Google’s free Data Studio now available globally with improved features

The free version of Google Data Studio is now available globally. With the roll out, Google announced several welcomed improvements to the reporting and data visualization tool, including filters and analytics segments. Additional dimensions and metrics are available for existing data connectors, such as AdWords campaign ID and keyword quality score, YouTube video title and DoubleClick Campaign Manager revenue and cross-environment conversions. A full list is available here.

Analytics segments

Marketers can now access segments built in Google Analytics (GA) when building visualizations in Data Studio. All segment types are available, including system, custom and shared segments. System segments are available automatically, though you will need to add custom and shared segments in reports to use them. Segments can be applied to one or several charts, a page or an entire report. Segments update automatically from Analytics, though you can turn segment syncing off from the Resources > Segments menu.

Filters

The analytics team has kindly added the ability to save and reuse filters in reports via a new filter interface. Marketers can also now use AND and OR filter conditions in one filter and filter by value, including greater than, less than or specified ranges.

Data imports and uploads

Users can now upload up to 2GB of CSV data, rather than having to rely on SQL or Google databases. Google Data Studio’s integration with BigQuery now supports Standard SQL. Google also says the integration between Data Studio and Google Cloud Platform is now tighter, providing more functionality and faster reporting. Last month, Google lifted the limit of five reports in the free version of Data Studio and added a connector to Google Search Console.

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