2025 HeroConfSD Joshua Slodki - Making Looker Studio Work for You

Looker Studio is the best dashboarding platform that no money can buy. While it makes data visualization accessible, getting it to tell your story can be challenging.

In this session Josh will share specific examples of how you can get greater insights into your Google Ads performance using Looker Studio.
• Enhancing Google Ads data to align with your reporting needs
• Hands-on guidance to get the most out of your data using Looker Studio Blends
• Putting the pieces together for impactful reports

Transcript

1. Making Google Ads and Looker Studio Work for You Joshua Slodki B U O Y D i g i t a l G r o u p https://speakerdeck.com/joshuaslodki @joshuaslodki @JoshuaSlodki
2. Why?
3. Looker Vs. Excel
4. Embrace the Nerd!
5. Looker vs. Google Ads
6. Know Your Audience
7. Everything Else
9. Let’s Get To It!
10. Remember why the good Lord made your eyes… Plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize …Only be sure always to call it "Research“ ~ Tom Lehrer (RIP)
11. Step 1: Connect to Your Data Step 2: Copy Step 3: Calculate Step 4: Design
12. Step 1: Connect
13. Step 1: Connect
14. Step 2: Copy
15. Step 2: Copy
16. Step 3: Re-Calculate Standard Metrics
17. Step 3: Re-Calculate Standard Metrics
18. CPC (calc): Cost / Clicks CTR (calc): Click / Impressions Conversion Rate (calc): Conversions / Clicks CPA (calc): Cost / Conversions CPM (calc): Cost / (Impressions / 1000) Step 3: Re-Calculate Standard Metrics
19. Design for Story Telling
20. Top Line Performance
21. How to Layer Scorecards
22. Primary Mix Visuals
23. Primary Metric Table
24. Performance Trends
25. Save Time with Slide Layouts 1800 1000
26. Embrace the Nerd!
27. Data Management with Looker Studio
28. CLASSIFY & BLEND
29. Classify
30. Tactic Classification Campaign Classification Search Term Classification Google Ads Applications
31. Calculate More Fields
32. CASE WHEN this THEN that CASE WHEN Campaign = ‘Name 1’ THEN ‘Group 1’ ELSE ‘Catchall’ END The CASE for Classification
33. CASE WHEN Campaign = 'Brand Campaign' THEN 'Brand’ WHEN Campaign = ‘NonBrand Campaign' THEN ‘NonBrand’ ELSE ‘Other' END The Basics
34. CASE WHEN Campaign = 'Brand Campaign' THEN 'Brand’ WHEN Campaign = ‘NonBrand Campaign' THEN ‘NonBrand’ ELSE ‘Other' END The Basics
35. CASE WHEN REGEXP_MATCH (Search term, "((?i)bouy)") THEN 'Core Brand' WHEN REGEXP_MATCH (Search term, "((?i).*buoy).*") THEN 'Brand' ELSE 'OTHER' END Exact Match vs. Contains
36. Classify: Calculated Fields
37. CASE WHEN REGEXP_MATCH (Campaign, "((?i).*_brand_).*") THEN 'Brand' ELSE ‘NonBrand' END Campaign Classification
38. Classify: Calculated Fields
39. Agency Tip: Automate with Sheets
40. Blends
41. What’s a Blend? Month Month Campaign Cost Conversion Campaign Clicks
42. Before You Blend
45. Join Operators Left Right Inner Full Outer Cross
46. Blend Applications
47. Account YearMonth Left Join Cost Account YearMonth Budget Budget Tracking
48. Campaign Ad ID Engagement Metrics Ad Label Ad ID Left Join Ad Label Performance
49. Account Month Left Join Metrics Date Filter: This Year Account Month Metrics Date Filter: Last Year Y/Y Reporting
50. Query Left Join Metrics Search Term Avg. CPC Date Filter: Past 12m Query Type SEO Value
51. Conversion Blend Month Month Campaign Cost Conversion Actions Campaign Clicks Left Join
52. Building Your Blend
53. Building Your Blend
54. Base Metrics Only
55. Blend Table
56. Calculated Metrics
57. CPC: SUM (Cost) / SUM (Clicks) CTR: SUM (Clicks) / SUM (Impressions) Conv%: SUM (Conversion 1) / SUM (Clicks) ROAS: SUM (Conversion 1 Value) / SUM (Cost) Basic Table Calculations
58. IFNULL(input_expression, null_result) Summary: Returns null_result value if input is null CPC: SUM(ifnull(Cost,0))/SUM(ifnull(Clicks,0)) The IfnullTable Calculations
59. Blended Table
60. Applied AI
61. Google Looker Studio Hacks Google Ads Scripts to Google Sheets Google Big Query Scripts When to Ask for AI Help
62. Google Ads Script
63. AI Assisted Analytics Strategy
64. Key Takeaways: 1. Trust the process 2. Blends: Trust but verify 3. Lean into AI
65. THANK YOU!