Looker Studio scorecards

The scorecard is one of the most commonly used charts in Looker Studio. It is often used to monitor the most important metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

In this post, I’m going to walk through an example using dara from the top movies 2019 to show the configuration options this visualisation offers. Follow the steps explained in the post about data sources in Looker Studio to add the datasets to your report so you can replicate the examples shown here.

1. Example

We’re going to create a scorecard with data from the top movies of 2019. The ranking is determined by the revenue each movie has generated, so this is the metric we’re going to represent.

When selecting the scorecard under Add a chart, the mouse cursor on the canvas will indicate where the chart will be drawn when you click.

After clicking to place it, you can start configuring it in Set-up within Properties, which will appear on the right side of the canvas. The value you want to represent must be selected in the Metric field. In this case, we’re interested in the revenue of the top movies, so that’s what we’ll choose.

You’ll also see a field called Date range dimension. This is relevant if you want to represent a specific time period. For example, imagine you want to see the revenue only from movies released in the first three months of the year. To do this, you should use Release Date in this field, which should appear by default, but if not, you can select it manually. Now, if you change the default period to custom and select the first quarter of 2019, you’ll see that the total revenue in the scorecard changes.

You can read more about the date range dimension in the post about the date range control in Looker Studio, but in summary, the dates in this field are the ones filtered when you assign specific dates to the chart or use a time filter. Imagine the dataset has two date fields: US release date and Spain release date. The one you choose within Date range dimension will determine which data is displayed when you limit the chart to specific dates.

2. Specific customisation options for the chart

In Set-up, there is an option to add a sparkline to the scorecard. If you select Release Date, you’ll see the sparkline by the day the movies were released.

Under Sparkline, you’ll see Other Comparison Options. This allows you to choose a metric, a value, or a period to compare the revenue, which is the metric in our scorecard. Let’s compare it to a value and add 5.5 billion as the target value.

As you can see, the revenue is 8% higher than the target value we set.

Below the field where you entered your target of 5.5 billion, you’ll see the option to Show as Progress. If you activate this, a progress bar will appear in the scorecard comparing progress to your target value, and the sparkline will disappear (both cannot be displayed at the same time).

If within Other Comparison Options you change Comparison Type to Full stop, you must add a comparison period within Default Date Range. To demonstrate in the example, I’ve selected March 1 to 31, 2019, as the default period, and Previous Period (which in this case is the previous month) as the comparison period.

If you go to Style and look for Progress Visual, there’s a dropdown list where you can change the bar to a circle.

Also in Style, if you select Compact Numbers, the metric in the scorecard will be displayed in a shortened format with an B for billions. I like to use this option when working with very large values, as it makes them easier to read.

What do you think about the scorecard? Were you aware of all the options it offers? As always, your comments are more than welcome!

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