Looker is Google's enterprise business intelligence platform — the gold standard for DTC brands that need governed, scalable self-serve analytics. We build LookML models, custom dashboards and semantic layers that let every team answer their own data questions without waiting for an analyst.
Looker (formerly Looker, now Google Cloud Looker) is the enterprise BI platform with a semantic modelling layer (LookML) that enforces consistent metric definitions across your organisation. Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a free, lightweight reporting tool without the semantic layer. Looker is appropriate for brands needing governed, scalable self-serve analytics; Looker Studio for simpler reporting needs.
LookML is the modelling language used to define the semantic layer in Looker — specifying how tables join, what metrics mean and how dimensions are calculated. The semantic layer means every user calculating revenue, LTV or ROAS gets the same number because the definition lives in one place. This eliminates the spreadsheet problem where every team has a different version of the same metric.
Looker connects directly to Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift and other databases via a persistent database connection. We configure the connection, optimise query performance with PDT caching and set up derived tables for complex calculations.
Looker costs approximately $3,000–$5,000/month for small teams and more for enterprise. It is appropriate for brands with £10M+ revenue that have multiple teams needing reliable self-serve analytics and where data governance (consistent metric definitions) is a priority. Brands below that threshold are often better served by Metabase or Looker Studio.
A standard Looker implementation — warehouse connection, core LookML models for DTC metrics and essential dashboards — typically takes 6–10 weeks. The most time-consuming phase is LookML model development; dashboard creation is faster once the semantic layer is in place.
Book a free Looker assessment and design your BI architecture.