How to Connect Mailchimp to Looker Studio

Building a powerful marketing dashboard in Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a great way to see all your data in one place, but it hits a wall when one of your key platforms, like Mailchimp, doesn't have a direct, native connection. This article will guide you through the process step-by-step, showing you how to connect your Mailchimp account to Looker Studio so you can build the custom email marketing reports you need.

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Why Connect Mailchimp to Looker Studio in the First Place?

Your Mailchimp analytics dashboard is fine for a quick look at how your latest campaign performed, but it lives in a silo. The real power of marketing analytics comes from combining data from multiple sources. By pulling your Mailchimp data into Looker Studio, you can:

• Customize Your Visualizations: Move beyond Mailchimp’s default reports. In Looker Studio, you can create any chart, graph, or table you can imagine to tell your data story in the most effective way.
• Combine Email Data with Other Channels: This is the big one. You can build a single dashboard that displays your Mailchimp campaign results alongside your Google Analytics website traffic, your Google Ads spend, and your Shopify sales data. This lets you see the full picture - how an email campaign drove traffic that led to product sales, all in one view.
• Create Interactive Dashboards: Build reports with filters for date ranges, campaigns, or audience segments. This allows you and your team to explore the data dynamically instead of being limited to static reports.
• Automate Reporting: Once your dashboard is set up, it updates automatically. No more logging into Mailchimp every Monday morning to manually pull stats for your weekly report. Just open your Looker Studio dashboard and get the latest insights.

The Challenge: No Native Mailchimp Connector

If you've tried to connect your data sources in Looker Studio, you might have noticed something odd when you search for "Mailchimp" - it doesn't show up in the list of native "Google Connectors." This is because Google hasn't built a direct, free integration. But don't worry, that doesn't mean it's impossible. It just means you need to use a slightly less direct method. Let’s break down the two best ways to get it done.

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Method 1: Use a Third-Party Partner Connector (Recommended)

The easiest and most reliable way to sync your data is by using a "Partner Connector." These are tools built by third-party companies that act as a bridge, pulling data from the Mailchimp API and feeding it directly into Looker Studio. They handle all the technical complexity for you.

There are many options available, such as Supermetrics, Power My Analytics, and Funnel.io. While most of these are paid services, they offer free trials and are invaluable for serious reporting because they provide reliable, automated data refreshes. For this guide, we'll walk through the process using a connector like Supermetrics as an example, but the steps are very similar for all of them.

Step-by-Step Guide to Using a Partner Connector

1. Find the Connector in Looker Studio

First, open Looker Studio and start a new report or data source.

• In the top left, click Create and select Data Source.
• In the search bar for connectors, type "Mailchimp".
• You'll see a list of available Partner Connectors. Choose one to get started. For this example, let's select Supermetrics.

2. Authorize the Connector

You’ll first need to authorize the partner connector to access your Google account, which allows it to create data sources in your Looker Studio.

• You'll be prompted with an authorization screen. Click Authorize.
• A Google pop-up will appear. Select the correct Google account and grant the necessary permissions.

3. Authorize Access to Mailchimp

Next, you’ll need to give the connector permission to pull data from your Mailchimp account. This is a critical step, as it creates the secure pipeline for your data.

• The connector's interface will prompt you to log into Mailchimp. You might be asked to enter your Mailchimp username and password, or you might need to find your Mailchimp API key.
• To find your API key in Mailchimp: Click your profile icon in the bottom-left of Mailchimp → Account → Extras → API keys. You can create a new key here if you don't have one readily available.
• Once connected, select the specific Mailchimp account and audiences (lists) you want to analyze.

4. Configure Your Data Source

This is where you tell the connector exactly what data you want to pull. Different connectors present this in different ways, but the core settings are generally the same:

• Report Type: Choose the type of data you want. Do you want to report on Campaigns, Audience growth, or Automations?
• Select Metrics and Dimensions: Here you can usually choose the specific fields you need. For a campaign report, you might select metrics like Open rate, Click rate, Unsubscribes, and Bounces. For dimensions, you might choose Campaign name, Subject line, and Send time.
• Additional Settings: Some connectors offer options for conversion windows or other advanced settings. For now, the defaults are usually fine.

Once you are happy with the configuration, find the Connect button, usually in the top right corner.

5. Create Your Report

Looker Studio will now show you a screen with all the fields (metrics and dimensions) that the connector has made available. You can review these and change field types (e.g., from Number to Currency) if needed.

Click the Create Report button in the top right. You'll be asked to add the data to the report, and just like that, you’ll have a blank canvas with your Mailchimp data ready to go. You can start dragging fields onto your report to create charts, tables, and scorecards visualizing your email performance.

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Method 2: Use Google Sheets as a Middleman (The Free, Manual Approach)

If you don't want to pay for a third-party connector and you're comfortable with a more manual process, you can use Google Sheets as an intermediary. The workflow is simple: export your data from Mailchimp into a CSV file, upload it to Google Sheets, and then connect that Google Sheet to Looker Studio.

Pros:

• It's completely free.
• You can clean or modify the data in Google Sheets before it gets to Looker Studio.

Cons:

• It's not automated. You have to manually export and import new data to keep your dashboard up-to-date. This can become tedious for daily or even weekly reporting.
• It's more prone to human error during the copy-pasting process.

Step-by-Step Guide to the Google Sheets Method

1. Export Data from Mailchimp

• Log into your Mailchimp account.
• Navigate to the report you want to analyze (e.g., Campaigns or Audience).
• Find an option to Export or Download your data. This is typically available for campaign reports, audience lists, and more. Mailchimp will generate a CSV file for you.

2. Import the CSV into Google Sheets

• Open a new or existing Google Sheet.
• Go to File → Import → Upload.
• Select the CSV file you just downloaded from Mailchimp.
• Choose how you want to import it (e.g., "Replace current sheet") and click Import data. Your data should now be neatly organized in the spreadsheet.

3. Connect Google Sheets to Looker Studio

• Go back to Looker Studio and create a new data source (Create → Data Source).
• Select the Google Sheets connector from the list of native Google connectors.
• Authorize access to your Google Drive if you haven't already.
• Find the spreadsheet you just created, select the specific worksheet, and make sure the range covers all your data.
• Keep the options "Use first row as headers" and "Include hidden and filtered cells" checked.
• Click the Connect button in the top right.

From here, the process is the same as the final step in Method 1. You'll see a list of your data fields and can click Create Report to start visualizing. Just remember, to update your dashboard with new data, you'll need to repeat these steps whenever you have new campaigns to report on.

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A Quick Tip for Semi-Automation

You can semi-automate the Google Sheets method using a tool like Zapier or Make.com. You can create a "Zap" that automatically adds a new row to a Google Sheet every time a new subscriber signs up or a new campaign is sent in Mailchimp. This is a great workaround if your main goal is to track audience growth or campaign lists in near real-time without subscribing to a full-fledged data connector.

What Kind of Mailchimp Dashboard Can You Build?

Now for the fun part! Once your data is flowing into Looker Studio, here are a few ideas for effective visualizations:

• Campaign Performance Dashboard: Create a table showing your key A/B testing stats. Include columns for Campaign Name, Subject Line A, Subject Line B, Open Rate A, Open Rate B, Click Rate A, and Click Rate B. Use conditional formatting to highlight the winners.
• Audience Growth Tracker: Use scorecards to show Total Subscribers, New Subscribers (Last 30 Days), and Unsubscribes (Last 30 Days). Add a time series chart to visualize your list growth week over week.
• Email Marketing Funnel: Combine your Mailchimp data with Google Analytics 4 data in a single report. Show the entire journey: how many users opened an email, how many clicked through to your website, how many converted, and the total revenue driven by that specific email campaign.

Final Thoughts

Connecting Mailchimp to Looker Studio is a fantastic way to unlock deeper insights from your email marketing efforts. While Google doesn't offer a direct connector, you can easily bridge the gap using either a paid third-party connector for a fully automated, hands-off experience, or the free Google Sheets method for simpler reporting needs.

While these methods give you powerful custom reporting, sometimes the setup and maintenance of connectors and BI tools can still feel like a chore. At Graphed, we’ve focused on simplifying this whole process. Instead of you having to figure out which connector to use or how to build charts, we connect directly to your tools like Mailchimp, Shopify, and Google Analytics in seconds. From there, you just ask questions in plain English like, "What was my highest converting Mailchimp campaign last quarter?" and we instantly build a real-time, interactive dashboard for you.