CLIENT CASE STUDY — Paws Chicago — Digital Marketing Analytics Report
Analytics Engineering · A8 · GA4 + Google Ads + Meta Ads → Looker Studio
Rev. 2026.05 · Live client

Three platforms.
One view of every campaign.

→ LIVE CLIENT Paws Chicago — consolidated digital marketing analytics across GA4, Google Ads, and Meta Ads GA4 · Google Ads · Meta Ads · Supermetrics

Paws Chicago had campaigns running across Google and Meta with no consolidated view of performance. We connected GA4 and Google Ads via native Looker Studio connectors and Meta Ads via Supermetrics, and delivered three dedicated dashboards covering website engagement, paid search performance, and paid social — including device, browser, age, region, and placement breakdowns across every report.

3 platforms connected 3 dashboards delivered Device + browser breakdowns Daily refresh — automated
Section01
— The challenge

Three platforms, three separate reports — no unified view of marketing performance.

Fragmented data
→ consolidated dashboards

"GA4, Google Ads, and Meta Ads each had their own reporting interfaces. There was no single place to see whether the website traffic from a Meta campaign was actually engaging — or just bouncing — because the data was never in the same room."

→ Problem 01

No consolidated view of website performance and ad results

GA4 held all the website engagement data — sessions, bounce rate, session duration, traffic sources — but it was never viewed alongside the ad performance data. The team couldn't see which paid channels were driving high-quality, engaged website visitors versus which were generating clicks that immediately bounced. Switching between GA4 and the ad platforms manually made comparison unreliable.

→ Problem 02

No cross-channel ad comparison — Google vs Meta performance was unknown

Google Ads and Meta Ads both reported impressions, CTR, and ROAS — but using different attribution windows and different conversion definitions. There was no shared view comparing the two channels with consistent metrics. Budget decisions between Google and Meta were being made without reliable side-by-side data showing which platform was generating better return per dollar spent.

→ Problem 03

No device or browser visibility — can't diagnose engagement problems

Paws Chicago's website had no device or browser segmentation in reporting. If mobile users were bouncing at a significantly higher rate than desktop users, or if a specific browser was causing session drop-offs, there was no way to identify it. Engagement problems that were device- or browser-specific were invisible — and therefore unfixable without the right data layer.

→ Problem 04

Manual weekly reporting — time-consuming and always out of date

Producing a performance report required pulling data manually from GA4, Google Ads, and Meta Ads, reconciling different date formats and metric definitions, and assembling the results into a presentation. Reports were consistently days behind the current period, inconsistent between weeks, and consumed marketing team time that should have been directed at campaign optimisation rather than data assembly.

Section02
— What we connected

Three sources, two connector types, one reporting layer — refreshed daily.

Native connectors
Supermetrics
→ Looker Studio
Data sourceConnectorWhat it powers
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Native Looker Studio connector Sessions, users, bounce rate, avg session duration, pages per session, traffic sources, device and browser performance, engagement analysis
Google Ads Native Looker Studio connector Cost, impressions, CTR, CPC, CPM, ROAS, campaign performance, age-wise breakdowns, region-wise breakdowns, clicks vs cost trend
Meta Ads (Facebook + Instagram) Supermetrics → Looker Studio Impressions, reach, engagement (likes, comments, shares), CTR, conversions, ad spend, audience demographics, placement-wise performance

Design principle: consistent date controls and shared filters across all three dashboards — switching from the GA4 report to the Google Ads or Meta Ads dashboard always reflects the same reporting period without manual re-selection.

Section03
— How it was built

Integration, conversion setup, dashboard design — three phases, live in Looker Studio.

Phase 1 · Connectors
Phase 2 · Dashboards
Phase 3 · Reporting
→ Step 01

GA4 → Looker Studio

Native connector configured. Key goals set up in GA4 — form submissions, sign-ups, donations. Engagement metrics confirmed live before dashboard build began.

→ Step 02

Google Ads → Looker Studio

Native connector linked. Conversion tracking verified — actions importing correctly. Campaign, ad group, placement, age, and region dimensions all confirmed available.

→ Step 03

Meta Ads → Supermetrics → Looker Studio

Supermetrics connector set up for Facebook and Instagram. Platform, placement, audience (age, gender, location), and engagement fields mapped and verified with live data before dashboards were built.

→ Step 04

Dashboard design + segmentation

Three dashboards built — one per platform — with summary scorecard rows, trend charts, and breakdown tables. Date range control + campaign filter + device filter consistent across all three.

→ Step 05

Automated refresh + access

All three data sources set to daily automatic refresh. Stakeholders access live dashboards through a single shared Looker Studio link — no login to GA4, Google Ads, or Meta Ads required.

  • 01
    → Phase 1 — Data integration and connector validation

    Each source validated with live data before any dashboard was built on top of it.

    Before building any visualisation, every data source was connected and validated in Looker Studio's data source preview. For GA4, key conversion events (form submissions, sign-ups) were confirmed as populating correctly. For Google Ads, conversion tracking was verified as importing from the linked account rather than defaulting to empty fields. For Meta Ads, the Supermetrics connection was tested to confirm placement, audience demographic, and engagement dimensions were all resolving with current data — not historical or sample data.

    • GA4 — native connector, conversion events confirmed live in property
    • Google Ads — native connector, conversions + age + region dimensions verified
    • Meta Ads — Supermetrics, platform + placement + audience + engagement confirmed
    • All three sources — daily refresh schedule set before first dashboard publish
  • 02
    → Phase 2 — Dashboard design with device, browser, and placement depth

    Three dashboards — GA4, Google Ads, Meta Ads — each with consistent structure and granular breakdowns.

    Each dashboard was designed with a summary scorecard row at the top (primary KPIs for that platform), a time-series chart for the main performance metric, and breakdown tables below. Critically, every dashboard includes the segmentation layers that were previously invisible: GA4 has device-type and browser-type performance tables; Google Ads has age-wise and region-wise performance alongside campaign breakdown; Meta Ads has platform (Facebook vs Instagram), placement, and audience demographic breakdown built in. Every dashboard shares the same date range control and campaign filter design so the team can compare periods consistently across all three reports.

  • 03
    → Phase 3 — Automated reporting and stakeholder access

    Scheduled refresh on all three sources — reports are current before the team checks them each morning.

    Looker Studio's automatic data refresh is configured for all three connections. The daily refresh runs overnight so that when the marketing team opens the dashboards each morning, the data already reflects the previous day's performance — no manual refresh trigger required, no export from any platform. All three dashboards are accessible through a single shared Looker Studio report link, with view-only sharing enabled for stakeholders who need read access without editing permissions.

→ Website behaviour

GA4 owns all on-site engagement data.

Sessions, bounce rate, session duration, pages per session, and traffic source breakdowns are owned by GA4. Device and browser performance data — the segmentation that reveals whether engagement problems are platform-specific — comes entirely from GA4 and is now visible in the dashboard.

→ Paid search performance

Google Ads owns search campaign data.

All Google Ads spend, impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC, CPM, and ROAS figures come directly from the native connector. Age-wise and region-wise breakdowns are Google Ads-native dimensions — no estimation, no sampling. Conversion data imports from the linked conversion tracking configuration.

→ Paid social performance

Meta Ads owns Facebook and Instagram data.

All Meta reach, engagement, spend, placement, and audience figures come from the Meta Ads account via Supermetrics. Platform-specific (Facebook vs Instagram) and placement-specific (Feed, Stories, Reels, Marketplace) breakdowns are Meta-native — not estimated by Looker Studio calculations.

Section04
— What the team sees

Three dashboards — website engagement, Google Ads, and Meta Ads — all in one place.

3 dashboards
daily refresh
shared link access
→ Dashboard 01 — Google Analytics 4

Sessions, engagement, traffic sources — and the device and browser breakdown that was invisible before.

The GA4 dashboard gives the team a complete view of website performance — not just traffic volume, but traffic quality. Session duration, bounce rate, and pages per session show whether visitors are actually engaging with the site or leaving immediately. Traffic source breakdown reveals which channels (organic, paid, direct, social, referral) are driving the most engaged sessions.

The device and browser performance tables are the additions that matter most for a team that had never seen this segmentation before. If mobile users have a bounce rate 30 points higher than desktop, or if Safari users show significantly shorter sessions, those patterns are now visible and actionable — a content or UX fix can be prioritised with confidence rather than guesswork.

→ GA4 Dashboard — key metrics
  • Sessions, unique users, new users — daily trend and period comparison
  • Bounce rate, avg session duration, pages per session
  • Goal conversions — form submissions, sign-ups, tracked events
  • Traffic source breakdown — organic, paid, direct, social, referral
  • Engagement analysis — clicks, scroll depth, interaction rates
  • Device performance — desktop vs mobile vs tablet (sessions, bounce, duration)
  • Browser performance — Chrome vs Safari vs Firefox vs other
→ Dashboard 02

Google Ads Performance

Full paid search analysis — cost, efficiency, and conversion performance segmented by campaign, age, and region.

  • Cost, impressions, CTR, CPC, CPM, ROAS — campaign level
  • Conversions and conversion rate by campaign and ad group
  • Cost vs CPM over time — efficiency trend analysis
  • Clicks vs cost over time — spend-to-traffic relationship
  • Age-wise performance — 18–24, 25–34, 35–44, 45–54, 55+
  • Region-wise performance — geographic breakdown of ad effectiveness
→ Dashboard 03

Meta Ads Performance

Facebook and Instagram paid social — reach, engagement, placement, and audience segment breakdown for full paid social visibility.

  • Ad spend, impressions, reach, CTR, conversions by campaign
  • Engagement metrics — likes, comments, shares, link clicks
  • Platform split: Facebook vs Instagram performance comparison
  • Placement breakdown: Feed, Stories, Reels, Marketplace, Right Column
  • Audience insights: age, gender, and location performance
  • Ad spend and CTR trend over time — daily, weekly, monthly
Section05
— The stack

GA4, Google Ads, Supermetrics for Meta, Looker Studio — native where possible.

No warehouse
direct connectors
fully maintainable
→ Website analytics

Google Analytics 4

GA4 captures all on-site user behaviour — sessions, engagement, goal conversions, traffic sources, and the device and browser breakdowns that surface UX and performance issues invisible in aggregate data. Connected to Looker Studio via the native GA4 connector — no third-party tool, no export step required.

→ Paid search

Google Ads (Native)

Google Ads connects through Looker Studio's built-in native connector. All campaign, ad group, age, region, and placement dimensions are available directly — along with conversion tracking data imported from the linked account. Daily refresh is automatic with no manual intervention.

→ Paid social connector

Supermetrics

Supermetrics handles the Meta Ads connection — covering Facebook and Instagram. It manages authentication, field mapping, and the daily scheduled data pull, surfacing platform, placement, audience demographic, and engagement fields that the native Looker Studio Meta connector doesn't provide at the same depth.

→ Reporting layer

Looker Studio

Three dashboards in a single Looker Studio report — consistent layout, shared date controls, and common filter logic throughout. All three data sources refresh daily automatically. The team accesses live dashboards through a shared link — no platform logins, no manual exports, no spreadsheet assembly.

001 / Platforms connected
3
GA4 · Google Ads · Meta Ads — all live in Looker Studio
002 / Dashboards delivered
3
GA4 Analytics · Google Ads · Meta Ads
003 / Segmentation layers
6+
Device · Browser · Age · Region · Platform · Placement — across all dashboards
004 / Connector types
2
Native (GA4 + Google Ads) · Supermetrics (Meta Ads)
005 / Data refresh cadence
Daily
All three sources refresh automatically — data is current before the team starts each day
006 / Manual reporting steps
Zero
No exports, no spreadsheet reconciliation — live dashboards via shared link
Section06

Google Ads and Meta Ads running in parallel — but no single dashboard to compare them.

We connect your GA4, Google Ads, and Meta Ads into Looker Studio and build the consolidated dashboards that show which channel is actually working — down to device, browser, placement, and audience.

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