Stacked Column Charts are really handy when you want to compare the same value across different categories, among other things. We will show you here how to build and use a stacked column chart.
Use Cases
Here are some common use cases we see when building stacked column charts.
Leads by Medium. This one can be extended to include other similar measures: site traffic by source, leads by source, demo by source, etc. Each column represents the time frame (day, week, month, quarter, etc.). The column is then broken down into each source or medium. The size of the particular section (i.e. source or medium) represents the number of leads, visitors, or demos.
Revenue or Sales by Sales Rep. Similar to the last one, you could track the number of sales, broken down by sales rep. This would give you a good idea of how your sales team is performing.
Billable Hours by Client. Here, agencies can track the number of billable hours for each client over a time period. This can help you manage both your billing data as well as the reported hours of your clients.
Building a Stacked Column Chart
To build a stacked column chart, first log in to your Grow account and click Add Metric. Choose your data source, connect your data, and press continue.
In Edit Metric, with the chart button selected, click on the chart type menu to view the list of charts. Go ahead and select Stacked Column Chart.
Next, you will need to select your data series. When you select data series for a stacked column, the first series will be the lowest in the column, or closest to the x-axis. Each subsequent data series will be stacked on top of the first.
However, if you have data series that include negative numbers, the chart will expand to include the negative values below the x-axis.
Often when using a stacked column chart, you may need to use the group data transform or a pivot table. These two transforms are extremely helpful when you need to get your data to be grouped into the categories for each part of the stack before creating the metric visual.
Once you have selected your data series, you can format each series.
Finally, be sure to add chart labels and key values to your metric.