How to Connect Excel to Google Looker (Data) Studio [2023]

Microsoft Excel is a popular spreadsheet tool used in almost any organization. It indeed offers many powerful data reporting and visualization features, but they may not be enough if you want a unified view from multiple data sources.

This is where connecting Excel to data reporting tools, such as Looker Studio, can help. Looker Studio (formerly known as Data Studio) is a cloud-based data reporting and visualization tool offered by Google. It pulls data from a variety of sources and paints beautiful dashboards with real-time reports.

In this post, we’ll cover two possible ways to connect Excel to Looker Studio and automate the data flow.

Methods to import Excel data to Looker Studio

Excel data can be exported to a .csv file, which can be used as a data source in Google Looker Studio. But, this method does not actually connect Excel to Google Looker Studio. You’ll need to repeat this manual process every time you want to get fresh data.

Looker Studio does not offer any direct integration with Microsoft Excel. However, the native Google Sheets integration can be used as an intermediary to connect Excel to Looker Studio. Here, the data will flow from Microsoft Excel → Google Sheets → Looker Studio.

From now on, Coupler.io provides a direct Excel to Looker Studio connection. Check out all available Looker Studio integrations.

The following are two of the main ways to connect Excel to Looker Studio via Google Sheets:

• ETL tool by Coupler.io: The easiest method to import Excel data to Looker Studio automatically via Google Sheets. The ETL tool by Coupler.io easily connects Microsoft Excel to Google Sheets and automates data flow without any coding.
• Python Program: Method to connect Excel to Google Sheets using API in Python script. Requires knowledge of APIs and Python programming language.

Let’s explore each of the methods to connect and visualize Excel data in Looker Studio.

How to connect Excel to Looker Studio without coding?

Coupler.io is a data analytics and integration platform that offers a no-code Excel to Google Sheets connector. It automates the data flow from Excel to Google Sheets at regular intervals so that you don’t have to do it manually.

This is the easiest method to connect Excel to Looker Studio via Google Sheets and automate the connection.

Let’s say you have the following Excel Sheet, which you want to connect with Looker Studio.

Create a free Coupler.io account and log into it. Now, create a new importer and select Microsoft Excel as the source and Google Sheets as the destination.

Click Proceed and configure the following settings:

Source

• In the Source Account, log into your Microsoft OneDrive account and allow the required permissions.
• From the OneDrive, select the Excel spreadsheet File, which you want to connect to Looker Studio.

Click Continue to proceed with the next section.

Destination

• In the Account, log into your Google account and authorize the required permissions.
• Select the Spreadsheet and Sheet, which you want to use as a data source for Looker Studio. Click Continue to proceed further.

In the destination settings, you can also specify the target cell address or range and choose to either replace or append data. However, these settings are totally optional in this case.

Schedule

• Activate the Automatic data refresh and choose the Interval.
• Select the Days of week and Time preferences for the auto data refresh.
• Finally, click Save and Run to load Excel data into Google Sheets.

Once Coupler.io finishes the data import, you’ll be notified via a success message on the dashboard.

In the below screenshot, you can see Coupler.io imported all data from Excel to Google Sheets. 😀

Furthermore, this data will be updated every fifteen minutes, as configured in the previous step.

Now, let’s connect this Google Sheets file as a data source and visualize Excel data in Looker Studio.

Connect Google Sheets to Looker Studio

• Create a new report in Google Looker Studio and select Google Sheets as a data source.
  

• Select the Spreadsheet and Sheet, which contains the imported data. Select appropriate options and click Add.
  

• In the confirmation pop-up, click Add to Report.
  

• The Excel data will now appear in Looker Studio, which you can use to create visual dashboards and charts, as shown below.

Automate data refresh from Excel to Looker Studio on a schedule

By default, Google Looker Studio refreshes the data from Google Sheets every 15 minutes. You can change this refresh rate by following these steps:

• In the Looker Studio, go to Resource > Manage added data sources.
  

• Click Edit against the Google Sheet data source.
  

• Click Data Freshness on the top-right corner of the section.
  

• Change the data refresh rate between Google Sheets & Looker Studio as per your requirement and click SET DATA FRESHNESS.
  

💡 Helpful Tip: Keep the Coupler.io (Microsoft Excel → Google Sheets) automatic data refresh interval the same as the refresh rate of Looker Studio (Google Sheets → Looker Studio.)

Ta-daa!! 🎉 You’ve successfully connected Excel to Looker Studio. Coupler.io will regularly import Excel data to Google Sheets, which will be automatically pulled by the Looker Studio.

How to visualize Excel data in Looker Studio programmatically?

Google Sheets API can be used to connect Excel to Looker Studio via Google Sheets. This method demands high technical skills and knowledge of the Python programming language.

Follow these steps to connect Excel to Google Sheets and visualize its data in the looker studio:

• Enable Google Sheets API: In the Google Cloud Console, click the top-left hamburger symbol to open the menu, and navigate to APIs and Services > Library. Search for Google Sheets API, and enable it.
  

• Create a New Service Account: Now, in the left navigation menu, go to IAM and Admin > Service accounts.

• Create a new service account, fill up the required details, and choose Owner as the Role to get full access. Finally, click Done to save the service account.
  

• Create a Private Key: Open the freshly created service account, go to the Keys tab, and Create a New Key for it. Select JSON as the Key type and click Create to download the Key.

• Save the JSON Key safely on your computer and proceed with the following steps.
• Install Required Python Libraries: You need to install certain Python libraries required to connect Excel to Google Sheets. Open the command prompt, and install them by running the following command:
  

pip install gspread pandas oauth2client

• Finally, make an API request from the Python script to export Excel to Google Sheets. For example:
  

import gspread
import pandas as pd
from oauth2client.service_account import ServiceAccountCredentials
# Set the scope and credentials
scope = ["https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds", "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive"]
creds = ServiceAccountCredentials.from_json_keyfile_name("path/to/key.json", scope)


# Authenticate and access the Google Sheets API
client = gspread.authorize(creds)
sheet_name = "Data from Excel"
sh = client.create(sheet_name)


# Share the spreadsheet with your Google account
sh.share(’example@gmail.com', perm_type='user', role='writer')

# Read the Excel file into a DataFrame
excel_file = "path/to/source/file.xlsx"
excel_data = pd.read_excel(excel_file)

# Create a new worksheet in the Google Sheets file
worksheet = sh.add_worksheet(title="Sheet1", rows=len(excel_data), cols=len(excel_data.columns))

# Append the rows from the DataFrame to the worksheet
for i, row in excel_data.iterrows():
    worksheet.append_row([str(cell) if isinstance(cell, pd.Timestamp) else cell for cell in row])

print("Excel file uploaded to Google Sheets successfully!")

In the above code, replace the following:

• path/to/key.json with the path of the JSON Key that you downloaded earlier.
• path/to/source/file.xlsx with the path of the Excel file that you want to connect to Google Looker Studio.
• example@gmail.com with the Google account email, which is associated with Looker Studio.

On successful execution of the code, the above script will create a new Google Sheets file. It will also be shared with the defined Google account email. You can find it shared in the Google Sheets Home.

You can use this Google Sheets file created by Python to visualize Excel data in Looker Studio as explained in this section. Now, in order to synchronize the Excel data with Looker Studio in real-time, you’ll need to code another program that sends API requests to update data at regular intervals. This can be too technical! 🤯

Furthermore, if you’re working with a large dataset, you’ll need to modify the script to break the data update into multiple chunks. Therefore, you’ll need a technical expert by your side if you decide to connect Excel to Looker Studio using this method.

What’s the best way to connect Excel to Looker Studio?

Connecting Excel to Looker Studio can accelerate data reporting and analytics for your business. In this article, we discussed two main ways to connect Excel to Looker Studio. The programmatic method to visualize Excel data in Looker Studio requires additional scripting to synchronize the data at regular intervals.

On balance, the Coupler.io platform is the best method to import Excel data to Looker Studio. It offers easy connection and automates the data flow between the apps. Furthermore, it seamlessly integrates with 60+ other data sources for automated data reporting. For example, you can connect Klaviyo to Looker Studio and more. So, try it out for your project!