110 Analytics, a data analytics consultancy in Malta, builds and runs Looker Studio dashboards on a BigQuery warehouse. It works with established companies, typically turning over roughly €1M to €10M a year. The warehouse sits in the client's own Google Cloud account, and every source loads into it overnight. Each number has one agreed definition, so every report shows the same figure.
You will recognise this if your reports live in Looker Studio
If your company in Malta runs on Google's tools, one of these will probably sound familiar.
- We have more Looker Studio reports than people, and nobody knows which are current.
- The dashboard takes so long to open that people give up and ask for a spreadsheet.
- Google Ads says one number of leads. The CRM says another.
- Marketing reports on clicks and conversions. Finance wants to know what was sold.
- Every report is wired to its own spreadsheet, and someone updates the spreadsheets by hand.
- One person built all of it, and they are the only one who can fix it.
- We cannot see which campaigns bring in customers who actually pay.
Free to start, fragile to scale
Looker Studio is easy to start with: the standard version costs nothing, and Google's own connectors link it to Google Ads and Google Analytics. That is a real strength. It is also how the trouble starts.
Reports multiply, each connected directly to its own live sources and spreadsheets. Each one blends data in its own way, so each can count leads, bookings or revenue slightly differently. Reports that pull from several live sources at once can be slow to open.
Then someone renames a tab in a spreadsheet, or a connector loses its login, and a chart shows an error on the morning of the meeting. The numbers go back into a spreadsheet. The dashboard becomes something people used to look at.
Is Looker Studio good enough for business reporting?
Yes, with a warehouse underneath it. Looker Studio is a capable reporting tool, but it is not built to store, join and define your company's data. When it has to do that work itself, in every report and every time a report opens, it can struggle.
BigQuery is Google's data warehouse. We use it as the single place every system loads into, overnight, on a schedule. That can include Google Ads, Google Analytics, your CRM, your accounting system, your booking or point-of-sale system, and the spreadsheets that still matter.
The joining and the definitions happen there, once. Looker Studio then reads tables that are already clean and agreed. The reports open faster, because the joining is already done, and they show the same numbers.
The warehouse is built in your own Google Cloud account, with your credentials, and Google bills its usage to you directly. You own it start to finish, and it does not depend on us to keep running.
What we build
Looker Studio is the part people see. The part that makes it trustworthy sits underneath.
BigQuery underneath
One warehouse in your Google Cloud account that every source loads into overnight, on a schedule, without anyone exporting a file.
Advertising joined to sales
Google Ads and Google Analytics matched to your CRM and finance records wherever your systems capture the link. That is how you see which campaigns bring in customers who pay.
One definition per number
What counts as a lead, a booking or revenue, agreed once with your team and written into the warehouse. Every report inherits it.
Looker Studio on top
Dashboards by role that open faster, because the joining and calculating have already happened in the warehouse.
Reports that send themselves
Scheduled delivery to the right inboxes on the right morning, from the same figures as the dashboard.
Owned by you
Your Google Cloud account, your credentials, your reports. Nothing sits in ours.
The weekly marketing report, two ways
Looker Studio or Power BI: how to choose
Looker Studio on a BigQuery warehouse usually suits a company whose people work in Google Workspace and whose revenue often begins with a Google Ads click. The reports sit alongside the tools your people already use. Your advertising data also has a short road into the warehouse.
Where the office runs on Microsoft 365 and finance lives in Excel, Power BI tends to be the better route. We build that too, and cover it on our Power BI page.
Some companies are split, with finance in Excel and marketing in Google's tools. Whichever way you lean, the definitions sit in the warehouse rather than in the reports. Switch tools later and only the screens are rebuilt; the numbers stay as agreed.
We recommend one before the build, based on what you already run.
Which way does your company lean?
Already have Looker Studio reports? Here is what changes
If you already have Looker Studio reports, sometimes a great many, we keep the ones that earn their place. The change is in what they read from.
During the audit we list the data sources behind each report. Some connect straight to Google Ads or Google Analytics through Google's own connectors, some read a spreadsheet, and some blend several sources inside the report.
Blends are where we look first for disagreement and waiting. Each report repeats the join in its own way, every time it opens.
In the build, BigQuery takes over the joins. The reports worth keeping are reconnected to prepared tables in the warehouse, so each chart reads one clean data source instead of a blend.
Spreadsheets that hold real information, such as the budget or the targets, become scheduled sources with a named owner. Spreadsheets that only stitched two exports together are retired, and so are the reports nobody opens.
Sharing works as it already does for Google Workspace files, with reports shared to named people or groups and access set by role. Whoever built the reports stops repairing broken connections. New reports are built on tables designed to keep their shape when a spreadsheet changes.
Looker Studio on its own, or on a BigQuery warehouse?
Both start with the same tool. The difference is where the work of joining and defining the data happens.
| Looker Studio on live sources | Looker Studio on BigQuery | |
|---|---|---|
| Where data is joined | Inside each report, every time it opens | Once, in the warehouse, overnight |
| Definitions | Set by whoever built each report | Agreed once, inherited by every report |
| Speed | Slows as sources are added | Reads tables already prepared |
| Spreadsheets | Updated by hand, wired in directly | Loaded on a schedule, or retired |
| When a connection breaks | A chart shows an error | A rule raises a flag |
| Ad spend against sales | Hard to join reliably | Matched where records link |
| Who holds it | Often tied to whoever built it | You, in your own Google Cloud account |
What changes, in one business
A group running several outlets in Malta works on Google Workspace. It advertises on Google Ads, takes bookings through a booking system, and records sales in a point-of-sale system and an accounting system. Marketing built its own Looker Studio reports; finance keeps its figures in spreadsheets.
- Four systems, and no report that shows them together.
- Google Ads reports leads. The booking system reports bookings. Nobody can say which campaigns produced bookings that were paid for.
- Each Looker Studio dashboard connects to its own spreadsheet, updated by hand every Monday.
- The busiest dashboard is slow enough that the managers ask for a spreadsheet instead.
- Finance and marketing bring different revenue figures to the same meeting.
- All four systems load into BigQuery overnight, in the group's own Google Cloud account.
- Ad spend is matched to bookings wherever the booking records the campaign, outlet by outlet.
- A lead, a booking and revenue each have one written definition, agreed by marketing and finance together.
- Leadership sees the whole group. Each outlet manager sees their own outlet.
- The Monday spreadsheet update stops. The dashboards are current when people open them.
The group kept its tools. Marketing still works in Google Ads, and finance still closes the month in the accounting system. What changed is the layer between them and the reports.
Live in Looker Studio and BigQuery after the first month
Implementation is the first month, and the first Looker Studio dashboard is live three to four weeks from an accepted quote.
A live Looker Studio dashboard
The first dashboard, reading BigQuery tables that are already joined and defined, and showing the measures leadership steers by, current to yesterday.
BigQuery, loading overnight
The sources behind that dashboard loading into your warehouse on a schedule, in your own Google Cloud account.
Definitions, written down
Every number on the dashboard with one agreed definition, so anyone can see where it comes from.
Access by role
Leadership, finance, marketing and operations each set up to see the numbers their role needs.
Everything in your name
The warehouse and the reports under your account, with your credentials.
A list of what comes next
The sources and reports to add next, ranked by how much they matter, so the fractional team knows where to start.
How it works
- A data strategy callThirty minutes with Glen, free. Tell him which Google tools you run, where the spreadsheets sit and which Looker Studio reports people actually open. You leave with a straight answer on whether we are the right fit.
- The data auditAbout three hours with your team. Glen follows your figures from Google Ads, Google Analytics, the CRM and the accounting system to the reports that show them. He scores the six dimensions with you and quotes for the work.
- The buildBigQuery is set up in your Google Cloud account and the sources are connected. The joins and definitions are written once, and the first Looker Studio dashboard reads prepared tables. Your side is agreeing the definitions and telling us which reports people really open. Three to four weeks from an accepted quote to a live dashboard.
- The fractional teamAn ongoing team keeps the loads and connectors healthy, adds the next source to BigQuery, and builds each new report on the same agreed tables.
What we do not do
- We do not sell licences or resell Google's services. The standard version of Looker Studio is free, and BigQuery is billed by Google to your own account.
- We do not run Looker Studio or BigQuery training courses.
- We do not manage your advertising campaigns. We report on what they bring in.
- We are not IT. We do not replace your CRM, booking system or accounting system.
- We do not take custody of your data, and we do not lock you in.
Glen Sultana founded 110 Analytics after a career built where the numbers move daily. Our people have run analytics for tier-one companies, S&P 500 firms and high-growth technology businesses. Glen is the person on the first call, and he runs every data audit himself.
- Built in your environment, under your account
- No lock-in: if we part company, it keeps running and stays yours
- Based in Malta
Straight answers
Should we use Looker Studio or Power BI?
If your company runs on Google Workspace and Google's advertising tools, Looker Studio on a BigQuery warehouse is usually the better fit. If it runs on Microsoft 365 and Excel, Power BI usually is. We recommend one before the build, after seeing what you already run.
What does BigQuery add to Looker Studio?
Consistency, and faster reports. Data is loaded once and defined once. Every Looker Studio report then reads the same numbers from tables where the joining is already done. No report has to query live sources and spreadsheets on its own.
Is Looker Studio really free?
The standard version is free from Google. The warehouse underneath is not: BigQuery is billed by Google on usage, directly to your own Google Cloud account.
What will BigQuery cost us to run?
It depends on how much data you keep and how often your reports query it, so we will not guess a figure on a web page. It is billed by Google to your own account. It is a fair question to put to Glen on the strategy call, against your own systems. Our own work is quoted separately, at the end of the data audit.
Can we keep our existing Looker Studio reports?
Often, yes. The ones worth keeping move off their live connectors and blends onto prepared BigQuery tables; duplicates become one report, and unused ones are retired.
Can you join Google Ads to what we actually sold?
Usually, where the data allows. We match ad spend to CRM and finance records wherever your systems capture a link between the two, and only within the consent your customers have given.
Do you offer Looker Studio training?
No. Anyone in your team who builds reports works from BigQuery tables that are already joined and defined, so there is no blending to do inside the report. Formal courses are best booked with a training provider.
Do you manage our Google Ads?
No. We report on what your campaigns bring in; whoever runs them, in-house or at an agency, keeps running them. Where the records link, the joined numbers show what finance invoiced, not only what the ad platform counted. You and they can then set the budget from the same figures.
Who owns the warehouse and the reports?
You do: BigQuery and every Looker Studio report sit in your own Google Cloud account, under your name.
The terms, in plain English
- Looker Studio
- Google's tool for dashboards and reports. The standard version is free. It is built to show data, not to store or define it.
- BigQuery
- Google's data warehouse: one place your company data is loaded into, joined and kept, billed by Google on usage to whoever owns the account. In our builds, that is you.
- Data source
- The connection a Looker Studio report reads from. When every report has its own, every report can count things its own way.
- Blending
- Joining data from more than one source inside a Looker Studio report. Useful for a quick view, but it can slow reports down and let them disagree.
- Ontology
- Your business's own terms, each with one agreed definition, mapped to where its data lives. It is what makes a lead mean the same thing in every report.
- Google Cloud account
- The account BigQuery runs in. We build in yours, under your name, with your credentials.