In this guide
- Looker Studio has a GA4 connector. Google Sheets can pull GA4 data with an add-on and the Analytics Data API.
- For larger data, use the GA4 BigQuery export and query it.
- Join spend, sessions and orders by channel and date, and check totals against your store.
Dashboards are only as good as the data behind them, but a simple weekly report on a sheet or in Looker Studio can change how a team works. This page explains the common ways to get analytics data into those tools, a basic report layout and the checks that keep it honest. See digital marketing analytics, e-commerce KPIs and data quality.
The routes
| Route | How | Good for | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Looker Studio GA4 connector | Connect a GA4 property as a data source | Interactive dashboards | Sampling and API quotas for large queries |
| Google Sheets add-on | The Google Analytics add-on pulls reports into a sheet and can refresh on a schedule | Weekly tables and simple charts | Row limits and quotas |
| BigQuery export | GA4 exports raw events to BigQuery daily or streaming | Large data, custom queries, joining with other sources | Needs SQL and a Google Cloud project; costs |
| Ad platform connectors | Looker Studio and Sheets connectors for Google Ads and others | Joining spend | Platform numbers overlap |
Connected in minutes
Add your domain, install the pixel, connect your ad platforms and watch the first events land.
A weekly report layout
| Block | Metrics |
|---|---|
| Summary | Sessions, orders, revenue, conversion rate for this week and the last four |
| Channels | Spend, orders, revenue, ROAS by channel |
| Profit | Gross profit and profit per ad dollar, if you have margins |
| Funnel | Product views, add to cart, checkout, purchase |
| Notes | Tracking changes and anything unusual |
Join spend and orders
- Use a common key: date and channel (or campaign).
- Use the same channel names in every source. Fix UTMs first. See unassigned traffic.
- Put your store's orders in as the reference column.
- Show platform-reported conversions in a separate column, never added together.
Watch events arrive, live
A sample feed. In Open Tracked you see the same stream for your own store.
Keep it trustworthy
Compare totals
GA4 revenue against your store each week.
Mark tracking changes
On the report, with dates.
Watch for sampling
Check the sampling indicator in Looker Studio.
Control access
Share with named people, not by public link.
Document definitions
One sentence per metric.
Alternatives
If you want spend, revenue, ROAS and profit by channel without building a report, Open Tracked's analytics shows them on first-party data, and its assistant Ari answers questions about your numbers in plain words. Use Sheets and Looker Studio when you need custom layouts or want to join sources it does not cover.
A realistic example
A marketing manager builds a one-page Looker Studio report with sessions, orders, revenue and conversion rate for the last five weeks, a table of spend and ROAS by channel from the ad connectors and a funnel chart. She adds her shop's orders as the reference column, and a note box where she writes any tracking change with its date. In the first month the report shows that Meta's revenue and the shop's revenue differ by about a quarter, which she explains once to the team and then watches as a ratio. When the ratio jumps one Monday, she checks the notes and finds that a developer had changed the thank-you page the week before. The report did not make the data better. It made problems visible quickly, which is its real value.
Runs on your domain, anywhere
Your tracking runs on your own domain, so a visit from any country is handled the same way.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get GA4 data into Google Sheets?
Use the Google Analytics add-on or the Analytics Data API, and schedule a refresh.
How do I connect GA4 to Looker Studio?
Add the Google Analytics connector as a data source and choose your property.
What if I need raw event data?
Use the GA4 BigQuery export.
How do I join ad spend and orders?
By date and channel, with consistent channel names.
Can I avoid building a report?
Open Tracked analytics shows spend, revenue, ROAS and profit by channel on first-party data.
Do I need spreadsheets to read my results?
No. Once tracking is live, the Open Tracked analytics shows spend, revenue, ROAS and profit, and you can ask Ari, the built-in AI assistant, questions about your own numbers in plain words. Ari's allowance depends on your analytics plan.
Is Open Tracked different from Open Track or Open Space Track?
No. Open Tracked is the official name of our server-side tracking platform, and the website is opentracked.io. Many people search for it as Open Track, OpenTrack or Open Space Track. All of them lead to the same product: server-side Google Tag Manager hosting, first-party analytics and a CRM pipeline.
Fix your tracking at the source
Open Tracked hosts your server-side Tag Manager, keeps first-party cookies alive and shows what each ad is really worth.
The Open Tracked team
We build Open Tracked: server-side tracking hosting, analytics and the tools around them, for stores that spend on ads. Questions about this guide, or an idea for the next one?
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