Google Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a free data visualisation tool that connects to GA4, Google Ads, Search Console, and many other sources to create custom dashboards. For ecommerce stores and agencies managing client reporting, Looker Studio provides a way to build shareable, visually clear dashboards that pull live data from GA4 without needing to export spreadsheets manually.
Connecting GA4 to Looker Studio
Go to lookerstudio.google.com. Click Create → Report. When prompted to add a data source, search for and select Google Analytics. Sign in with the Google account that has access to your GA4 property. Select your GA4 account → property → web data stream. Click Add to Report.
Looker Studio will create a blank report connected to your GA4 data. From here, you add charts, tables, and scorecards using GA4 dimensions and metrics.
Building an Ecommerce Performance Dashboard
A useful ecommerce dashboard for a Shopify store should show:
Revenue Scorecard
Add a Scorecard chart. Metric: Purchase Revenue (ecommerce_purchases metric). Date range: last 30 days vs previous period for comparison. This shows the current period revenue prominently at the top of the dashboard.
Transactions Over Time
Add a Time Series chart. Dimension: Date. Metric: Transactions or Purchases. This shows the daily purchase trend, making it easy to spot spikes (sales events, campaigns) or drops (tracking issues, site problems).
Revenue by Traffic Source
Add a Table chart. Dimension: Session Source / Medium. Metrics: Sessions, Purchase Revenue, Transactions, Conversion Rate. Sort by Purchase Revenue descending. This shows which channels drive the most revenue in a single view.
Funnel Summary
Add a Bar Chart or a table showing:
- Sessions (total site sessions)
- view_item events (product page views)
- add_to_cart events
- begin_checkout events
- Purchases
This shows your conversion funnel at a glance and highlights the biggest drop-off point.
Top Products
Add a table with Dimension: Item Name (from GA4 ecommerce). Metrics: Items Purchased, Item Revenue. Sort by revenue. Shows which products drive the most sales.
Adding Google Ads Data to the Same Dashboard
Click Add Data → Google Ads. Select your Google Ads account. Now you can blend Google Ads cost data with GA4 revenue data in the same dashboard.
Build a combined chart showing:
- Google Ads spend (from Google Ads data source)
- Google Ads attributed revenue (from GA4)
- ROAS = Revenue / Spend
Note: blending data from multiple sources (GA4 + Google Ads) requires using Looker Studio’s Blended Data feature, which joins the two data sources on a common dimension (e.g. date or campaign name).
Making Dashboards Shareable
Click the Share button in Looker Studio. Set access to “Anyone with the link can view.” Share the link with stakeholders or clients. They see live-updating data without needing access to your GA4 property directly.
Schedule email delivery of the report: click Share → Schedule email delivery. Choose recipients and frequency (daily, weekly, monthly). Looker Studio automatically emails a PDF snapshot of the dashboard on the schedule you set.
GA4 Limitations in Looker Studio
Looker Studio pulls from GA4’s Data API, which uses the same data as GA4 reports. For very large properties, the API may apply sampling to some queries. To get 100% unsampled data in Looker Studio, connect to GA4’s BigQuery export instead of the GA4 API connector.
Start with a Simple Dashboard
A four-chart dashboard (revenue scorecard, revenue over time, revenue by source, top products) takes about 30 minutes to build and gives stakeholders the most important information without overwhelming detail. Add complexity gradually as your reporting needs develop.
Book your free Shopify tracking audit here and we will help you build a GA4 Looker Studio dashboard that gives your team or clients clear visibility into your store’s performance.