Hey there, I'm Benjamin from Loves Data! In this video, I'm going to show you how to add
annotations to your reports in Google Data Studio. And I will also walk-through how to
connect your Google Calendar to automatically create annotations when new events are added.
Using annotations, or notes, is a great way to add context to your dashboards and reports.
You can use annotations to quickly highlight important dates. For example, to quickly identify
when you launched new campaigns, made changes on your website, or other key dates throughout the
year. To do this we're going to connect Google Analytics and Google Sheets to our report.
Okay, let's head to Google Data Studio... Let's start by creating a new blank report...
Let's choose 'Google Analytics'... And I'm going to select a GA4 Google Analytics 4 property...
Now let's click 'Add'... And 'Add To Report'...
I'm going to name my report 'GA4 Annotations'...
Now before we go any further we need to create a spreadsheet in Google Sheets
that contains our annotations and we also need to connect our Google Calendar to Google
Sheets. So let's head to Google Sheets... And let's create a new spreadsheet...
I'm going to name my spreadsheet 'GA4 Annotations', but you can name
your spreadsheet anything you like... Now let's name our columns... Let's name the first column
'Date'... The second column 'Category'... And the third column 'Annotation'...
If you want to manually manage your annotations and don't want to connect Google Calendar
you can now simply enter the details you would like to see included in your report.For example,
let's enter a date... I have Google Sheets set to US formatting, so this means I need to enter
the date as the month, the day, and the year. If I entered the date as day, then month, and year,
then this wouldn't work because of my spreadsheet settings, so that's worth
checking if you're not sure. You can check this by selecting 'File'... Then 'Settings'...
And you can see the setting at the top... Okay, let's close this... Now we can enter the category
for our annotation. This is optional, but we're going to use this to distinguish different types
of annotations in our report. I'm going to use the categories of 'Website' and
'Marketing', but you can use any categories you like. And then we can enter our annotation...
We've now manually created an annotation in Google Sheets to use in our report. If you only want to
manually create annotations, and you don't want to link your Google Calendar to Google Sheets,
then you can skip ahead to creating the report in Google Data Studio. I've included a link in
the description below this video. Otherwise, we're going to link our calendar using Zapier.
Okay, let's head to Zapier... And let's create a new zap...
Let's search for and select 'Google Calendar'...
And for the event, let's select 'New Event'...
I've already connected Google Calendar and Google Sheets to Zapier, so if this is your first time
connecting them, you will need to authorize Zapier to access the apps. Since they're already
connected, let's click 'Continue'... Choose our Google Calendar account...
And click 'Continue'... I've also already created a new calendar called 'Annotations'
which I will use to store all of the annotations I want to use in my report,
so let's select the 'Annotations' calendar using the drop-down...
And let's click 'Continue'... Now let's click 'Test Trigger'...
We can see Zapier found an event in our calendar, so let's click 'Continue'...
Now for the action, let's search for and select 'Google Sheets'...
And for the event, let's select 'Create Spreadsheet Row'...
And click 'Continue'... Now we need to choose our Google Sheets account.
Again, I've already connected Google Sheets, but if it's your first time using the app,
then you will need to authorize Zapier to access your spreadsheets...
And let's click 'Continue'... Then we need to select our Google Drive...
Choose the 'GA4 Annotations' spreadsheet... And select the worksheet...
For the 'Date', let's search for and select 'Event Begins'...
For the 'Category', let's select 'Location'...
And for the 'Annotation', let's select 'Summary'...
Now let's click 'Continue'... And let's click
'Test and Continue' to send the test entry to Google Sheets...
The details have now been added as a row in our spreadsheet. Let's name the zap
'GA4 Annotations'... And you can now open your spreadsheet to check that everything is working
as you expect before you publish your zap. However, I'm happy with this, so I'm just going
to click 'Publish' now... This will mean that all future events are added to our spreadsheet.
You could also add additional functionality to your zap if you like. For example,
you could add a delay before the event is added to Google Sheets to help prevent
mistakes. But let's keep things simple today. Okay, now let's head back to Google Sheets...
We can see the date is formatted differently to the annotation we added manually,
so let's select the 'Date' column... Then choose 'Format'... Then 'Number'...
And select 'Date'... This will ensure that dates are formatted correctly.Now let's head to my
Google Calendar... And let's add another event to my annotations calendar... Let's name the event...
And I'm using the 'Location' as the category for my annotation.
So let's enter 'Marketing' as the location...
And let's save the event...
Now let's head back to Google Sheets... And we can see our new event is added as a new row... Okay,
so our Google Calendar is linked to Google Sheets. Now it's time to create our report in Google Data
Studio. We're going to combine the annotations from Google Sheets with Google Analytics.Let's
head to Google Data Studio... Now we need to connect our spreadsheet to our report.
So let's select 'Resource'... And then 'Manage Added Data Sources'...
Let's select 'Add A Data Source'... Choose 'Google Sheets'... Select our spreadsheet...
And click 'Add'... And 'Add To Report'...
Now let's select 'Resource' again... And this time, let's choose 'Manage Blends'...
And click 'Add A Blend'... We're going to create a blended data source. This lets us combine data
from Google Analytics with the information in Google Sheets. Let's select the Google
Analytics data source for the first table... And search for and select 'Date' as the dimension...
Now let's add a metric... Let's add 'Total Users'...
Let's name the table 'GA4'... And let's add another table to our blend...
Let's select our spreadsheet... We can see date is automatically selected as the dimension...
We will be using 'Date' to join the information in the two data sources. Now let's add 'Annotation'
and 'Category' as dimensions too... Let's name the table 'Annotations'...
And click 'Configure Join' in the middle... We're going to leave the default of 'Left Outer'
selected... and we can see that the date dimension will be used to join the tables together...
Now let's click 'Save'... Let's name the new blended data source 'Blended GA4 Annotations'...
And let's click 'Save'... Now let's close the blended data source...
And let's remove the default table that was added to our report when we linked Google Analytics...
Now let's add a time series chart to our report...
And let's change the data source used for the chart... Let's select our blended data source...
Our chart now shows us the number of users by date...
Now let's add another metric to the chart... Let's add 'Category' as a metric...
Now we need to select the 'Style' tab... And find 'Series Number Two'... Now let's change
series two from 'Line' to 'Bars'... And let's select 'Right' as the 'Axis'...
We can see our chart now has bars which indicate dates that include an annotation...
Now let's scroll down further in the 'Style' tab... And find 'Right Y-Axis'...
Let's set the minimum to zero... The maximum to one... And the custom tick interval to one...
Now let's select the 'Setup' tab... And for the 'Category' metric,
let's click the small pencil icon... And rename the metric 'Annotation'...
This just makes it easier to see that the bars are for annotations in the chart.
Now let's add a table to our report...
And let's add 'Category' and 'Annotation' as dimensions... And let's change the sort from
'Decending' to 'Ascending'... We can see that 'Null' is reported for every date that doesn't
have an annotation. This isn't very useful, so we're going to create a filter to remove
these rows from the table. To do this, we scroll to the bottom of the 'Setup' tab...
And click 'Add A Filter'... Let's name the filter 'Remove Null'... And let's change 'Include' to
'Exclude'... Now let's select 'Annotation' as the field... And then 'Is Null' as the condition...
Now let's click 'Save'... We can now see the table only includes dates that have an annotation.
Let's view the report... We can see data from Google Analytics combined with our annotations
from Google Sheets. And if we click on one of the bars... Our table is also filtered
to let us quickly see the annotation for that date... And clicking 'Reset' lets us view
all of the annotations again... Now let's head back to our calendar one more time...
And let's add a new event... Click 'Save'... And let's head back to Google Data Studio...
Click the three vertical dots at the top... Choose 'Refresh Data'...
And we can see the new annotation we just added to Google Calendar is now in our report.
So that's how you can add annotations to data from Google Analytics using Google Data
Studio. And how you can link your Google Calendar to automatically add new events
as annotations to your report. Are you going to add annotations to your reports? I'd love
to know! 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!