Creating Custom Groups in Looker Studio

If you are a seasoned Looker Studio user, you are probably already familiar with creating custom groups in your data using calculated fields and CASE statements – but did you know there is now an easier way?

Benefits of Grouping Data

Before we get into this useful new feature, if you have never created groups in Looker Studio you may be wondering why you would want to group data in your reports in the first place. 

Grouping data in Looker Studio can be incredibly helpful for several reasons:

• Simpler Analysis – Grouping data allows you to organise similar or related data points together, making it easier to analyse and draw insights from the data. Instead of analysing individual data points, grouping enables you to analyse data at higher levels of granularity, which can reveal broader trends and patterns.
• Better Visualisation – Grouping data enables you to create more meaningful and insightful visualisations. By sorting data into custom groups, you can create charts and graphs that provide a clear and concise representation of trends and patterns within the data.
• Comparisons – Grouping data makes it easier to compare different groups or categories against each other, facilitating side-by-side comparisons that can reveal valuable insights.

 

CASE Function

Previously, we had to create a new calculated field and use the CASE function to create custom groups. The CASE function is best described as an ‘if this, then that’ function – when condition 1 is met then result 1 is returned, for example:

This syntax begins with ‘CASE’, then ‘WHEN’ clauses define the conditions to be met. When a condition is satisfied, the associated result is returned. If none of the conditions are met, the ‘ELSE’ result is returned. This simple example demonstrates splitting the ‘session default channel grouping’ dimension into two groups: organic and all others.

 

New Group Calculated Field Type

Thanks to a recent Looker Studio update, we can now create custom groups for dimensions without needing to develop CASE WHEN expressions in calculated fields, with the new Group calculated field type.

This new time-saving feature is more efficient, reducing effort when creating custom groups, and may be more approachable to newer or less experienced Looker Studio users as there is no need to code.

 

How to Create a Custom Group

To create your own custom group, firstly click to edit your data source. Click the blue plus sign to ‘add a field’ and select ‘add group’.

 

Select an existing field to group by from the drop-down menu and choose a name for your new dimension – this is the name that will show in your reports and must not be the same as an existing dimension. We’ll create the same groups as we have in the CASE example above.

 

The next step is to define the criteria for each group by selecting a name, conditions and a group value. We have specified that if the session default channel group contains ‘Organic Search’, then it should be included in our ‘Organic’ group.

 

 

To add more groups for that dimension, click the ‘Add group’ button, and repeat the previous steps, or as we have done in this example, group the remaining values that don’t meet the group conditions together as ‘All Other’.

Click ‘Save’ and ‘Finished’. Your new group will now be available to use as a dimension in your dashboard!

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