GA4 Dashboards: The 14+1 Card Build for Indian D2C Brands
Google Analytics now has native dashboards, capped at 15 cards. Here is the exact setup path and the 14+1 card layout we would build for an Indian D2C store.
Fifteen cards. That is all a standard GA4 property gets on one of the new GA4 dashboards Google added to Analytics on 9 September 2026, and most teams will waste half of them on vanity scorecards. Spend 14 of them on the layout below, keep one spare, and your founder gets a daily D2C view without anyone opening Data Studio.
We built the plan around how Indian D2C stores actually sell: festive spikes, UPI checkouts, and Tier 2 cities that convert differently from Mumbai and Bengaluru.
How do you create a dashboard in Google Analytics 4?
You create a GA4 dashboard from the Reports menu: click + Create at the top of the left navigation, choose Dashboard, drag chart types onto the grid, drop dimensions and metrics into each chart, then Save and Publish. You need the Editor or Administrator role. Anyone with property access can view it once published.
Here is the exact path, from Google’s own help article:
- Open Reports. Sign in to Google Analytics and pick Reports from the left menu.
- Start a dashboard. Click + Create at the top of the Reports navigation, then Dashboard.
- Place your charts. Drag a visualisation type, such as a scorecard or table, onto the grid canvas. Resize and align by hand.
- Feed each chart. Drag dimensions and metrics onto the chart, then format it in the right-hand panel.
- Save, then Publish. These are separate buttons. Publish puts the dashboard straight into the Reports left navigation, skipping the report library.
- Edit later. Select the dashboard in the left navigation and click the pencil icon.
Watch out: every published dashboard is shared with the whole property. If your agency, freelancers or a former employee still have access, they will see your founder’s revenue view. Audit users under Admin before you publish.
What can GA4 dashboards do, and what can’t they?
GA4 dashboards support six chart types, a 15-card cap on standard properties and 30 on premium ones, and automatic sharing with the property. Google’s help page says API support, segments and card-level comparisons are not supported yet, so treat dashboards as a quick daily view, not an analysis tool.
| Feature | GA4 dashboards (Sept 2026) | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Chart types | Scorecard, table, line, bar, donut, funnel | No geo maps or scatter plots. Use a city table instead. |
| Card limit | 15 standard, 30 premium | Every chart counts, scorecards included. |
| Sharing | Shared with everyone on the property | No private dashboards. |
| Segments, API, card comparisons | Not supported | Explorations still handle cohort and segment work. |
Two practical quirks surfaced in early testing. Ruchelle L, writing on the Ray Pastoors analytics blog on 21 September 2026, reported that dashboards follow the Paid and Organic Last Click model used by standard reports, and that she could only add 10 cards before hitting what she suspected was a bug. Score cards show a percentage change only when you apply a date comparison.
15cards per dashboard on a standard GA4 property
6chart types: scorecard, table, line, bar, donut, funnel
0segments allowed on dashboard cards today
Which cards should an Indian D2C brand put on its GA4 dashboard?
Use six scorecards for sales health, one daily trend line, one checkout funnel, three tables for source, city and landing page, two bar charts for device and product, and one donut for channel mix. That is 14 cards. The fifteenth stays empty for whatever your next campaign needs to track.
We call it the 14+1 layout. It answers one question only: did the store sell well yesterday, and why? Ruchelle L gives the same advice from the other side: build each dashboard around one question, not everything you can fit.
| Cards | Chart | Dimensions and metrics |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 6 | Scorecards | Sessions, Ecommerce purchases, Purchase revenue, Average purchase revenue, Session key event rate, New users |
| 7 | Line | Date by Sessions and Purchase revenue, daily |
| 8 | Funnel | view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout, add_payment_info, purchase |
| 9 | Table | Session source / medium by Sessions, Purchases, Revenue |
| 10 | Table | City by Sessions, Session key event rate |
| 11 | Table | Landing page by Sessions, Session key event rate |
| 12 and 13 | Bar | Device category by Revenue; Item name by Item revenue |
| 14 | Donut | Session default channel group by Purchase revenue |
| 15 | Spare | Campaign of the month, or a Source Group card for AI referrals |
Card 8 matters most in India. The gap between add_payment_info and purchase is where failed UPI collect requests and card OTP drop-offs show up. If that step loses far more users than begin_checkout, call your payment gateway before you touch your ads.
Card 10 is your Tier 2 check. If Indore, Lucknow or Coimbatore bring sessions but convert at half your metro rate, fix COD and delivery-date messaging on those landing pages first.
Pro tip: Google added a Source Group dimension on 11 June 2026 that groups variants such as fb and facebook into one value, with built-in grouping for ChatGPT and Perplexity. If it shows in your dashboard field list, use it on card 15 to watch AI referrals. For deeper AI-bot tracking, see our guide to Microsoft Clarity’s AI visibility report.
Why does a revenue scorecard mislead you in Diwali week?
A revenue scorecard rises with traffic, so festive weeks look like wins even when the site converts worse. Pair Purchase revenue with Session key event rate and divide revenue by sessions yourself. If revenue per session falls while revenue climbs, your extra festive traffic is leaking money at checkout or on the landing page.
Our maths, using an illustrative D2C store:
- Normal October day: 2,000 sessions, 1.6% key event rate, 32 orders at ₹1,250 average. Revenue ₹40,000. Revenue per session ₹20.
- Diwali week day: 3,500 sessions, 1.1% rate, 38 orders at ₹1,400. Revenue ₹53,200. Revenue per session ₹15.20.
The revenue card shows a 33% jump and everyone celebrates. Revenue per session actually fell 24%. Had the rate held at 1.6%, the same 3,500 sessions would have produced 56 orders and ₹78,400. That is ₹25,200 a day left on the table, or about ₹1.76 lakh across a seven-day sale.
A dashboard that only shows revenue will congratulate you for the worst week of conversion you had all year.
This is why scorecards 3 and 5 sit side by side in the 14+1 layout. Apply a date comparison against the previous period and both show their percentage change at a glance. If you want to see how far measurement gaps distort Indian marketing decisions, our breakdown of the Nielsen Annual Marketing Report puts numbers on it.
Should you still use Data Studio for GA4 reporting?
Yes, for anything that blends data or goes to a client. Google renamed Looker Studio back to Data Studio on 11 April 2026, and its free tier still connects Google Ads cost, CRM and Shopify data. GA4 dashboards cannot. Use dashboards for the in-house daily check and Data Studio for reports leaving the building.
Here is where we disagree with the excitement. Antonio Fernandez, founder and CEO of Bangkok agency Relevant Audience, argued on 13 September 2026 that dashboards expose messy tracking rather than fix it. He is right. If your purchase event fires twice on UPI redirects, the new scorecard will show doubled revenue in a prettier box. Fix tagging first using our GA4 setup guide.
Luis Rijo, founder of PPC Land, raised a second risk on 12 September 2026: with shared-by-default publishing, dashboard sprawl becomes a governance problem for the property. Agencies managing 20 client properties face a related pain. With no API, each dashboard must be rebuilt by hand in every property.
There is also a moving target. Josh Moser, Senior Director of Product Management at Google, wrote on 10 August 2026 that Gemini-built dashboards from Google Ads were “coming soon in Google Analytics”. The September release has no prompt builder, and Google has not said whether the two will merge. Expect the manual canvas to change.
Who should skip GA4 dashboards for now?
Skip them if your team already lives in a working Data Studio report, if you need segments such as repeat versus first-time buyers, or if you are an agency that must roll one template across many client properties. Small brands with one property and no analyst gain the most.
Consent matters too. If your cookie banner blocks analytics for people who decline, their visits never reach any GA4 card, so treat the numbers as consenting users only. Our explainer on the DPDP consent manager rule covers what brands actually need to do.
PingTalks verdict
Build one GA4 dashboard this week if you run a single D2C property and nobody opens your Data Studio reports. Use the 14+1 layout, pair revenue with conversion rate, and watch the payment step of the funnel. Agencies and teams that need segments or blended ad cost should stay on Data Studio and revisit when Google adds API and segment support.
What to do now
- Check users under Admin, Property access management, and remove anyone who should not see revenue.
- Confirm view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout, add_payment_info and purchase all fire once each in DebugView.
- Build the 14+1 dashboard, Save, then Publish it to the Reports menu.
- Apply a previous-period date comparison and compare revenue per session, not revenue alone.
- Name it with a clear owner and purpose so the property does not fill with near-duplicates.
Frequently asked questions
Are GA4 dashboards free?
Yes. Dashboards are part of standard Google Analytics 4 properties at no cost. Standard properties get 15 cards per dashboard, while premium (Analytics 360) properties get 30.
Who can create a dashboard in Google Analytics 4?
Only users with the Editor or Administrator role can create and publish GA4 dashboards. Anyone with access to the property can view a published dashboard.
Can I keep a GA4 dashboard private?
No. Google says all published dashboards are shared with the property. Check who has property access before you publish anything showing revenue.
Can I use segments in GA4 dashboards?
Not yet. Google lists segments, API support and card-level comparisons as unsupported. Use Explorations for segment analysis such as new versus returning buyers.
Do GA4 dashboards replace Data Studio?
No. GA4 dashboards only show Analytics data and have six chart types. Data Studio, renamed from Looker Studio in April 2026, still handles blended data such as ad cost and CRM numbers and client-facing reports.
Which attribution model do GA4 dashboards use?
Early testing reported on the Ray Pastoors analytics blog found dashboards use the Paid and Organic Last Click model of standard reports, not data-driven attribution. Google has not documented this on its help page, so verify in your own property.
Sources
- About Google Analytics dashboard (Google Analytics Help)
- What’s new in Google Analytics (Google Analytics Help)
- Evolve your marketing with new AI tools (Google blog, Josh Moser)
- Google Analytics gains drag-and-drop dashboards limited to 15 cards (PPC Land)
- Google Analytics Dashboards: Charts, Limits, Setup (Relevant Audience)
- GA4 Custom Dashboards: How to Build One (Ray Pastoors)
- Data Studio is back: Google kills Looker Studio name for good (PPC Land)
Kousik BhattacharyaEditor, PingTalks
Digital Evangelist and Entrepreneur at Clickseek Digital. A results-oriented marketing leader with an 18+ year track record driving transformative growth for diverse global businesses. Expert in performance marketing, demand generation, customer acquisition, strategic partnerships, and market expansion within B2B SaaS, Consumer-Tech, Fintech, Travel/Hospitality, and CRM/ITES Solutions sectors. IIM alumnus with a strong analytical background and a string of accolades, including "Top 50 Most Influential E-Commerce Professional of India" and "Top 100 Digital Marketer of India."
