How to Create a Visual Report in Google Analytics

Staring at raw data tables in Google Analytics can feel like trying to read a different language. You know there are valuable insights hidden in those rows and columns, but spotting trends or explaining performance to your team is a huge challenge. This guide will walk you through turning that dense data into clear, easy-to-understand visual reports - both within Google Analytics 4 and with other popular tools.

Why Visual Reports Are a Game-Changer

Before jumping into the "how," it's worth understanding "why" visual dashboards and reports are so valuable. It’s not just about making things look pretty, it's about making your data more effective.

They Make Data Digestible: The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. A line chart showing a traffic spike is instantly understood, while identifying that same spike in a table of daily session data takes concentration and time.
They Reveal Trends Instantly: Is your mobile traffic growing month-over-month? Are conversions from a specific campaign slowing down? Visuals like line charts, bar graphs, and heat maps make these patterns obvious at a glance.
They Simplify Communication: Sending a spreadsheet to your boss or client often leads to more questions than answers. Sharing a clean, visual dashboard that clearly highlights key performance indicators (KPIs) lets everyone get on the same page, fast. It tells a story that raw numbers can't.

Creating Visual Reports Directly in Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 has a powerful, built-in section specifically for creating custom visual reports called the "Explore" hub. This is where you can move beyond the standard reports and build something tailored to your exact needs.

Understanding the "Explore" Hub

The Explore hub is your canvas for data visualization inside GA4. When you first open it, you'll see a gallery of templates designed for common analysis tasks. The main ones you'll use for visual reporting are:

Free form: The most flexible option, allowing you to create reports in a familiar table format (like a pivot table), as well as donut charts, line charts, bar charts, scatter plots, and maps. This is the one we'll focus on.
Funnel exploration: This is specifically for visualizing the steps users take to complete a conversion, helping you see where they drop off. The output is a visual funnel chart.
Path exploration: This creates a tree graph showing the paths users take after starting on a specific page or triggering an event.

Step-by-Step: Building a "Free Form" Visual Report

Let’s build a common and useful report: a bar chart showing which channels are driving the most new users to your website. This helps you understand which marketing efforts are performing best.

Step 1: Navigate to the Explore Hub

In the left-hand navigation menu of Google Analytics 4, click on the Explore icon.

Step 2: Start a New "Blank" Exploration

In the Explore gallery, click on the large plus sign labeled "Blank" to start from scratch. This gives you complete control over your report.

Step 3: Define Your Variables (Dimensions and Metrics)

Your new exploration will open to a three-column layout. The far-left column is "Variables." This is where you'll tell GA4 what data you want to work with.

Dimensions: These are the "what" you want to measure - the categories. Think of them as the labels for your data. For our report, our dimension will be the marketing channel.
Metrics: These are the "how much" - the numbers. They are the quantitative measurements. For our report, our metric will be the number of new users.

To add them:

Under the "Dimensions" section, click the plus sign (+).
In the search box, type "Session default channel group."
Check the box next to it and click the blue "Import" button in the top right.
Now, do the same for "Metrics." Click the plus sign (+), search for "New users," and import it.

You'll also need to define a date range. Under "Variables" you'll see "Date range". The default is usually "Last 30 days," which is fine for our example, but you can click it to select any time frame you need.

Step 4: Build the Report in the "Tab Settings" Column

The middle column, "Tab Settings," is where you bring your report to life. You'll simply drag and drop the variables you just imported into the appropriate sections.

Drag Session default channel group from the "Dimensions" section over to the "Rows" box in "Tab Settings."
Drag New users from the "Metrics" section over to the "Values" box in "Tab Settings."

Immediately, you will see a simple table appear on the right-hand panel, showing a list of your marketing channels and the number of new users each one has generated. This is already a custom report, but now we'll visualize it.

Step 5: Choose Your Visualization

At the top of the "Tab Settings" column, you'll see a series of small icons representing different visualizations. By default, the table icon is selected.

Click the Bar chart icon. Instantly, your data on the right will transform from a plain table into a clean, easy-to-read horizontal bar chart. You can easily see which channels, like "Organic Search" or "Paid Social," are your top performers without having to scan through numbers.

You can continue experimenting by clicking the line chart or donut chart icons to see which visualization tells your story best. And that's it! You've created a custom visual report in GA4.

Going Beyond GA4's Built-in Tools

The Explore hub is a great starting point, but it does have some limitations. As you get more advanced, you might find that it can be a bit slow, the sharing options aren't always ideal, and most importantly, you can't combine your Google Analytics data with other data sources. You can't see your Facebook Ads spend next to your website conversions, or your Salesforce sales data alongside user behavior.

Connecting Google Analytics to Looker Studio

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is Google's free, dedicated data visualization tool. It’s the logical next step when you need to build more robust, shareable dashboards. You can think of it as a supercharged version of the GA4 Explore hub.

Using Looker Studio empowers you to:

Combine data sources: Pull data from Google Analytics, Google Sheets, Google Ads, and more into a single dashboard.
Create highly customized designs: You have unlimited control over the layout, colors, fonts, and branding of your reports.
Effortlessly share reports: Share a live dashboard with your team or clients with a simple link, eliminating the need to have them log into Google Analytics.

Connecting GA4 to Looker Studio is straightforward. Inside Looker Studio, you create a new "Data Source," select the "Google Analytics" connector, and authorize access to your GA4 property. From there, you can add charts and tables to your report canvas and connect them to your live GA data.

Tips for Creating Reports People Will Actually Use

A tool is only as good as how you use it. Whether you're in GA4's Explore hub or Looker Studio, follow these principles to make your reports impactful.

Know Your Audience

The Head of Marketing needs a high-level overview of campaign ROI and cost per acquisition. A content manager, on the other hand, wants to see which blog posts are driving the most traffic and engagement. Tailor the metrics and visuals in your report to the person who will be viewing it.

Start with a Question

Don't just fill a page with charts. Before you build anything, ask yourself a question. For example: "Which countries are contributing the most revenue?" Your report's mission is to answer that question clearly.

Choose the Right Visualization for the Job

Line Charts are perfect for showing a trend over time (e.g., website sessions over the last 90 days).
Bar/Column Charts are best for comparing values across categories (e.g., sessions by social media platform).
Pie/Donut Charts are simple ways to show proportions of a whole (e.g., percentage of traffic from mobile vs. desktop). Use sparingly, as they can be hard to read with more than a few categories.
Tables are still useful when you need to show precise numbers or many dimensions at once.

Keep it Simple

Clutter is the enemy of clarity. A great report often has just a few key charts that tell a clear story. Use white space effectively and resist the urge to cram every possible metric onto one page. Less is almost always more.

Final Thoughts

Creating visual reports transforms Google Analytics from an overwhelming database into a powerful tool for strategic decision-making. By using GA4's Explore hub or connecting to tools like Looker Studio, you can translate raw data into clear insights that help you understand performance, spot opportunities, and communicate results effectively.

This process, while powerful, often involves a learning curve and manual work to connect data, build reports, and answer follow-up questions. We built Graphed to remove this friction entirely. You can connect your Google Analytics account in seconds and simply ask in natural language, "Show me a chart of my top traffic sources this quarter," and get an interactive, live dashboard instantly. By uniting all your marketing and sales data in one place, Graphed lets you get answers without wading through reports, so you can spend less time wrangling data and more time growing your business.