One feature that might be useful in Data Studio is the ability to switch metrics while viewing a geo-map.

So for example, taking a look at the number of sessions worldwide, then switching seamlessly to the number of goal completions worldwide.

Important Update: Optional Metrics

I wrote this post in early June 2019, when there was no way to have more than one metric on a geo-map. In September 2019 Google Data Studio was updated with a new Optional Metrics feature.

Optional Metrics allows you to have multiple metrics on a geo-map, and you can seamlessly switch between them. So that means that ‘hack’ that I write about in this blog post is no longer necessary.

Below you can see how you can use Optional Metrics to switch between Sessions, Users, Events and Goals in different charts.

I’ve decided to keep the post up, perhaps just to show how quickly Data Studio updates!

How to create One Map with many Metrics (the old-fashioned way)

Once upon a time it was not possible to do this, and one way to get around it was to create four identical pages with different metrics. In the Google Data Studio report below I’ve added four pages with different metrics, but it should hopefully feel like you’re manipulating the map and switching between them, rather than switching between pages.

To create the illusion that it’s a single map that changes, you need to create one page and then duplicate it three times.

Then for each of the pages change the metric to something different.

In this report I’ve chosen Sessions, Users, Total Events and Goal Completions.

So you can change the metrics on each page, and then change the names of the pages to match them.

On the first page of your report you can then create some text links to other pages in the report.

The next step is to actually link them to the correct page. We can do this using the new Dynamic Page link feature in Data Studio.

Once you’ve added the correct links to each page name, you can copy the four page names onto each of the four pages.

Then you should be able to filter between Sessions, Users, Events and Goals without too much hassle.

Hope you found this blog post useful!

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