Hey there! I'm Benjamin from Loves Data and in this tutorial I'm going to show you how to
create this Google Ads dashboard in Google Data Studio. By creating your dashboard in
Google Data Studio you can choose which metrics to include, how data is presented and even customize
the look of your dashboard. We'll use two data sources to create this dashboard. We
will include data directly from Google Ads and also include data from Google Analytics,
so we can understand how people engage with our website after they've clicked our ads.
And we will be using the latest version of Google Analytics, which is Google Analytics 4 (or GA4),
however, if you're still using Universal Analytics, then you could connect this
to your dashboard too. Okay, so we can see this dashboard focuses on two key areas when it comes
to Google Ads campaigns. The first thing is that it has a strong focus on the advertising cost,
so how much we're spending overall. For example, at the top we can see key metrics
presented as scorecards and then we can also see the cost broken down by the individual campaigns,
as well as the devices people are using, again based on the advertising cost. We've also compared
this to conversions. So really this Google Ads dashboard is focused on cost compared to
the results we're achieving based on conversion data flowing through to our Google Ads account.
This makes the dashboard very actionable because we can immediately see where we're spending
and the results we are achieving. So this makes it easy to identify areas that we might want to
improve in our account. For example, we can quickly see there are campaigns that haven't
resulted in any conversions and campaigns that have only resulted in a few conversions.
And we can also see the cost associated with each campaign, so if a campaign is costing us and we're
not seeing results, we can then head to our Google Ads account to analyze performance in more detail.
Now the dashboard does also include some data from Google Analytics. The purchase revenue
is coming from Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This metric show revenue from ecommerce transactions
being collected into the reports. And the engagement rate metric is also from GA4.
This is a top-level health metric for the website and shows the percentage of engaged sessions.
An engaged session is counted when someone spends longer than ten seconds on your website,
when their session includes a conversion, or when a session includes two or more page views.
So assuming that your Google Ads campaigns are really geared towards driving people
through to your landing pages and getting them to engage and convert, then you would be looking to
increase your engagement rate. At the bottom of the dashboard we can also see some trend data.
We are mapping out the data from Google Ads based on day. This gives us the overall trends for the
cost. So if there's any particular peaks when we're spending more on a given day,
as well as the conversions we're achieving on each of these days.
Now of course we're going to travel through creating this particular dashboard,
but I do encourage you to actually customize this to meet your own particular needs when it
comes to managing and reporting on your Google Ads account. You might, for example, be more focused
on different types of metrics. For example, if you have a content only site then you might want to
switch out conversions for a different metric that is appropriate for your particular organization.
Or if your site is focused on purchases, then you might change the engagement rate metric to
'Average Purchase Revenue' or 'Purchase-to-view Rate' or another ecommerce metric. Now let's
head to the Google Data Studio home page to create this report. And let's click 'Create'...
Now I just want to highlight that you can connect your own Google Ads account as the data source,
but for this dashboard we're going to use the Google Ads sample data,
so let's select 'My Data Sources'... '. This might be at the bottom of the list if you
haven't used it before. And you can also use the And then we can select 'Sample Google Ads input
at the top to search for it. Now let's click 'Add'... And 'Add To Report'...
Now we can start building our dashboard. A table is added by default, but let's remove this
so that we're starting from scratch... Let's add a scorecard to the top of our dashboard...
And we can drag this to position it where we like...
We can see that the sample data is immediately loaded from Google Ads. But, again,
I encourage you to connect your own Google Ads account to your dashboard. Now I'm
going to click on the default metric to change this... Let's search for and select 'Cost'...
This will show us our advertising cost for all of our campaigns. I simplified
the way that the cost was presented in the final dashboard. To do this, let's select 'Style'...
And then enable 'Compact Numbers'... And let's select 'two' for the 'Decimal Precision'... This
just makes it a little bit cleaner when larger numbers are presented. Next, the final dashboard
had a small trendline next to the metric. So let's add this by selecting 'Add A Chart'...
And then selecting the 'Sparkline Chart' option. It's the one in the middle under 'Time Series'...
Since we just used the cost metric for our scorecard, we can see that the sparkline chart
is automatically using this metric. If this metric is different, then you can change it
by selecting the current metric and changing it to 'Cost'... Before we add the other scorecards
and trendlines to our dashboard, let's add a bit of styling. Let's add a rectangle... And move it
behind our charts by selecting 'Arrange'... Then 'Order'... And then 'Send To Back'...
Let's adjust the size... And the position of the charts...
Now let's change the color of the rectangle to white...
Add a corner radius... And add a border shadow... Now let's change the background
color of our dashboard. To do this, let's select 'Theme and Layout'...
Then click 'Customize'... And change the report background to gray... Now let's click and drag, so
that the two charts and rectangle are selected... And let's choose 'Arrange'... And then 'Group'...
Let's copy this, so that we have this element repeated six times at the top of our dashboard...
Now we need to adjust each of these to present the correct metric. Let's double click 'Cost'
in the group on the very right to edit it... And let's change the metric to 'Conversions'...
You will need to make sure that you have conversion tracking set
up correctly inside Google Ads in order for conversions to be correctly reported.
If you would like to learn more about Google Ads conversion tracking,
then I've included extra resources for you in the description below this video.
Next we need to double click the sparkline... And change the metric to 'Conversions'...
Now on the second row, let's double-click 'Cost' in the first group...
And let's change the metric to 'Conversion Rate'...
And then let's change the metric for the sparkline...
Then for the next group, let's change the metric to 'CTR' so it shows us the
click-through rate for our ads... And then let's change the metric for the sparkline...
Okay, now we're going to add metrics from Google Analytics. So let's double click 'Cost' in the
middle group of the top row... Then we need to click the current data source for the chart...
And now let's click 'Add Data'... Currently, Google doesn't have a sample GA4 (Google
Analytics 4) data source in Google Data Studio, so I'm going to connect Google's demo property
to this dashboard. You can do the same, or I actually recommend connecting the Google Analytics
property for the website you're advertising with Google Ads. For my dashboard, I'm going to select
'Google Analytics'... Then 'Demo Account'... Then 'GA4 Google Merchandise Store'...
If you don't have access to this demo property, then I've included a link to
my dedicated tutorial in the description below this video. Now let's click 'Add'...
And 'Add To Report'...
Now let's change the metric. Let's select the default metric... And search for and
select 'Purchase Revenue'... This is an ecommerce metric, so if you're not selling on your website,
then you could select another metric from Google Analytics. For example, you could use
something like 'Users' or 'Sessions', or any other metric instead of 'Purchase Revenue'.
Now the important thing to highlight here is that 'Purchase Revenue' will be for the entire website
which means all the different channels that are driving traffic and resulting in purchases.
So we're going to apply a filter so this only includes traffic from Google Ads.
To do this, we scroll to the bottom of the 'Data' column...
And we click 'Add A Filter'... Let's name the filter 'Google Ads'... Let's
leave 'Includes'... And then search for and select 'Session Source'...
Now let's select 'Equal To' as the condition...
And let's enter 'google' all lowercase as the value...
Now let's click 'And'... Leave 'Include'... Then search for and select 'Session Medium'...
Then 'Equal To'... And enter 'cpc' all lowercase as the value... This will only match Google CPC,
so our Google Ads traffic coming to the Website. Now let's save the filter...
We can see that the value for 'Purchase Revenue' was updated to only include the value of the
ecommerce transactions associated with our Google Ads campaigns. Now let's select the
sparkline... Change the data source... Ensure that 'Purchase Revenue' is selected as the metric...
And add the filter we just created to the chart...
Now let's double click the 'Cost' metric in the group on the bottom right...
And let's change the data source, so that it also uses Google Analytics...
Now let's change the metric to 'Engagement Rate'... And let's apply the 'Google Ads'
filter we just created... And now we need to do the same for the sparkline...
So we change the metric...
And add the filter... Next we're going to include a table
that shows the different campaigns along with their associated cost
and the number of conversions coming from each campaign. So let's select 'Add A Chart'...
And under 'Table'... Let's choose the option in the middle that is a 'Table with Bars'...
Let's change the data source to Google Ads...
And let's add 'Campaign' as the dimension... And let's add 'Cost' as a metric...
And let's also add 'Conversions'...
Now let's select the 'Style' tab... And deselect 'Row Numbers'...
Then we need to look for 'Metrics'... And under 'Column
Number One'... Let's enable 'Show Number'... And 'Compact Numbers'... And set the 'Decimal
Precision' to 'Zero'... And let's do the same for 'Column Number Two'... Let's enable 'Show
Number'... And 'Compact Numbers'... And set the 'Decimal Precision' to
'Zero'... We can now quickly see the associated cost and number of conversions for each of our
campaigns in the dashboard... Now let's add a column chart to our dashboard...
And let's change the dimension to 'Device'...
Let's remove the default metrics... And let's add 'Cost' and 'Conversions' as metrics...
Now let's select 'Style'... And set the number of 'Bars' to 'Three'...
I'm just doing this to remove the devices that don't incur much cost. Now all we need to do
is add the timeline at the bottom of our dashboard to give that detailed view for each day. This will
let us see the cost and the number of conversions. Let's add a 'Combination Chart' to our report...
And let's change the dimension from 'Campaign' to 'Day'...
And change the metrics so that 'Cost' is above 'Conversions'...
Now we need to change the sorting because we can see it's not actually sorting by day.
So let's change the 'Sort' to 'Day'... And then 'Ascending'...
Now let's select 'Style'... And look for 'Series Two'... And select 'Right' as the 'Axis'...
Now we just need to add white rectangles behind our charts...
And we can also adjust the colors used for the dimensions in our dashboard...
We've now built our Google Ads dashboard. We can see at the top, we have top-level
metrics presented as scorecards along with the sparklines for each of those metrics.
We can also see a breakdown of the different campaigns with their cost
and total number of conversions. Plus the cost and number of conversions for the
different devices people are using as well as the timeline that shows a day-by-day breakdown
of the metrics. So that's how you can create your own Google Ads dashboard in Google Data Studio.
You can now customize your dashboard further. And if you would like to get a copy of this dashboard,
then I've included a link to the template in the extra resources below this video.
I'd love to know if you're using Google Data Studio to report on your Google Ads campaigns.
Let me know in the comments below. And if you found this video helpful, please like it so I
know to make more videos like this one. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video!