When it comes to showing the key points on marketing performance most of the marketers face the problem — how to build a comprehensive report? And more importantly: how to make it understandable to the audience?
Luckily, our article will guide you through 5 most popular BigQuery visualization tools designed to create meaningful and clear reports. You only need to pick the most convenient one for your work.
Let’s start.
Google Data Studio
This BigQuery visualization tool is quite simple to use. First of all, you need to log in to your profile in Google and just switch to datastudio.google.com.
At the top left or the bottom right of the starting page click Start a new report. Now in order to build a report you need to import data from GBQ into Data Studio. Here click the Create Data Source button and pick Google –> BigQuery connector.
Keep in mind: you need to have a Google Cloud Platform account to work with data in GBQ.
Also you need to determine the project, data set, and table — they are crucial when working with the report.
You can get more details about data procedures in Data Studio in the Data Studio Help Center.
After setting up the connection with GBQ the fun part starts — building report. When you select a table for your report, the editor of the report will open immediately. Here you’ll be able to pick the types of visualization you need to make your report appealing: tables, charts, graphs, maps etc.
To include a visual component into a report, you need just to pick from a drop-down menu and place it wherever you need. You can also edit any of these components by simply using the settings on the right of the workplace.
Among other features of Data Studio, there is an opportunity for sharing reports with your teammates. Give permission to work on a report along with you through the standard Google sharing box.
So the benefits of Google Data Studio are: intuitive and simple interface, editing of reports with your team, page-by-page formatting, ability to use several data sources in one report and to roll back to a previous version of a report if some errors occur.
But they’re also a few disadvantages, like a poor choice on extensive data preparation tools, and lack of preview for mobile gadget.
Google Sheets (with the help of the OWOX BI add-on)
When you have data gathered in Google BigQuery you can also build reports with another BigQuery visualization tool — Google Sheets. First of all, you need to set up the OWOX BI BigQuery Reports Add-on. It helps you to easily load data from GBQ, automate reports, and send the results to a new table in GBQ. Get the add-on from the Chrome Web Store or right in Google Sheets clicking on tab Add-ons → Get add-ons.
Follow the instructions to load the necessary data.
Now you are good to start visualizing data.
In the top right of Google Sheets find the menu and select the item (for example a table or a graph). Then pick the type of item that you need by selecting necessary parameters. Also you can choose the range of data.
And of course as Google Sheets is a part of Google family you can easily share the report with your colleagues by setting up standard Google access settings.
Among the advantages of Google Sheets: simplicity in controlling the access, ability to collectively edit the reports. It’s actually a good competitor for old Excel.
But with these advantages, there’s a little choice of visual elements and lack of ability to combine data sources.
BI systems (using ready connectors)
Power BI
Keep in mind: developed by Microsoft this BigQuery visualization tool doesn’t go with macOS or Linux.
And of course, to start working with this service you also need to upload data first. In order to use a native Google BigQuery connector, you need to download a desktop version of Power BI. A couple of steps and the data’s loaded into BigQuery visualization tool. Then you proceed to the report’s editor by working with the menu on the right of the workplace.
Feel free to select different types of visual items: standard or stacked charts, maps, sensors, funnels, tables, matrices, etc.
The list of fields on the basis of which you can build visualizations is on the same side as the menu. You can also just specify the fields you want to show in the report and Power BI will choose a suitable form of data visualization for you.
As for the ability to share the reports, sadly it’s available only when you purchase the Power BI Pro.
To sum up an overview of this tool, we can say that the main benefits of Power BI as a BigQuery visualization tool are: thorough opportunities for data preparation, the ability to cancel steps in the request editor and report previews. And the disadvantages of Power BI consist of the so-called freemium model, slow data loading and lack of support on Linux or macOS.
Tableau
This is another nice BigQuery visualization tool.
To start working with data, pick the Google BigQuery connector from the menu. Then choose the project, a data set and the table with data you want to show in the report. Plus you can add one more data source in order to combine data from necessary places at once.
Then switch to the first page of your report —Sheet 1 and you can start working with the editor.
Depending on the variety of the parameters and cadent you point out, a list of elements will appear on the left side of workplace.
The sharing of the report is available in Tableau Online or Tableau Server.
A small resume on this tool. Though Tableau has a few good features, it’s good as a tool for working with simple data models. When it comes to the difficult ones, frequent problems may arise.
OWOX BI Smart Data
And last but not least — a tool, specially designed for people who don't work with SQL. You can start working on your dashboards promptly after selecting a project and data set. Standard beginning. Now you don’t just move to the editor. You have a choice: selecting a report type from the gallery of popular templates, use Report Builder, or make a direct request to the service in the search field. Pick the best option.
As for advantages of OWOX BI Smart Data the list consists of ability to directly connect with data in Google BigQuery, high level of data protection. Among disadvantages you’ll find a limited set of combinations for creating reports and a small number of visual items.
So here are the most popular and easy-to-use BigQuery visualization tools that we recommend for marketers. Pick the right for you and start building incredible reports!
