Olga T.
Sample Replaced our weekly spreadsheet
We used to copy numbers into a slide deck every Monday. Now the pipeline report updates itself. Thank you.
Looker Studio for business reporting: from data to dashboard
Connect Google Sheets, GA4 and other sources, build clear interactive reports, blend data and share dashboards safely, all for free
Created by Meera Pillai
- Updated September 2026
- English
- Beginner
What you will learn
- Connect Google Sheets, GA4 and other data sources to Looker Studio
- Explain dimensions, metrics and aggregation in your reports
- Build scorecards, time series, bar charts and tables with comparisons
- Add filters, date controls and drill downs for interactivity
- Create calculated fields, CASE logic and parameters
- Blend data from several sources into one view
- Share reports safely and schedule email delivery
Course content
Getting started with Looker Studio
Charts and interactive controls
- Article: Scorecards with context 8 min
- Article: Time series charts 9 min
- Article: Bar charts and tables 9 min
- Article: Filters and date range controls 10 min
- Article: Drill downs and cross filtering 8 min
Shaping your data
- Article: Calculated fields 10 min
- Article: CASE statements for grouping 9 min
- Article: Blending data sources 11 min
- Article: Parameters for what if views 8 min
Common business reports
- Article: A marketing report with GA4 11 min
- Article: A sales pipeline report from Sheets 9 min
- Article: A finance overview 9 min
- Article: A support performance report 8 min
- Article: A search performance report 8 min
Sharing and maintaining reports
- Article: Sharing and data credentials 9 min
- Article: Scheduled email delivery 6 min
- Article: Keeping reports fast 8 min
- Article: Report hygiene and handover 7 min
- Quiz: Final check 6 min
Requirements
- A Google account
- Basic spreadsheet skills
Description
Looker Studio, formerly called Google Data Studio, is a free tool for building interactive reports and dashboards from Google Sheets, Google Analytics, BigQuery and hundreds of other sources. It is one of the easiest ways for a small team to replace manual spreadsheet reports with something that updates itself.
What you will build
Over the course you will build three reports from sample data:
- A marketing report using Google Analytics 4 demo data, showing traffic, engagement and conversions by channel.
- A sales pipeline report from a Google Sheet, with deal stages, win rates and forecasts.
- A business overview that blends data from several sources into one page for leadership.
Along the way you will learn the skills that make reports useful rather than decorative.
- Connecting data sources and understanding dimensions and metrics
- Scorecards, time series, bar charts and tables with comparisons
- Filters, date range controls and drill downs for interactivity
- Calculated fields, CASE statements and parameters
- Blending data from several sources
- Sharing, credentials, scheduled delivery and performance
Who it is for
This free course is for marketers, managers, founders and early career analysts who want reliable reports without buying a business intelligence platform. You need a Google account and basic spreadsheet skills. No coding is required.
Looker Studio is free to use. A paid Looker Studio Pro version adds team management and support features; this course uses only the free version.
Who this course is for
- Marketers and managers who need regular reports
- Small business owners replacing manual spreadsheet reporting
- Beginner analysts learning a free dashboard tool
Instructor
Meera Pillai
Business analyst teaching metrics, dashboards and experiments for people who make decisions
- 4.4 instructor rating
- 23 reviews
- 9,950 students
- 3 courses
- Sample
I am a business analyst who has spent years building reporting for sales, marketing and operations teams. Most of that work is less about clever charts and more about agreeing on definitions, cleaning data and making a dashboard that people open every Monday.
I teach analytics for business people and early career analysts: how to choose metrics, build a KPI tree, design honest dashboards in tools like Looker Studio, and run A/B tests without fooling yourself with the statistics.
I avoid jargon where I can and explain the maths where it matters. You will work with realistic sample datasets and leave with reports and templates you can adapt to your own team.
Student reviews
Moses E.
Sample Credentials warning was important
I had been sharing a report with owner's credentials that exposed salary data. Fixed now.
Jason K.
Sample Clear on dimensions and metrics
The aggregation pitfalls lesson explained why our conversion rate chart was wrong for months.
Bruna C.
Sample Great free resource
Very practical. The GA4 report section was the most useful for me as a marketer.
Nikhil A.
Sample Blending explained honestly
I liked that the course says when not to blend and to prepare data first instead.
Patricia L.
Sample Some menus have moved
A few menu locations differ from the screenshots, but the explanations were good enough to find everything.
Freya H.
Sample Good structure for beginners
Starts with questions before charts, which made my reports far more focused.
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