Adding and Configuring Cards
~5 min readAdding and Configuring Cards
Adding a Card
- Open the dashboard you want to add the card to.
- Click Dashboard ▾ → Add card… (or Add your first card → on an empty dashboard). The Add card panel opens.
- Template. Browse the preset library — or type in the search box to filter by name or category (Traffic, Engagement, Conversion, Revenue, Acquisition, Content). Click a preset to select it.
- Configuration. Give the card a name (it defaults to the preset's name) and set its goal. The preset's default goal is filled in for you.
- Click the add button. The card appears on your dashboard.
The library has more than 30 presets, including every card on the four ready-made dashboards plus extras such as Sessions Growth Goal, Active Users (last 30 days vs. the same period last year), Monthly New Users Goal, Key Event Rate Goal, Monthly Revenue and Avg Engagement Time. You can add the same preset more than once — for example, one per time window. See Card Types & Metrics for the full list.
The Card Menu
Click the ⋯ button at the top of a card:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Edit card | Opens the card editor. |
| Duplicate | Makes a copy of the card that you can configure independently. |
| Export | Opens the Export panel — see Sharing & Exporting. |
| Delete card | Removes the card from the dashboard. |
Editing a Card
Choose Edit card to open the card editor. It has four numbered sections. Click Save to apply your changes — the card reloads with fresh data straight away.
1. Card identity
The name shown at the top of the card.
2. Goal
What success looks like. Choose No goal, Grow/Reduce by % vs. comparison period, or Reach a target number. For a percentage goal, pick + Grow or − Reduce and enter the percentage. For a fixed target, pick an operator (≥, ≤, >, <, =) and enter the value. See Goals & OKRs.
Some cards — such as ranked breakdowns like Traffic by Channel — don't take a goal, and the editor will say so.
3. Metric
How the number is displayed and interpreted:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Visualization | How the data is drawn — Gauge, Badge, Chart, Bar, Metric, Sparkline or Table. See Choosing the Right Visualization. |
| Metric type | Auto (recommended), Cumulative (adds up over the period, such as sessions), Range (a snapshot at the end of the window) or Threshold (pass/fail). Auto picks the right one for each Google Analytics metric. |
| Direction | Auto, Higher is better, or Lower is better. Auto knows that Bounce Rate is better when it falls. |
| Number format | Auto, Currency, Percentage or Number. |
| Compact notation | On by default: large numbers show as 1.2k or 3.4M. Turn it off to always see full numbers. |
4. Time window
What period the card covers, and what it's compared with.
Window type — choose one:
| Type | What it does |
|---|---|
| Rolling | A window that slides with today's date: Last 7, 14, 30, 90 or 365 days, or Custom… (enter a number of days, weeks or months). |
| Calendar period | This week, This month, This quarter or This year — from the start of the period to today. |
| Custom range | A fixed From and To date — useful for campaigns and seasonal windows. |
Compare with — the period your numbers are compared against, which drives the percentage change and any "grow by %" goal:
| Option | How it's calculated |
|---|---|
| Previous period | An equal-length window immediately before the current one. |
| Previous year | The same window offset by 365 days. |
| Same period last year | The same calendar period a year earlier (recommended for calendar periods). |
| Same period last month | The same period last month. |
| Same day last week | The window shifted back 7 days. |
Calendar periods vs. rolling windows. Calendar periods have a defined end date, which is what lets a card show Forecast and Time Left. Rolling windows never end, so those two indicators show "—". See Reading Your Card.
What is "today"? Dates are interpreted in the reporting time zone of your GA4 property.
Arranging Cards
Drag a card by its header to move it and drag its bottom-right corner to resize it. Use sections to group related cards — see Your First Dashboard.
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