Scheduled email reports
Scheduled email delivery sends a Looker Studio report as a PDF to chosen recipients on a recurring schedule. It is the simplest way to push reporting to stakeholders who won't log in. The caveat: the PDF is a snapshot rendered at send time, with the filters and freshness state then — not a live link.
What this means
In Looker Studio you can schedule a report to be emailed as a PDF on a cadence — daily, weekly, monthly — to a list of recipients, optionally limited to certain pages. It turns a dashboard into a recurring push.
Snapshots, not live links
The emailed PDF renders at send time using the report's current data and the default (saved) filter and date-range state. It is not interactive and won't reflect later changes. Two pitfalls: a hardcoded date range that doesn't advance, and data-source freshness/caching that makes the snapshot lag live numbers. For interactivity, share the link instead; for a fixed record, the scheduled PDF is ideal.
- Recurring cadence: daily, weekly, monthly
- PDF is a static snapshot at send time
- Uses saved default filters and date range
How it appears in analytics and logs
A scheduled email is a static snapshot at send time. If recipients see stale or odd figures, suspect the data freshness/cache at render, default filters applied, or a date range that didn't roll forward.
Diagnostic use case
Deliver a weekly or monthly summary to executives or clients automatically as a PDF, so reporting reaches people who don't open the dashboard themselves.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID reporting can summarize first-party metrics for stakeholders without exposing third-party data or cross-site identity.
Common mistakes
- Scheduling a report with a fixed date range that never advances.
- Assuming the PDF is interactive or live.
- Emailing aggregated data to a wider list than intended.
Privacy and accuracy notes
Scheduled PDFs are sent to specified recipients; they can contain aggregated data, so restrict recipients and avoid embedding any identifying detail in the report.
Related pages
- Report sharing and permissions
Access to reports is governed by roles: GA4 grants property-level roles (Viewer, Analyst, Editor, Administrator) plus data restrictions for cost/revenue, while Looker Studio shares per report with view/edit and link options. The pitfall is data-source credentials — a shared report can expose data the viewer couldn't query themselves.
- Looker Studio connectors
A connector is the bridge between Looker Studio and a data source — Google connectors (GA4, BigQuery, Sheets, Ads) and community/partner connectors for everything else. The connector defines available fields, default aggregations, and data freshness/caching behavior, all of which shape what a report can show and how current it is.
- KPI dashboards
A KPI dashboard surfaces a deliberately small set of key performance indicators, each shown against a target and a prior period so movement has meaning. The discipline is selection: a KPI must tie to a goal and be actionable, which is what separates it from a vanity metric on a crowded dashboard.
- Agency analytics
Recurring client reporting without logins.
Sources and verification notes
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.