Looker Studio Followers Difference

Followers in Looker Studio

To obtain the number of followers, you have to keep in mind that it is a LAST type metric, this means that in a data card, the data shown is the last day of the period analyzed.

If this metric is aggregated by year or by month, what happens is that it adds the number of followers that were per day and the data is therefore triggered, being an incorrect data, because the aggregated data is shown.

In Looker Studio, unlike Metricool, there is no LAST function, so you would have to use other alternative functions such as MAX, which shows you the maximum number of followers in the period analyzed (this is the best option if the number of followers has a positive trend) or AVG (to know the average number of followers in the period).

Case studies

• Aggregate data "MAX".

The followers are stored day by day, therefore, if instead of choosing days to represent in the graph we choose month, what it will do is to add up the followers of all the days of the month, for example: if on day 1 we have 4000 followers, on day 2 we have 4002, if we choose to represent it as a month from day 1 to 2 we would get that in that month we have 4000+4002=8002 followers (which would be an incorrect data, since the last day of the month is taken as the reference day). What we have to do in the aggregate is to select "MAX", in this way we would select the day with the most followers that we have achieved in the month.

• Calculated field in evolution charts

Another option, which is more in line with the real data, would be to take the number of followers on the last day of the month. That is, we want to show a graph of evolution by months (you must select complete months).To obtain it, you must create a calculated field and add the following code:

CASE
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 1 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 31 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 2 and DAY(Evolution Date) = IF(MOD(YEAR(Evolution Date),4)=0 AND MOD(YEAR(Evolution Date),100) != 0 OR MOD(YEAR(Evolution Date),400)=0,29,28) THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 3 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 31 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 4 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 30 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 5 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 31 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 6 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 30 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 7 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 31 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 8 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 31 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 9 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 30 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 10 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 31 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 11 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 30 THEN 1
	WHEN MONTH(Evolution Date) = 12 and DAY(Evolution Date) = 31 THEN 1
 	ELSE 0
END

Once this field is created, we create a filter which must have as a condition that this calculated field is included and the result is equal to 1.
Then apply this filter to the table/graph to be used.

📝 Notes

• In Metricool you can filter data up to yesterday. In Looker Studio, however, data from the current day may appear if it falls within the date range defined in your report.

• When you connect Metricool with Looker Studio, all dates and times are sent in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). This may cause differences between the actual time and the one shown in the report (unless you're in the same time zone).
  👉 Solution: create a calculated field in Looker Studio to adjust the time zone. Here we explain how to do it.