How to Make a Combo Chart in Google Analytics with AI
A combo chart is one of the most effective ways to visualize the relationship between two different metrics in Google Analytics. But if you’ve ever tried to build one, you know the process involves exporting data, wrangling it in a spreadsheet, and navigating fussy chart settings. This article will show you a much faster way to get the job done using AI, turning a tedious multi-step process into a simple, 30-second task.
What is a Combo Chart, Anyway?
A combo chart, or combination chart, does exactly what its name suggests: it combines two different chart types into a single visualization. Most commonly, it uses a bar chart and a line chart together. This setup is perfect for comparing two metrics that have different scales or units of measurement.
For example, you might have one metric with large values (like website sessions, measured in thousands) and another with small values (like conversion rate, measured as a percentage). Putting them on the same bar chart would make the smaller metric nearly invisible. By combining a bar chart for sessions with a line chart for conversion rate and using a second y-axis, you can see how they relate to each other clearly.
Why Combo Charts are Great for Google Analytics
Google Analytics is full of metrics that are best understood in relation to one another. Combo charts help you spot correlations and trends you might otherwise miss. Here are a few common use cases:
Sessions vs. Conversion Rate: Did that big spike in traffic actually lead to more conversions, or did your conversion rate dip? A combo chart shows this instantly. Plot sessions as bars and conversion rate as a line to see if traffic quality keeps pace with quantity.
Users vs. Engagement Rate: You can track the number of users coming to your site (bar chart) against their engagement rate (line chart). This helps you understand if new marketing channels are bringing in an engaged audience or just unqualified clicks.
Ad Spend vs. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): By visualizing your daily ad spend as bars and your ROAS as a line, you can quickly identify which days gave you the best bang for your buck and spot signs of diminishing returns.
In all these examples, the combo chart helps you tell a more complete story than either metric could on its own.
The Traditional Way: Building a Manual Combo Chart
Before AI tools streamlined reporting, creating a combo chart from Google Analytics data was a manual exercise in patience. It’s doable, but it’s slow, rigid, and prone to error. Understanding this process helps illustrate why the AI approach is such a massive improvement.
Let's walk through the manual steps using Google Sheets as our example.
Step 1: Export Your Data from Google Analytics 4
First, you need to get your raw data out of Google Analytics.
Navigate to the report you need, for instance, Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition.
Adjust the date range to an appropriate period.
Click the "Share this report" icon (a little arrow coming out of a box) in the top-right corner.
Select "Download File" and choose to download it as a CSV.
This gives you a static snapshot of your data. If you need to update it tomorrow, you have to repeat this entire export process.
Step 2: Clean and Prepare the Data in Google Sheets
Now, open Google Sheets and import the CSV file you just downloaded.
Your raw data export often includes extra rows, irrelevant columns, or formatting that isn't chart-friendly. You will likely need to:
Delete summary rows or text at the top and bottom of the sheet.
Remove columns you don't need for your chart to simplify your view.
Ensure your date or dimension column (like 'Traffic source' or 'Date') is formatted correctly.
Make sure your metric columns (like 'Sessions' and 'Conversion rate') are formatted as numbers or percentages.
This cleanup phase is crucial. If your data isn't organized properly, your chart won't build correctly.
Step 3: Create the Combo Chart
With your data prepped, you can finally build the chart.
Select the range of data you want to visualize. Be sure to include the headers for your dimension and your two metrics.
Go to Insert > Chart. Google Sheets will usually default to whatever chart type it thinks is best, which might be a bar chart or a line chart - but not a combo chart.
In the Chart editor that appears on the right, navigate to the "Setup" tab.
Under "Chart type," find and select "Combo chart."
Now, go to the "Customize" tab and expand the "Series" section.
By default, both of your metrics might be displayed as bars. You need to change one of them. For the metric you want to display as a line (e.g., Conversion Rate), select it from the dropdown. Then, below that, use the "Axis" dropdown to change it from "Left axis" to "Right axis." This moves it to a separate y-axis, rescaling it so it's visible.
Back in the "Series" settings, make sure one series is set to "Columns" and the other is set to "Line."
After all that, you have your combo chart. But what if you have a follow-up question? What if you want to filter out certain traffic sources or view the data by week instead of by day? You'd have to go back to your spreadsheet, re-filter, re-aggregate your data, and potentially rebuild the chart from scratch.
The Modern Method: Create GA4 Combo Charts Instantly with AI
The manual method is tedious. You spend more time wrangling data than analyzing it. AI-powered analytics tools completely flip that script. Instead of pulling data and building charts, you simply describe the chart you want to see, and the AI builds it for you using real-time data.
Step 1: Connect Your Google Analytics Account
Modern AI reporting platforms are built for simplicity. Instead of CSV exports, you connect your Google Analytics account directly. This process usually involves a secure authentication (OAuth) flow - you click a few buttons to give the platform read-only access, select your GA4 Property, and you’re done. The data starts syncing in the background, including historical data, without you having to lift a finger. This one-time connection keeps your reports live and up-to-date automatically.
Step 2: Ask for Your Combo Chart in Plain English
This is where the magic happens. Instead of clicking through menus and settings, you just tell the AI what you want to see using a natural language prompt. You just type what you need as if you were talking to a data analyst on your team.
For example, to recreate the chart from our manual example, you could ask:
“Show me a combo chart of daily sessions as bars and user conversion rate as a line for last month from Google Analytics.”
The AI understands the request, pulls the correct live data from your connected GA account, and instantly generates a clean, professional combo chart that visualizes exactly what you asked for.
Here are a few other prompt examples:
“Create a chart comparing new users and engagement rate by traffic source for this quarter. Make new users bars and engagement rate a line.”
“Make a weekly combo chart for Q2 showing total users (bars) versus average session duration (line) from GA4.”
“Show me daily sessions from organic search on a bar chart and layer on the sitewide conversion rate as a line for the last 90 days.”
Step 3: Refine and Dig Deeper with Follow-Up Questions
The real power of an AI-driven approach isn't just the initial creation - it's the effortless iteration. Once the chart is made, you can continue the "conversation" to explore your data further.
Notice an interesting spike? Dig in:
“Filter this chart to only show mobile traffic.”
“Change the view from daily to weekly.”
“What happened on May 15th that caused that spike in sessions?”
“Now only show me traffic from the United States and Canada.”
Each prompt modifies the existing chart or provides a new insight in seconds. This turns data analysis from a static reporting task into a dynamic, engaging exploration. You can follow your curiosity, test hypotheses, and uncover root causes without ever leaving the dashboard or exporting another CSV.
Advantages of Using AI for Google Analytics Reporting
Switching from a manual to an AI-powered workflow offers clear, powerful benefits that go beyond just creating a single chart faster.
1. It Saves an Immense Amount of Time
The most obvious benefit is speed. A process that once took 20-30 minutes of manual exporting, cleaning, and chart building is now done in under 30 seconds. This frees up hours every week, allowing you and your team to focus on interpreting insights and taking action rather than getting bogged down in reporting busywork.
2. It’s Accurate and Always Based on Live Data
Manual data pulls are prone to human error - copy-pasting the wrong range, messing up a formula, or working from an outdated export. AI tools connect directly to the Google Analytics API, ensuring the data is accurate and complete. Better yet, the dashboards and charts are always live, automatically updating with fresh data so you’re always making decisions based on current reality, not last week’s numbers.
3. It Democratizes Data Analysis
You no longer need to be a spreadsheet expert to get answers from your data. Team members across marketing, sales, product, and leadership can self-serve a lot of their own reports and answer their own questions without needing to rely on a dedicated data analyst. If you can type a question, you can become a data-driven decision-maker. This creates a more informed and efficient organization.
4. It Promotes Deeper Exploration
When the barrier to asking a question is nearly zero, you ask more questions. The ease of generating and refining charts encourages curiosity. You're more likely to drill down into an interesting trend or segment your data in a new way, leading to insights you would have never discovered if each new query required a 15-minute detour into a spreadsheet.
Final Thoughts
Combo charts are a fantastic tool for getting a deeper understanding of your Google Analytics data, helping you connect the dots between traffic, engagement, and conversion. While the traditional method of building them in a spreadsheet is functional, it’s a time-consuming and manual process that hasn’t kept up with the pace of modern business.
At Graphed, we designed our platform to eliminate that exact reporting friction. We believe that getting answers from your data should be as easy as asking a question. By connecting your Google Analytics account, you can use simple, natural language to instantly generate combo charts, build entire live-updating dashboards, and explore your data in real-time. We handle the data wrangling so you can focus on making smarter, faster decisions for your business.