really neat feature). <\/span><\/p>\n

Canvas size settings can be accessed from the page menu at the top of the GDS interface. Select Page>Current Page Settings, and then select \u201cStyle\u201d from the settings area at the right of the screen. You can then choose your page size from a list of pre-configured sizes or set a custom size of your own.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"GDS<\/p>\n

Source: Google<\/em><\/p>\n

6. New Data Studio help community<\/h2>\n

As GDS adds more features and becomes more complex, it seems only fitting that Google<\/a> would launch a community help forum for this tool. So, while this isn\u2019t exactly a new feature to GDS itself, it is a new resource for GDS users that will hopefully make navigating GDS easier.<\/span><\/p>\n

Users can access the <\/span>GDS Help Community<\/span><\/a> via Google\u2019s support website or selecting “Help Options” from the top menu bar in GDS (indicated by a question mark icon) then click the “Visit Help Forum” link.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Source: Google<\/em><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n

We hope that summarizing the latest GDS enhancements has made it a little easier to digest the many new changes that Google rolled out<\/a> in April (and March). Remember, you can always get a list of updates, both new and old by visiting Google\u2019s Support website <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacqueline Dooley is the Director of Digital Strategy at CommonMind.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GDS, a free dashboard-style reporting tool launched in June 2016 allows data import from over 100 third-party sources. Updates listed with screenshots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":127537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,5],"tags":[228,981,482,22],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-126632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics","category-seo","tag-analytics","tag-google-data-studio","tag-google-updates","tag-seo"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/A-summary-of-Google-Data-Studio-Updates-from-April-2019-120x90.jpg","category":"Analytics","timeago":"7y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126632"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=126632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}