Time Series with Annotations

Time Series with Annotations for Data Studio, formerly known as Looker Studio.

Time series with annotated events: context where it actually happened.

Add to Data Studio →Open live demo

Cross-filter readyTheme-awareSetup in 30s

datastudio.google.com / report

Time Series with Annotations in a Data Studio report

What it is

Time Series with Annotations is a clean multi-series line chart with one superpower: it marks real events directly on the timeline. Launches, campaigns, incidents, holidays - each one gets its own icon, color, and label, pinned to the exact date it happened. Annotations are first-class here, not a hack.

What it does

Plot up to five metrics over time, then layer event annotations on top from a second data source. Match events to one of 10 annotation types by keyword - each with its own icon and color from a library of 30 built-in icons (or any emoji) - and let viewers hover any marker for the full story. Tooltips, cross-filtering, and theme support included.

Why use it

A spike without context is just a question mark. Was it the campaign? The outage? Black Friday? Annotations answer it right on the chart, so nobody has to dig through a changelog to explain the data.

30 icons, ready to go

Every annotation gets an icon, a color, and a label, pinned to the exact date it happened. Pick from 30 built-in icons — a cart for sales, a rocket for releases, a storm cloud for the day everything went sideways — or choose Custom and type any emoji.

Sale

Error

Note

Launch

Campaign

Alert

Milestone

Bug

Holiday

Info

Fish

Plane

Money

Star

Heart

Check

Clock

Gift

Mail

Trophy

Idea

Release

Security

Goal

Calendar

Sunny

Cloudy

Rain

Snow

Storm

Need something that isn't here? The 31st option is Custom: any emoji or short text becomes a marker.

Add icons to your chart

Icons are keyword-matched, so your data stays simple: a date, a label, and a one-word type. The chart does the rest.

Bind your date and metrics as usual, then add an Annotation Label and an Annotation Type dimension from your events data.
In the Style panel, set up to 10 annotation types. Each type gets a keyword (say, launch), an icon, and a color.
Any event whose type matches a keyword shows up on the timeline with that icon. Hover for the full label.

Easy ways to link annotations

Annotations come from data, so there's nothing to redraw when plans change. Two setups our customers love:

Google Sheets blend

Keep a simple sheet — date, label, type — and blend it with your metrics on the date field. Anyone on the team can add an event by typing one row. No chart edits, ever.

Google Calendar Connector

Point our Google Calendar Connector at a shared events calendar and launches, campaigns, and holidays land on your chart automatically — the calendar you already keep becomes the annotation layer.