2.14. Bullet Charts in Looker Studio

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Understand the purpose and benefits of using bullet charts in Looker Studio.
2. Compare bullet charts to scorecards and explain their differences.
3. Create and customize bullet charts to display a single value, target, and defined ranges.
4. Interpret bullet charts to draw insights from the data.
5. Effectively communicate the information in a bullet chart to others.

In this lesson we will learn how a Looker Studio Bullet Chart is different from a scorecard or a bar chart and when you can best use this visualization. We will also cover how a bullet chart can show the value of a metric against up to 3 preset ranges and a target number like a gauge chart. We will also go through how we can use a bullet chart to visualize data vs. the previous period.

Bullet charts are a powerful way to visualize data compared to scorecards: while scorecards display a single number, they don't provide a comparison to a target or different ranges of expectations. Bullet charts address this limitation by allowing you to display a single value alongside defined ranges and a target.

<aside> 💡 Note: After the most recent update in Looker Studio (April 2023), now scorecards can show performance against a target, too. But in some cases, like when showing different performance ranges is desired, bullet charts are still a preferred solution.

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Comparing to Targets and Ranges

Let's say a business expects to see $250,000 of revenue for the last month. With a bullet chart, you can define three ranges:

1. $100,000 - considered really low, and someone might get fired.
2. $200,000 - an okay-ish threshold; it's still not ideal.
3. $300,000 - an ambitious target that the business is shooting for.