How to Add Chart Header in Looker Studio

A beautifully designed dashboard can fall flat if your audience doesn't know what they're looking at. The simplest and most effective way to add clarity to any data visualization is with a clear, concise chart header. This article will walk you through exactly how to add and customize chart headers in Looker Studio, covering the built-in options as well as a flexible workaround for complete control.

Why Chart Headers Aren't Just Optional Text

Before jumping into the "how," it's worth understanding the "why." A good chart header does more than just fill empty space on your dashboard, it plays a vital role in data storytelling.

• Provides Immediate Context: A chart without a title is like a paragraph without a topic sentence. Your audience is forced to analyze the axes and data points just to figure out the subject. A header like "Monthly User Growth - Q3 2023" instantly tells them what they're seeing.
• Guides Audience Focus: The header is the first thing people read. It frames their interpretation of the data and directs their attention to the key message you want to communicate. It tells them what to look for and why it matters.
• Creates a Professional Look: Well-labeled charts are a sign of a polished, thoughtfully prepared report. Omitting them can make your dashboard look unfinished and less trustworthy, undermining the credibility of your data.

How to Add and Customize Chart Headers in Looker Studio

Looker Studio provides built-in settings to manage the visibility and basic styling of your chart headers. Let's find them.

The Standard Method: Using the Header Settings

For any chart on your report canvas, you can control its header through the STYLE panel.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

1. Click on the chart you want to edit. This will select it and bring up the chart properties panel on the right side of your screen.
2. In the properties panel, click on the STYLE tab.
3. Scroll down until you find the "Chart Header" section. Here you'll find a few options for how the header behaves.

You have three visibility settings to choose from:

• Always show: The header will be visible at all times. This is the recommended option for most charts on a standard dashboard.
• Show on hover: The header only appears when a user's mouse cursor is over the chart. This can be useful for creating less cluttered, minimalist dashboards where context is only needed on demand.
• Do not show: This completely hides the default header. As you'll see later, this is a necessary step for our more advanced custom title method.

Below the visibility settings, you can customize the appearance of the header text, including:

• Header Font Color
• Font Size
• Font Family

Play around with these settings to match the overall design and branding of your report.

The "Wait, Where Do I Type the Title?" Moment

You may have noticed a glaring omission in the STYLE panel: there’s no text box to actually write your chart header. This is a common point of confusion for new Looker Studio users.

By default, Looker Studio automatically generates the chart header text based on the names of the metrics and dimensions you've added to the chart. If you're plotting "Sessions," your title will simply be "Sessions." If you're comparing "Revenue" by "Country," it might read "Revenue by Country."

This auto-generated text is often too simplistic — or, worse, if you're using a data source with unfriendly field names, it can be downright ugly (e.g., "sum_of_page_view_count"). Here are two reliable workarounds to gain full control.

Workaround 1: Renaming Your Metrics Directly

The quickest way to change your chart header text is by renaming the metric or dimension in the SETUP panel. This method is fast, simple, and keeps your chart and its title permanently connected.

1. Select your chart.
2. In the properties panel on the right, make sure you're on the SETUP tab.
3. In the "Metric" or "Dimension" section, hover your mouse over the field you want to rename. A small pencil icon will appear to the left of its name.
4. Click the pencil icon. A text box will appear, allowing you to type a new name.
5. Enter your desired chart title and press Enter.

For example, instead of the default metric "Sessions," you could rename it to "Website Sessions (Last 30 Days)." That new text will now appear as your chart header.

Pros: Easy, fast, and the name stays with the chart data.

Cons: You're limited to plain text formatting and a single line. It's great for simple titles but not for adding subtitles or more descriptive text.

Workaround 2: Using the Text Box Tool for Full Control

For ultimate flexibility, the best method is to disable Looker Studio's default header and create your own using a simple text box. This allows you to write anything you want, apply different styles, add subtitles, and place it perfectly.

1. Disable the Default Header: Click on your chart, go to the STYLE tab, find the "Chart Header" section, and select Do not show. Your auto-generated title will disappear.
2. Add a Text Box: In the main Looker Studio toolbar at the top of the page, click the Text icon (it looks like a letter 'T' inside a box).
3. Position and Write: Click and drag on your canvas above the chart to create a text box. Type your desired header into the box.
4. Customize Your Header: With the text box selected, a "Text Properties" panel will appear on the right. Here you have complete control over styling, including font, size, color, alignment, line height, background color, and borders. You can make it as simple or as stylized as you want.
5. Group Everything Together: This is a crucial final step. Hold the Shift key and click on both your new text box header and the chart below it. Right-click on one of the selected items and choose Group from the menu (or press Ctrl+G / Cmd+G). This links the two elements, ensuring that if you ever need to move the chart, its custom title will move along with it.

Best Practices for Writing Chart Headers That Actually Inform

Creating a header is easy, but creating an effective one requires a bit of thought. Follow these principles to make your dashboards as clear as possible.

• Be Specific and Concise: Avoid vague titles like "Marketing Data." Instead, use descriptive titles that summarize the chart's contents. 'Good: "Top 5 Traffic Sources by User Session"' is much better than 'Bad: "Traffic Chart"'.
• Always Include the Timeframe: Data is only meaningful within a specific timeframe. Directly mentioning it in the title, like "Ad Spend vs. ROI (Q4 2023)," prevents misinterpretation and saves your audience from hunting for the date range filter.
• Answer the "So What?": For reports meant for quick decision-making, consider turning your title into the main takeaway. Instead of "Revenue by Campaign," an insightful header could be "Black Friday 'Mega Sale' Campaign Drove 60% of November Revenue." This instantly communicates the most important insight.
• Keep Styling Consistent: A dashboard is a single, cohesive document. Use the same font size, weight, and alignment for all your chart headers to create a clean, organized, and professional feel. Inconsistent styling makes a report look messy and hard to read.

Common Header Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Watch out for these common missteps that can hurt the clarity of your reports.

• Leaving Default Field Names: Displaying raw field names like ga_sessions or SUM(sales_amount) looks unprofessional and can be confusing. Always rename them into plain, readable language.
• Using Overly Technical Jargon: Your title should be understood by a broad audience, not just data analysts. Convert technical terms into business language (e.g., change "CPA" to "Cost Per New Customer").
• Forgetting to Group Custom Titles: This is the most common technical error. If you use the text box method but don't group the title with its chart, your report's layout will break the moment you try to resize or rearrange elements.

Final Thoughts

Mastering chart headers is a small skill that has a massive impact on the quality and usability of your Looker Studio dashboards. By moving beyond the default settings and using either metric renaming or the text box method, you can provide the context and polish needed to turn raw data into a clear, compelling story.

While building reports in Looker Studio is powerful, getting to the finish line can often feel like a manual and time-consuming process. At Graphed , we built a solution to remove that friction completely. We let you connect your data sources - like Google Analytics, Salesforce, and Facebook Ads - and use simple, natural language to create entire dashboards. Instead of manually styling each element, you can just ask, "Show me a dashboard of my marketing funnel for last quarter," and we instantly build it for you with live data, turning hours of report building into a 30-second conversation.