Looker Studio
What it is
Google’s free dashboard tool. It draws charts from connected data sources and publishes them as a web page anyone with the link can open.
What it’s good at
Costing nothing and connecting to the Google stack in minutes: GA4, the ad accounts, Search Console, a spreadsheet. A CEO opens the result in a browser without training or another login, and it emails itself on a schedule.
What it costs to own
The tool is light; the ownership sits upstream. A dashboard inherits every flaw in its sources, so the upkeep is data hygiene: consistent campaign naming and a written definition for each number. Pages grow: each added source and blend is another dependency, and one renamed field upstream turns a chart blank on the morning it matters. Plan a day to build a leadership page, then an hour or two a month, in the same hands, keeping it truthful.
When it’s a poor fit
It fits poorly when two people in the company answer the same revenue question with different numbers: a dashboard picks one and gives it a chart, and the error travels with authority. It also fits poorly when the questions need joins across systems or history the sources have dropped; that is warehouse work first, dashboards after.
What it sits beside
On top of GA4, the ad accounts, and CRM exports, replacing the monthly deck of screenshots. Third-party connectors extend it past Google, each one a dependency. Trouble starts when a number on your page disagrees with the platform’s screen; that is where written definitions save the time, because otherwise every meeting reopens them.
My experience
Most of the leadership dashboards I build are made in Looker Studio, and most of the hours behind them go into getting the sources in order first.