How to Embed Looker Studio in Google Slides

Bringing live data into company presentations can feel like a magic trick, but it's often the key to keeping your audience engaged and making decisions based on the freshest information. Instead of relying on static, outdated screenshots, you can embed your interactive Looker Studio dashboard directly into Google Slides. This article will show you the exact steps to bring your live data story to life, a clever workaround that will change how you present reports.

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Why Live Dashboards Beat Screenshots in Presentations

Before jumping into the "how," it's worth understanding the "why." You might be thinking, "Isn't a quick screenshot good enough?" While screenshots are easy, they come with significant drawbacks that a live, embedded report solves instantly.

1. Static Data Becomes Stale Data

The moment you take a screenshot of your dashboard, it's already a snapshot of the past. If you're presenting a weekly marketing report on a Tuesday, a screenshot from Monday morning doesn't reflect the new leads that came in overnight. A live dashboard pulls in real-time information, ensuring you and your stakeholders are always looking at the most current data. This builds trust and leads to more accurate, timely decisions.

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2. Interactivity Drives Engagement

A screenshot is a dead end. You can't drill down, apply filters, or hover over a data point to get more context. Imagine being in a meeting and someone asks, "That sales spike is interesting. Can we see just the data for North America?" With a screenshot, your only answer is, "I'll have to get back to you on that."

With an embedded dashboard, you answer the question right there on the spot. You click the filter, the chart updates, and the conversation continues without losing momentum. This transforms a one-way presentation into a dynamic, two-way data exploration.

3. It Just Looks More Professional

Presenting a live dashboard demonstrates a level of confidence and transparency. It shows you're not cherry-picking data or hiding inconvenient truths behind a static image. It indicates that your team has a mature data process and is comfortable discussing performance openly, which can be incredibly powerful for building rapport with clients, executives, or team members.

Before You Start: What You’ll Need

The process is straightforward, but you'll need a few things squared away first to make it a smooth experience:

• A Completed Looker Studio Report: The dashboard you want to present should already be built and functioning properly.
• Correct Share Permissions: This is critical. Your Looker Studio report must have its sharing settings configured correctly so your audience (and Google Slides) can access it.
• A Google Slides Presentation: Have the presentation where you want to embed the report open and ready.

Step-by-Step: How to Embed a Looker Studio Report in Google Slides

Google Slides doesn’t have a built-in “embed iframe” feature like a webpage does. Because of this, we need to use a clever workaround involving Google Apps Script. Don't worry if you've never used it - it’s just a matter of copying and pasting a few lines of simple code. It's far easier than it sounds.

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Step 1: Get the Correct Embed Link from Looker Studio

First, you need a specific type of link from your Looker Studio report. This isn't the standard share link, it's a URL designed specifically for embedding in web pages (or, in our case, our little web app).

1. Navigate to your report in Looker Studio.
2. Click the down arrow next to the "Share" button in the top right corner.
3. From the dropdown menu, select "Get report link."
4. A dialog box will pop up. Double-check that the access setting is appropriate, like "Anyone on the internet with the link can view." If it's too restrictive, no one will be able to see the report on your slide.
5. At the top of this box, click the "&lt,&gt,, Embed" tab.
6. Make sure the "Embed URL" option is selected.
7. Copy this URL to your clipboard. It will look something like https://lookerstudio.google.com/embed/reporting/...

Keep this URL handy. You'll need it in a moment.

Step 2: Create a Simple Google Apps Script Web App

This is the core of our workaround. We're going to create a mini web app that does one thing: display our Looker Studio report. We can then embed this web app into Google Slides.

1. Open a new tab and go to a new Apps Script project by visiting script.google.com/home/my. Click "New project."
2. Give your project a name at the top left, like "My Looker Report Embedder."
3. In the Code.gs file, delete the placeholder function myFunction() {} and replace it with this code:

function doGet() {
  return HtmlService.createHtmlOutputFromFile('Index'),
}

This tiny function tells the app to show the contents of an HTML file named "Index" whenever someone visits its URL.

1. Now, we need to create that Index.html file. In the Apps Script editor, click the plus icon (+) next to "Files" and choose "HTML."
2. Name the new file Index (it must be exactly this name, as it's case-sensitive) and hit Enter.
3. Delete all the boilerplate code in the Index.html file and replace it with the following code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <base target="_top">
    <style>
      body, html {
        margin: 0,
        padding: 0,
        height: 100%,
        overflow: hidden,
      }
      iframe {
        border: none,
        width: 100%,
        height: 100%,
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <iframe src="PASTE_YOUR_LOOKER_STUDIO_EMBED_URL_HERE"></iframe>
  </body>
</html>

1. Find the line src="PASTE_YOUR_LOOKER_STUDIO_EMBED_URL_HERE" and replace the placeholder text with the actual Embed URL you copied from Looker Studio in Step 1.
2. Save your changes by clicking the floppy disk icon.

Step 3: Deploy the Web App

Now we need to publish our script so we can get a link to it.

1. In the top right corner of the Apps Script editor, click the blue "Deploy" button and select "New deployment."
2. Click the gear icon next to "Select type" and choose "Web app."
3. In the configuration settings:
4. Click "Deploy." You will be prompted to authorize the script. This is standard procedure, review the permissions and click "Allow."
5. After deploying, a new window will appear with your unique Web app URL. This is the link we need! Copy this URL. It will end in /exec.

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Step 4: Add Your Web App to Google Slides

We're on the home stretch! We will now embed your deployed web app into Google Slides by telling Slides it's a video.

1. Go to your Google Slides presentation.
2. Select the slide where you want the dashboard to appear.
3. Go to the menu and click "Insert" > "Video."
4. In the pop-up window, select the "By URL" option.
5. Paste the <em>Web app URL</em> (the one ending in /exec that you copied from Apps Script in Step 3). Do NOT use the original Looker Studio URL here.
6. A preview should appear. Click the blue "Select" button.

That's it! Your interactive Looker Studio report is now embedded in your Google Slide. You can resize and position the "video" element just like any other object on your slide.

Pro Tips: Making Your Embedded Reports Shine

Simply embedding the dashboard is only half the battle. Here are a few tips to ensure the experience is smooth for both you and your audience.

• Design for the Slide: Busy dashboards with dozens of small charts can become unreadable when shrunk down onto a slide. Consider creating a simplified "presentation version" of your report in Looker Studio, focusing on 3-4 key visuals with large fonts.
• Pre-Load the Data: Live data takes a moment to load. When presenting, navigate to the slide with your dashboard a minute or two before you plan to discuss it. This allows the report to fully load in the background, avoiding awkward pauses.
• Use Filters to Tell Your Story: The biggest advantage of embedding is interactivity. Don't just show the dashboard, use it. Guide your audience through the data by applying filters live, answering their questions, and creating a narrative that goes beyond the numbers.
• Check Your Sharing Settings (Again): It can't be said enough. Before your presentation, share the slide deck with a colleague and have them confirm they can see the embedded report. This is the best way to catch any permission issues before you're in front of a live audience.

Final Thoughts

Embedding real-time Looker Studio reports into your Google Slides can elevate your presentations from simple static summaries to dynamic, data-driven conversations. While it requires a clever workaround with Google Apps Script, the payoff in engagement, accuracy, and professional credibility is well worth the few minutes of setup.

Manually building reports in Looker and managing code to embed them can take time away from more important strategic work. We know firsthand how much time is wasted jumping between platforms and wrestling with setups, which is why we built Graphed. We wanted a tool where you could just ask questions in plain English — like "create a sales pipeline report from our Salesforce data" — and get an instant, live dashboard without writing code or building BI charts manually. It’s all about getting you straight to the insights, not getting stuck on the setup.