Editing Scorecard Metric Names In Google Data Studio

If you have been getting into Data Studio, chances are you've been making use of the neat little Scorecard charts within your dashboards. This chart type is perfect for your simple top-level summary counts, but along with this simplicity comes a few restrictions when it comes to customising the panels.

By default, these charts use the field name brought in from your data source as the title, and you do not get the option to define your own title. You can hide the default title and add your own in using a text field, but here is another trick for updating the field names throughout your report to something a bit more friendly.

One example where I find this particularly useful is with Google Analytics Goals. 

If I create a scorecard for my sessions count it looks great, I'll add in users alongside it and it also looks great, but when I add in my goal completion count things start to look a bit naff:

The database field name includes the goal number and the fact that it was a goal completion. The text doesn't wrap, and it would create a lot of dead space if I was to stretch the panel out to accommodate the long field name.

How you can get around this is by adjusting the field name of your database edit options.

Start by selecting Edit data source for the chart you want to set new labels for:

Use the search panel to find the field you want to rename. In our example, we're looking for the Create Account goal:

And simply click into the field name and adjust the label to something more appropriate for your report, we're going to call this one "Accounts Created"

Now when you refresh your report, you will see the new label appear on your scorecard:

We now have three nice tidy panels with good descriptive labels of what they represent.

So, there we have it. A simple way editing scorecard names! If you're new to Data Studio, or want to up your reporting game, check out our Google Data Studio training course.

This post first appeared on the Data Runs Deep blog. Data Runs Deep joined the Jellyfish global family in 2020 and the knowledge-sharing continues under the Jellyfish banner in Australia and around the world.