Item: Looker Studio
Rating: 10
Author: Christopher Penn

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Google Data Studio is used both inside our organization and on behalf of clients. It's our primary reporting and visualization tool, and the primary method we communicate data to clients. Because of its robust integration capabilities and ease of use, it's our first go-to for any basic data visualization from cloud-based data.

Pros and Cons

Free.
Easy to use, like the rest of Google Docs.
Integrates with hundreds of data sources.

Calculated fields are clumsy.
No variables/data storage.
Not a BI/computational tool, visualization only.

Return on Investment

Google Data Studio, being no cost, has an infinite ROI.

Alternatives Considered

Tableau Desktop, Tableau Online and Tableau Public

Google Data Studio is free, easily integrates with the Google Marketing Platform, and is simple to use. It's a better choice for most basic marketing reporting. Tableau is better for more BI and exploratory data analysis.

Key Insights

Do you think Looker Studio delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Looker Studio's feature set?

Yes

Did Looker Studio live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Looker Studio go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Looker Studio again?

Yes

Other Software Used

RStudio, Tableau Desktop, Tableau Public

Likelihood to Recommend

Google Data Studio is a visualization tool. It's mandatory for anyone using the Google Marketing Platform, especially Google Analytics 4. It's essential for low-cost, lightweight visualization applications where live data and reporting is needed.

Google Data Studio is not a BI tool. It doesn't pretend to be one either, but that means you need to carefully think through what kinds of data you're going to be visualizing, and doing that pre-processing BEFORE your data gets to Google Data Studio.

Google Data Studio : Free, Convenient, Easy to Use

Overall Satisfaction with Google Data Studio