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Power BI Connecting to Google Analytics

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When I started my WordPress blog I added a Google Analytics plugin. This allows me to track visitors to my blog. So now I have a few years worth of data to load into a Power BI report. Power BI has a Google Analytics connector. This blog post is to walk through building a simple report on my blog visitors.

YouTube Video

For those who prefer a video guide.

Thumbnail from YouTube video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdvAq-B6ZWg

Creating the connection to Google Analytics

In Power BI desktop the connector can be found under Get Data > More and then Online Services.

Connections dialog box

The connector relies on a third party, i.e. Google. Therefore Power BI shows a message warning the connector user that Microsoft can’t guarantee the connector will always work correctly. Google will also confirm that its okay for Power BI to connect to your Google Analytics.

Warning messages for connecting Google Analytics to Power BI

Selecting Fields

When the connection is established the Navigator dialog lists all the fields grouped in folders. The fields have two types, Dimensions and Measures. Every report must include at least one of each. For this example I select from the Time folder, Date and Month of Year as the dimensions. Then from the Page Tracking folder I select the measure Pageviews. Finally I click Load to get the data into my report.

Navigator pane showing Pageviews ticked and some Google Analytics data

Quick Chart

A quick column chart, using Month of Year and Pageviews shows the page views over the past few years.

Column chart showing pageviews over time.

Adding more fields from Google Analytics

Google analytics has many more dimensions and measures to explore. After you click on Transform and return to Power Query you can see the applied steps. My first attempt to add more dimensions to the query was to click on the cog next to Added Items. This gives you can error so you cannot just modify that step.

Picture of applied steps from Power Query and the error message "Add Items We cannot modify this step because there are errors in previous steps. Please resolve those errors first.

The error is not a problem. Instead of modifying the existing step, the easiest method to add new dimensions is to add a new step. On the Cube Tools – Manage ribbon, click on Add Items. For this example I added the following:

  • Geo Network
    • Continent
    • Country
  • Platform or Device
    • Browser
  • User
    • Users

After adding the new items, I return to the report and add slicers and more visuals.

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Laura GB

Over 20 year experience at being passionate about training, solving problems and loving a new challenge especially in the Microsoft's Power Platform suite.

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