Maintaining a consistent presence on social media takes more than just a few good ideas. It requires planning, organisation, and, ideally, a bit of automation. One of my favourite ways to stay on top of it all is by integrating Google Sheets with Looker Studio to build a dynamic social media content calendar.
This setup doesn’t just help schedule posts, it also provides real-time insights into your publishing habits and engagement levels, so you can refine your strategy as you go. Here’s exactly how I do it.
Step 1: Set up your Google Sheets content calendar
I always begin by creating a structured Google Sheet that acts as the backbone of the calendar. Keeping the structure consistent is key, both for clarity and for seamless integration with Looker Studio.
Here are the columns I typically include:
- Date: The scheduled post date
- Day: The day of the week
- Platform: E.g. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn
- Content pillar: Such as Promotion, Education, or Engagement
- Post copy: The caption or main text of the post
- Media link: A URL to the image or video asset
- Status: Draft, Scheduled, or Published
- Engagement metrics: Likes, shares, comments—filled in after publication
The first few columns (like platform or content pillar) can be customised to suit your workflow. I often manage the dropdown values and titles for these columns via a separate “Settings” tab in the same Google Sheet.
You might keep everything in one tab or create copies for each month or quarter, whichever method works best for your team.
Step 2: Connect Google Sheets to Looker Studio
Once your sheet is ready, it’s time to link it to Looker Studio:
- Open Looker Studio
- Click Create → Report
- Choose Google Sheets as your connector
- Select your spreadsheet and worksheet
- Click Connect
That’s it! Your content calendar is now live and feeding data into your dashboard.
Step 3: Design your Looker Studio dashboard
Now it’s time to visualise the data. I like to include the following components to get a full picture of what’s happening:
- Calendar view: For a visual overview of scheduled posts
- Platform distribution pie chart: See how content is split across platforms
- Content pillar bar chart: Analyse the balance of post types
- Status tracker: Monitor how many posts are still in draft vs. published
- Engagement metrics table: Track likes, shares, and comments once posts are live
Use Looker Studio’s style settings to align everything with your brand. A consistent colour palette and typography go a long way in making the dashboard feel polished.
Step 4: Add interactive controls
To make your calendar flexible for different users or purposes, I always add:
- Date range filter: Narrow the view to a specific time period
- Platform selector: Focus on one or more social media platforms
- Content pillar filter: Drill down into specific types of content
These interactive elements allow teams to explore the calendar dynamically, rather than scrolling through a static view.
Step 5: Automate data updates
To ensure the dashboard always reflects the latest version of your plan, you can automate the refresh settings:
- Go to Resource → Manage added data sources
- Click Edit on your data source’s actions
- Under Data freshness (at the top), set your preferred update frequency
This way, whenever you update the Google Sheet, your Looker Studio dashboard is updated too.
Optional: Supercharge your Google Sheet
Before data even gets to Looker Studio, there are a few additions I like to make in the Google Sheet itself to keep planning smooth:
- Other important dates: Include holidays, campaigns, or product launches in a separate table
- Idea brain dump: A tab to collect post ideas before they’re scheduled
- Single post view: A way to view one post’s full details in one place
- Auto-combined copy: A column that combines caption, CTA, and hashtags into one copy-paste cell
- Checklists: Track which platforms a post has been repurposed to, or mark off planning tasks like ‘Image created’ or ‘Copy approved’
These little tweaks can save you loads of time and help keep your content pipeline organised.
Final thoughts
Building a content calendar by linking Google Sheets with Looker Studio has completely transformed the way I manage social media. It gives me visibility, flexibility, and performance insights, all in one place. Whether you’re working solo or with a team, this setup helps you stay on top of your schedule while constantly improving your strategy based on what’s working.
If you haven’t tried this approach yet, I highly recommend giving it a go. Once it’s set up, it becomes an invaluable part of your content workflow.