Everything You Need To Know About Bullet Charts

Bullet charts show a single metric. They help you to see how good is selected metric is performing and they do it in a simple, easy to ready way.

• A centre bar showing the actual value of the metric you are graphing
• A vertical line showing a target value
• Coloured bands that represent threshold ranges, such as poor, average, and good

Bullet charts are often used in dashboards to provide meter or gauge-like widgets that monitor various "health" or performance KPI (key performance indicators).

This chart shows the number of sessions on a website (67500). Target has set to 70K, there are thresholds at 50K and 60K sessions.

In a brief look, we can understand session KPI and its relation to the target.

How to add a bullet chart?

Chart Settings

Click on the chart, afterwards on the right, use the properties panel to change the chart options.

Data Tab

This tab shows settings related to the data source.

Data source: A data source lets you to connect to the data set you want to use. Data source options are: change the data source, view/edit the data source, add a blended data source.

Metric: Metrics are used to measure the contents of dimensions and provide the chart with a numeric scale and data series. Drag fields from the Available Fields tab on the right onto the chart to add measurements. You can also click Add metric in the Data tab.

Optional metrics allows you to select more than 1 metric and viewer will able to change them.

Range Limits: There are threshold values for the chart. You might consider "poor," "average," and "good" thresholds. setting the range values 1, 2, and 3. You should determine these values according to your dynamics or standards.

• Range 1 - Set the threshold for the "poor" range.
• Range 2 - Set the threshold for the "average" range.
• Range 3 - Set the threshold for the "good" range.

Target: This is to specify the target value for the chart. "Show target" → Shows or hides the vertical target bar. "Target value" - Set the target value.

Default date range: This lets you set the timeframe for an individual chart*.* When this is changed, this specific chart's date range overrides the date range of the page. Default date range options:

• Auto: Applies the date frame of the dashboard if there is a data selector. If not, then tries to include all data.
• Custom: Lets you use the calendar widget to select a custom date range for the chart.

Date compare type: Displays comparison data for the selected time period.

Filter: Filter help filter the raw data which is coming from the data source. It might be helpful when you want to include specific values or exclude some. For example, you might want to exclude ad campaigns with zero impressions.

Google Analytics segment: This option appears for charts based on a Universal Analytics data source. A segment is a subset of your Analytics data. You can apply segments to your Data Studio charts to help ensure that your Data Studio and Google Analytics reports show the same data.

Style tab

A chart's style properties control the overall presentation and appearance of the chart.

Bar Colors: This controls the appearance of the centre value bar and the ranges.

• Bar colour → Sets the colour of the value bar.
• Range colour → Sets the colour of the ranges.

Axis: Controls the appearance of the chart axis.

• Show axis → Shows or hides the chart axis.
• Font colour → Sets the colour of the axis labels.
• Font family → Sets the font family of the axis labels.

Background and border: These options control the appearance of the chart background container.

• Background: Sets the chart background colour.
• Border Radius: Adds rounded borders to the chart background. When the radius is 0, the background shape has 90° corners. A border radius of 100° produces a circular shape.
• Opacity: Sets the chart's opacity. 100% opacity completely hides objects behind the chart. 0% opacity makes the chart invisible.
• Border Color: Sets the chart border colour.
• Border Weight: Sets the chart border line thickness.
• Border Style: Sets the chart borderline style.
• Add border shadow: Adds a shadow to the chart lower and right borders.

Chart Header: The chart header lets viewers perform various actions on the chart, such as exporting the data, drilling up or down, and viewing the chart in the Explorer tool. You can choose a show on hover - which is the default, always show and do not show.