June 22, 2020

Google Ads Dashboard on your Digital Signs

If you are using Google Ads, you can get a dashboard of your Google Ads data on to Digital Signs very quickly using Google Data Studio. It's free from Google and it already have Google Ads Dashboard template and data integration.

High level steps:

1) Create and account & Log in to Google Data Studio (it's free)

2) Link your Google Ads account to get your real data

3) Create a Google Ads Dashboard from Template & map your data

4) Put the dashboard into OptiSigns and display on your screens

Here's how your dashboard would look. This template has:

  • Top campaign break down by CTR, CPC, Cost/Conv
  • Click Through Rates
  • Conversion Rate & Cost
  • Cost Per Clicks
  • and more.

Of course, you can edit to add data that you'd like to see.

Google AdWords dashboard on OptiSigns Digital Signage Software

Let's dive in on how to get this created.

1) Create and account & Log in to Google Data Studio (it's free)

Google Data Studio is Google's free business intelligence and dashboard tool. Using it, you can connect to a wide range of data sources and create reports, dashboard.

Go to https://datastudio.google.com/ and log in with your Google Account.

Arrow pointing to where to click to start using Google Data Studio for free

2) Link your Google Ads account to get your real data

After logging in you will see this page. Click Create

Arrow pointing to 'Create' button on Google Data Studio to create a new project

Then click "Data Source"

Arrow pointing to where to click to create a 'Data source' project on Google Data Studio

You may need to accept the Google Terms if this is your first time using Google Data Studio.

Google Terms of Service for Google Data Studio

Then click Google Ads.

Arrow pointing to Google Ads Google Connector as the Data Source

Click "Authorize"

Arrow pointing to the authorize button for connecting Google Ads as your data source

Then select the Account & Report in your Google Ads account that you want to use. Google will get data from there & map to this dashboard. Then click Connect.

Arrows pointing to selecting which account and report to select from your connected Google Ads. Another arrow for where to confirm the data source connection.

You can rename the Data Source by clicking on its name.

When you done click on the Data Studio Icon on top left to return to home.

Arrow pointing to Google Data Studio logo to go to home

3) Create a Google Ads Dashboard from Template & map your data

Click on "Report" tab and click on Templates to expand.

Arrows pointing to how to get to templates for reports on Google Data Studio

Then select "Google Ads Overview" Template

Arrow pointing to Google Ads Overview template on Google Data Studio

Then Click "Use Template"

Arrow pointing to confirmation on the template selected on Google Data Studio

Select the Data Source that you just created in the previous step, this will tell Google to map your data to this template.

Then click "Copy Report"

Arrow pointing to where to select the data source for the template selected on Google Data Studio

Then you can rename the Dashboard.

And feel free to modify the dashboard to your liking, or you can just use it as is.

Theme and layout settings for Google Ads dashboard on Google Data Studio

Once you done editing, click Share, then Embed

Arrows pointing to how to get the embed report code to use with OptiSigns Digital Signage Software

Then click Enable Embedding -> Embed Code

Change Width to 1920, Height to 1080 (best resolution for Digital Signs, you can use 4K if your TV and player support it, it may make the text a bit too small to read).

Then click "Copy to Clipboard"

Arrows pointing to Embed Report settings for Dashboard on Google Data Studio

Now you are ready to put this Embed Code to OptiSigns and display on your digital signs.

4) Put the dashboard into OptiSigns and display on your screens

First, you will need to have your screens set up and paired. For more information on how to do that, click here.

Then log on to our portal: http://app.optisigns.com/

Go to Files/Assets, Click on "App"

Arrows pointing to how to get to the apps list on OptiSigns Digital Signage Software

Click Google Ads Dashboard App

Arrow pointing to Google Ads Dashboard app on OptiSigns Digital Signage Software

Enter a name for your assets & paste the Embed Code copied from Data Studio here.

You can also set refresh interval so OptiSigns will refresh the dashboard for you.

Settings for Google Ads Dashboard on OptiSigns Digital Signage Software

Then click Save.

Your Google Ads with Google Data Studio asset is created in OptiSigns and ready to be assigned to your screen.

Arrow pointing to Google Ads Dashboard app created on OptiSigns Digital Signage Software

That's it!

You have created a Google Data Studio Dashboard that connected to your live Google Ads Dashboard, and you have put it in OptiSigns.

You can assign the newly created wall to your screen by going to Screens, click Edit screens and assign the wall to screens that you want.

You can put the created Data Studio dashboard in a Playlist, Schedule too.

Ready to get started?

If you are not using OptiSigns yet, you can sign up now for a free 30 days trial, all features included.