Bar and column charts are excellent for comparing categories. The difference between them is that bars are horizontal while columns are vertical.
In this post, I have continued using the dataset of top movies from 2019 to develop the examples.
Visit the post on how to add charts to your report in Looker Studio, if you need a refresher.
1. Example
Let’s create a chart to compare the revenue by the main genre of the movies. Initially, we will select the column chart (not the bar chart) and choose Top Genre 1 as the dimension and Revenue as the metric.

In the chart, you’ll see that Animation, Superhero, and Action are the three genres that have generated the most revenue among the top 100 movies.

2. Specific Customisation Options for the Chart
By default, only the top 10 genres appear. There are 17 in total, so if you want to see more, you can change this in Style and increase the number of columns (they are called bars here).


You can also change the columns to bars from Style by selecting the icon that shows bars instead of columns (just above where you changed the number of bars). Personally, I prefer this when the category I’m representing has many values.
Additionally, you have the option to view the bars or columns as stacked or 100% stacked. I like to see them stacked to compare the weight of one dimension within another. For example, to see the weight of each distributor in the revenue generated by the main genre, we can create the following chart.
In Dimension, leave Top Genre 1 and in Breakdown Dimension, select Distributor.

Also, within Style, select Stacked Bars and 100% Stacking.
By default, only the top 10 distributors appear, and you can increase it to a maximum of 20 by changing the number in Series.

In both Superhero and Animation, Walt Disney Studios accounts for more than 50% of the revenue. This is not surprising, as it is the distributor of the top 3 movies: Avengers: Endgame (Superhero), The Lion King (Animation), and Frozen II (Animation).

Also, within Style, you can add a reference line or bar. The latter is useful for showing what range of values is considered negative, average, or positive for a given metric. With the line, you could only mark the point at which the data becomes positive (or negative).
Like other charts, such as time series or scorecards, bar or column charts are widely used in Looker Studio and other visualisation tools. Would you say this is one of the visualisations you use the most?