Marketing teams are drowning in data, yet insight often feels just out of reach. Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) offers powerful charts that turn raw numbers into clear, actionable visuals—but only if you choose the right ones. The wrong chart can obscure trends, misrepresent performance, or leave your team guessing. In this guide, we’ll highlight five Looker Studio charts every marketing team should use to cut through the noise, track KPIs accurately, and make smarter, faster decisions.
Key Takeaways
See the story behind your data: The right chart type makes trends, patterns, and KPIs instantly clear.
Top charts for Looker Studio: Scorecards, bar charts, line charts, pie charts, and combo charts provide actionable insights without confusion.
Avoid misinterpretation: Using the wrong chart can hide important signals or exaggerate results—this guide shows the best use cases.
Drive smarter decisions: Proper visualization helps teams optimize campaigns, allocate budgets wisely, and improve ROI.
Quick deployment: Pre-built or customizable Looker Studio dashboards let marketing teams implement these charts without starting from scratch.
1. Scorecards: The KPI Quick-View
When to use: Scorecards are perfect for presenting key performance indicators (KPIs) at a glance, such as revenue, conversion rates, or ROAS.
Why it works: Scorecards strip away clutter and highlight critical metrics in a large, readable format. Teams can immediately spot successes or red flags without digging into raw data.
Pro tip: Pair scorecards with conditional formatting to automatically highlight growth or decline (green for positive trends, red for negative). This is especially useful during weekly marketing meetings, where time is limited.
Example: A marketing team tracking total email campaign conversions can see the metric instantly, compare it to the previous period, and make decisions about boosting or pausing campaigns.
2. Bar Charts: Comparing Campaign Performance
When to use: Bar charts are ideal for comparing discrete categories, such as traffic sources, campaigns, or landing page performance.
Why it works: The human eye interprets length differences quickly, making bar charts perfect for ranking and identifying top-performing channels.
Pro tips:
Use horizontal bars for long labels to improve readability.
Color-code bars for extra context, like campaign type or ad format.
Consider stacked bars to show subcategories, such as device type or region, while keeping totals visible.
Example: A bar chart comparing social media campaigns instantly shows which platform generated the most leads. Stacked bars reveal which demographics engaged most, helping optimize targeting.
3. Line Charts: Spotting Trends Over Time
When to use: Line charts are best for tracking performance over time, such as daily, weekly, or monthly trends.
Why it works: Line charts highlight patterns like seasonality, spikes, or declines, making it easier to predict future performance and plan campaigns proactively.
Pro tips:
Overlay multiple lines to compare related metrics, such as clicks vs. impressions.
Use smooth lines for clarity or dotted lines for projections.
Limit the number of colors to avoid overwhelming viewers.
Example: Tracking website traffic over a quarter, a marketing team can see the effect of a new campaign launch or quickly detect a sudden drop caused by technical issues.
4. Pie Charts: Understanding Proportions
When to use: Pie charts are ideal for showing parts of a whole, such as traffic share by source or campaign budget allocation.
Why it works: Pie charts give instant context for distribution. When you want to answer “what share of the total does this segment represent?” a pie chart is highly effective.
Pro tips:
Limit slices to 5–7 categories; too many slices reduce clarity.
Highlight the most important segment with a contrasting color.
Consider a donut chart for a modern twist, which can also display a center KPI value.
Example: A pie chart showing traffic sources allows a team to quickly see that organic search drives 45% of visits, paid search 30%, and social 25%, informing budget and strategy decisions.
5. Combo Charts: Best of Both Worlds
When to use: Combo charts combine line and bar charts to compare two metrics with different units or scales, like revenue vs. leads.
Why it works: Some KPIs are related but measured differently. A combo chart lets you see correlations in a single view without creating separate visuals.
Pro tips:
Keep the bar as the primary metric (e.g., leads) and the line as secondary (e.g., conversion rate).
Always label axes clearly to avoid misinterpretation.
Maintain consistent color coding across all charts for visual cohesion.
Example: Marketing teams can see how ad spend (bar) affects revenue (line) over a quarter, helping identify periods of diminishing returns or high performance.
Bonus Tips for Using Charts Effectively in Looker Studio
Use filters thoughtfully: Apply date ranges or campaign filters to keep charts relevant.
Avoid chart overload: Limit dashboards to 4–6 charts per page to prevent confusion.
Blend data sources: Combine GA4, Google Ads, and Search Console data in a single visualization for deeper insights.
Make dashboards interactive: Drill-downs and clickable charts let stakeholders explore data without creating extra reports.
Maintain consistency: Use uniform colors, fonts, and labeling across charts to improve readability and comprehension.
FAQ: Looker Studio Chart Types
Q1: Can I use the same chart type for every metric?
No. Each metric has a preferred chart type: scorecards for KPIs, bar charts for comparisons, line charts for trends, pie charts for proportions, and combo charts for correlated metrics.
Q2: How many charts should a marketing dashboard include?
Typically, 4–6 charts per page. Too many visuals can overwhelm viewers and dilute insights.
Q3: Are pie charts outdated?
Not at all. They work well for showing clear proportions with a limited number of categories. For complex distributions, consider bar or stacked bar charts.
Q4: Can Looker Studio charts connect to multiple data sources?
Yes. You can blend data from GA4, Google Ads, Search Console, and more into a single chart.
Q5: How do I make charts more readable for executives?
Prioritize clarity: use large fonts for key metrics, minimize colors, and highlight trends with conditional formatting.