Categories
We are in the information age. Everyone is running after valuable information. Valuable information could give massive insight into something big that could blow the world away. Overall, data is the new shiny object that the world is digging for.
You will learn in this blog cool Excel charts and graphs examples to visualize your data in a better and more efficient way.
Data is the new oil!
Data is the new gold!
You must have heard one or two of these catchphrases.
When it comes to making informed business decisions, you need data. And that goes beyond looking at the raw, unrefined data represented in an Excel sheet, you would need to translate your data into digestible information.
Speaking of translating data into digestible information, that’s where Excel charts come into play. And to get a good grasp of Excel charts, you’ve got to take a close look at these Best Excel charts examples.
Definition: In Excel, charts and graphs are visual representations of data. They allow users to present data in a more understandable and visually appealing way, making it easier to analyze and interpret.
Charts and graphs can be created from the data within Excel spreadsheets, and they come in various types, such as bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, scatter plots, and more. If you are familiar with the Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet interface, you would have noticed the basic charts in the tool.
However, with the great rise of huge data, these basic visualizations longer suffice. There is a need for tools that go beyond basic to analyze and understand data.
These tools are known as advanced charts. They are charts that go beyond conventional to create even more standard and more effective visualizations.
With advanced charts, you can compare several data sets on a single chart without making it look cluttered or confusing.
Creating visually appealing and informative charts and graphs in Excel is important for several reasons:
Overall, creating cool Excel charts and graphs enhances data analysis, communication, and decision-making processes, ultimately contributing to the success of projects, presentations, and organizations.
Now that you’ve installed and opened ChartExpo on your Excel worksheet, it is time to start using it to draw your charts. However, if you are using ChartExpo for the first time, you need to see these top 10 most useful charts to get you started.
These charts will help you to focus on the best optimization opportunities in your data.
Let’s dive in.
The Pareto Bar Chart, also known as Pareto analysis or the Pareto diagram is a mix of a line graph and a bar graph. It pretty much shows the frequency of defects and other cumulative impacts. With the Pareto Bar Chart, you get to easily identify defects and observe the overall improvement of a data point with time.
A close study reveals the Pareto Bar Chart as a mix of a bar graph and a line graph. Each bar in the chart shows the type of problem (or defect). Most times, the bar height is used to show the unit of measurement – and it could be the cost or frequency of occurrence, depending on the data set.
Moving on, the bars in the Pareto analysis are typically arranged in descending order (from the tallest bar to the shortest). This way, you get to easily identify the defect by merely looking at the chart.
Finally, the Line Chart found in the Pareto diagram shows the cumulative percentage of the defects.
Just like all data visualization tools, your first point of call is to gather data similar to the one shown below.
| Campaigns | Current Conversions | Previous Conversions |
| Campaign 1 | 540 | 510 |
| Campaign 2 | 550 | 545 |
| Campaign 3 | 115 | 99 |
| Campaign 4 | 572 | 533 |
| Campaign 5 | 93 | 85 |
| Campaign 6 | 88 | 63 |
| Campaign 7 | 497 | 485 |
| Campaign 8 | 115 | 80 |
| Campaign 9 | 489 | 470 |
| Campaign 10 | 87 | 67 |
| Campaign 11 | 107 | 115 |
| Campaign 12 | 570 | 580 |
| Campaign 13 | 97 | 90 |
Next, you’ve got to plot your Pareto Bar Chart similar to the one shown below.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
Sankey diagrams are a specific type of flow diagram, often referred to as an energy flow diagram, used for visualizing material, cost, or any flow of data.
They feature directed connections between at least two nodes, representing flows within a process, production system, or supply chain. Additionally, they are considered one of the best graphs to show profit and loss, as they effectively illustrate the movement of costs, revenues, and other financial flows across different stages or categories.
Creating one in Excel is somewhat easy – all you have to do is install the ChartExpo Excel add-in and start creating the Sankey Diagram.
Let’s suppose you have a following data.
| Lead Source | Lead Owner | Duration | Lead Status | Leads |
| Webinar | Oliver | 3-6 Months | Qualified | 39 |
| Webinar | Oliver | 3-6 Months | New | 73 |
| Webinar | Oliver | 6-12 Months | Nurturing | 156 |
| Webinar | George | 3-6 Months | New | 46 |
| Webinar | George | 6-12 Months | Qualified | 104 |
| Webinar | George | 6-12 Months | Nurturing | 41 |
| Webinar | Amelia | 3-6 Months | Qualified | 73 |
| Webinar | Amelia | 3-6 Months | Nurturing | 46 |
| Webinar | Amelia | 6-12 Months | Nurturing | 43 |
Final visualization you will have as shown below.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
The Likert Scale Chart is used to represent Likert scale data. Likert scale data is usually obtained from administered surveys used to measure feelings and opinions.
Let us assume that you own an IT-related company. You administered a survey to find out how aware your market is about your software. The Likert Scale Chart is the best choice for analyzing this type of data.
| Questions | Rating | Count |
| The software I wanted was easy to find | 1 | 324 |
| The software I wanted was easy to find | 2 | 176 |
| The software I wanted was easy to find | 3 | 230 |
| The software I wanted was easy to find | 4 | 270 |
| The software I wanted was easy to find | 5 | 0 |
| The checkout process was easy | 1 | 138 |
| The checkout process was easy | 2 | 186 |
| The checkout process was easy | 3 | 176 |
| The checkout process was easy | 4 | 230 |
| The checkout process was easy | 5 | 270 |
| The software solved my needs | 1 | 0 |
| The software solved my needs | 2 | 138 |
| The software solved my needs | 3 | 186 |
| The software solved my needs | 4 | 176 |
| The software solved my needs | 5 | 500 |
| I am happy with my purchase | 1 | 5 |
| I am happy with my purchase | 2 | 100 |
| I am happy with my purchase | 3 | 146 |
| I am happy with my purchase | 4 | 116 |
| I am happy with my purchase | 5 | 420 |
Your chart will look like this:
From the chart, you can find out what your customers think and feel about the product. You can know when they are happy and satisfied with the product and the experience it gives. It will also help you to build a stronger and better relationship with your customers. You can ultimately grow your business and increase profits.
A CSAT Score Survey (NPS Detail) Chart is used to portray insights of a survey’s feedback in visual form. It gives a complete picture of the user’s opinion from a bulk of textual information.
| Questions | Rating | Count |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 0 | 10 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 1 | 45 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 2 | 61 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 3 | 80 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 4 | 123 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 5 | 75 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 6 | 41 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 7 | 88 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 8 | 45 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 9 | 134 |
| How likely is that you will recommend our software to a friend? | 10 | 209 |
This is what your chart will look like:
From the chart, you can see what your customers are thinking about your product and the percentage of people in that line of thought.
For example, this chart shows that 48% of your customers are unhappy with the software. This can lead you to look more closely and find out the reasons for such an opinion.
This will then help to reveal the problem and guide you to potential ways to improve the product experience.
When your pre-existing customers can easily recommend your product, you will spend less trying to get new customers. Continuous referrals will guarantee your potential longevity in business.
When you hear ‘donut chart’, you think of a pie chart with a hole in the middle. You’re right.
The donut chart shows data as parts of a whole. The complete 360° turn of the donut chart amounts to 100% of the data.
| Landing Page Experience | Value |
| Below Avg. | 312 |
| Average | 120 |
| Above Avg. | 52 |
After adding your data, click “Create Chart from selection”.
You will get this.
This chart shows the landing page experience of your ad campaigns. From this chart, you can see that the overall experience is quite poor.
The landing page will need to be optimized to yield better results and conversions.
Next up is the 24 Hour Chart.
The Double Bar Chart is a graph with rectangular bars. A typical Bar Chart can be plotted vertically or horizontally. When plotted vertically, you would see the bars standing up. But with the horizontal plot, the bars would be lying flat from left to right.
The double bar graph is a form of bar graph that can show your data side by side by presenting the data based on the length of the bars.
| Search Terms | Previous Month | Current Month |
| Smart Phones | 10 | 15 |
| Accessories | 50 | 38 |
| Laptops | 15 | 8 |
| LCD | 10 | 18 |
| Headsets | 10 | 13 |
| Smart Watches | 5 | 9 |
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
This next chart is one of the most common and conventional charts.
A Pie Chart is a good fit for people who want to quantify items and represent these items in percentages.
Within the circular graph of the Pie Chart, there are slices of pie that show the relative size of the data. Whether you are managing a business, or you desire to represent your data to a team of stakeholders in your corporation, a Pie Chart will help you compare areas of growth like profit, exposure, and turnover.
| Product | Unit Sold |
| Smart Phones | 15 |
| Accessories | 38 |
| Laptops | 8 |
| LCD | 18 |
| Headsets | 13 |
| Smart Watches | 9 |
A typical Pie Chart that’s created using Excel charts will look like the image below.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
You know there is another alternative of Pie Chart is to use Donut Chart, it can also represent the same data to better analyze the results.
Donut Chart is like a pie chart but only difference is center area is cut and empty.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
With a Line Chart, a series of data points are connected using a continuous line. A Line Chart pretty much helps you to represent the history of data points using a single, continuous line. It’s easy-to-understand, simple, and represents changes over time. With Multi-Axis Line Chart, you get the option to have multiple values on the same visualization based on different scales.
Analyzing data points can be quite overwhelming. If you are like most marketers, you will most likely experience paralysis by analysis – but you can overcome that using a Multi-Axis Line Chart. With this visualization, you get to easily identify trends and pinpoint patterns.
Creating Multi-Axis Line Chart is easy. All you’ve got to do is download the ChartExpo add-in for Excel, and create a Line Chart similar to the one below.
Let’s say you run an online business, and you’ve gathered sample data as below.
| Date | Clicks | Impressions | Conversions |
| 5/1/2021 | 1483 | 18766 | 55 |
| 5/2/2021 | 1313 | 18788 | 57 |
| 5/3/2021 | 1345 | 18743 | 60 |
| 5/4/2021 | 1256 | 18788 | 63 |
| 5/5/2021 | 1304 | 16406 | 59 |
| 5/6/2021 | 1407 | 17765 | 60 |
| 5/7/2021 | 1498 | 20532 | 65 |
| 5/8/2021 | 1597 | 20016 | 58 |
| 5/9/2021 | 1587 | 20122 | 61 |
| 5/10/2021 | 1483 | 20125 | 64 |
| 5/11/2021 | 1565 | 23783 | 59 |
| 5/12/2021 | 1587 | 22942 | 57 |
| 5/13/2021 | 1599 | 23127 | 70 |
| 5/14/2021 | 1620 | 24548 | 78 |
| 5/15/2021 | 1788 | 23448 | 80 |
| 5/16/2021 | 1768 | 23408 | 91 |
| 5/17/2021 | 1987 | 25473 | 89 |
| 5/18/2021 | 1939 | 24959 | 81 |
| 5/19/2021 | 1987 | 23710 | 86 |
| 5/20/2021 | 1964 | 24221 | 98 |
| 5/21/2021 | 1740 | 23317 | 89 |
| 5/22/2021 | 1748 | 24431 | 85 |
| 5/23/2021 | 1876 | 23785 | 79 |
| 5/24/2021 | 1826 | 22247 | 83 |
| 5/25/2021 | 1920 | 23851 | 83 |
| 5/26/2021 | 1886 | 24875 | 90 |
| 5/27/2021 | 1769 | 24015 | 94 |
| 5/28/2021 | 1869 | 25689 | 104 |
| 5/29/2021 | 1823 | 24416 | 99 |
| 5/30/2021 | 1899 | 25874 | 114 |
| 5/31/2021 | 1924 | 26146 | 98 |
By merely using a Multi-Axis Line Chart, you get to easily monitor the trends over time.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
The Comparison Bar Chart represents sections of the same data category using bars. The bars in a Comparison Bar Chart are usually placed adjacent to each other. If you’re looking for a reliable way of visually comparing data, then the Comparison Bar Chart is your best shot.
Aside from comparing items between different groups, the Comparison Bar Chart helps in tracking changes in your data points over a period. To get the most out of your Comparison Bar Chart, the changes in your item over a period have to be large.
Creating the Comparison Bar Chart using Excel is quite easy – all you need is to gather a reliable data sample as shown below.
| Country | Social Media | Usage |
| USA | 190,000,000 | |
| USA | 110,000,000 | |
| USA | 48,650,000 | |
| USA | 160,000,000 | |
| India | 270,000,000 | |
| India | 69,000,000 | |
| India | 7,750,000 | |
| India | 59,000,000 | |
| UK | 37,000,000 | |
| UK | 23,000,000 | |
| UK | 14,100,000 | |
| UK | 27,000,000 |
After gathering your data sample, you’ve got to proceed to create a comparison Bar Chart similar to the one displayed below.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
A sentiment trend chart is the coolest data visualization to show your versatile data in a single visualization. For Example, if you have feedback data and you want to analyze positive vs. negative and also want to see the trend then this chart is a good option. Let’s suppose you have the following data.
| Month | Positive Feedback | Negative Feedback |
| Jan | 43 | 57 |
| Feb | 46 | 54 |
| Mar | 43 | 57 |
| Apr | 48 | 52 |
| May | 47 | 53 |
| Jun | 38 | 20 |
| July | 60 | 30 |
| Aug | 89 | 40 |
| Sep | 67 | 50 |
| Oct | 60 | 55 |
| Nov | 54 | 24 |
| Dec | 89 | 40 |
Next, you’ve got to use the data to create a Sentiment Trend that is similar to the image shown below.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
There is a complete guide available which you can follow to see how you can create a trend chart in Excel.
Like we said, a Comparison Bar Chart is one of the best advanced Excel charts you can use to create persuasive data narratives for your target audience.
Let’s use the tabular data below to get started with this advanced
Excel chart. This data is about students registered for the subjects in different years.
| Year | Subject | Count |
| 2018 | Introduction to Probability | 700 |
| 2018 | Calculus Applied | 250 |
| 2018 | Computer Science for Lawyers | 300 |
| 2018 | The Architectural Imagination | 600 |
| 2018 | Principle of Biochemistry | 600 |
| 2018 | Data Science: R Basics | 250 |
| 2018 | Introduction to Game Development | 800 |
| 2018 | Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economics | 800 |
| 2018 | Understanding Technology | 600 |
| 2018 | Using Python for Research | 400 |
| 2018 | Data Science: Productivity Tools | 350 |
| 2018 | Data Science: Inference and Modeling | 800 |
| 2018 | Data Science: Wrangling | 250 |
| 2018 | Data Science: Linear Regression | 700 |
| 2019 | Introduction to Probability | 300 |
| 2019 | Calculus Applied | 350 |
| 2019 | Computer Science for Lawyers | 200 |
| 2019 | The Architectural Imagination | 350 |
| 2019 | Principle of Biochemistry | 800 |
| 2019 | Data Science: R Basics | 400 |
| 2019 | Introduction to Game Development | 650 |
| 2019 | Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economics | 550 |
| 2019 | Understanding Technology | 700 |
| 2019 | Using Python for Research | 250 |
| 2019 | Data Science: Productivity Tools | 500 |
| 2019 | Data Science: Inference and Modeling | 700 |
| 2019 | Data Science: Wrangling | 450 |
| 2019 | Data Science: Linear Regression | 500 |
| 2020 | Introduction to Probability | 700 |
| 2020 | Calculus Applied | 180 |
| 2020 | Computer Science for Lawyers | 250 |
| 2020 | The Architectural Imagination | 180 |
| 2020 | Principle of Biochemistry | 300 |
| 2020 | Data Science: R Basics | 500 |
| 2020 | Introduction to Game Development | 700 |
| 2020 | Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economics | 600 |
| 2020 | Understanding Technology | 300 |
| 2020 | Using Python for Research | 450 |
| 2020 | Data Science: Productivity Tools | 600 |
| 2020 | Data Science: Inference and Modeling | 600 |
| 2020 | Data Science: Wrangling | 500 |
| 2020 | Data Science: Linear Regression | 300 |
The subject with the highest enrollment rate in 2020 is “Introduction to Game Development,” up from 4th in 2019 and 3rd position in 2018.
Conversely, “Computer Science for Lawyers” has the lowest enrollment rate across the 3 periods (2018, 2019, and 2020).
In the following video, you will learn how to create advanced charts and graphs in Excel with the help of examples.
Creating a chart in Excel is easy – you can do that by using the ChartExpo Excel add-in. By merely downloading the add-in, you would see a wide range of chart types. All you’ve got to do is choose the right chart for your data visualization and use it.
There are various types of charts in the ChartExpo Excel add-in. You get to create Line graphs, bar graphs, grouped Column Charts, Column Charts, Comparison Charts, and lots of other visualization charts.
Simply put, the ChartExpo tool would help you create any visualization needed for your data representation.
By using the right Excel chart, you would accurately represent your data. This will, in turn, lead to the right interpretation of your data visual. Also, using the correct Excel Chart will help you make more informed marketing and business decisions in the long run.
If you want your audience (or stakeholders) to accurately interpret your data, then choosing the right Excel Chart is your best shot.
Your choice of Excel chart should be dependent on the type of data you want to report and analyze. To a large extent, it should also be dependent on what you want to do with the data. Do you want to find the relationship among data sets, or do you want to categorize your data and pinpoint the distribution of your data sets? Whatever your reason may be, an Excel chart will help you do just that.
Data is now practically a gold mine. Digging it up can be fairly easy. Refining and making it into something beautiful is what may take time, energy, and still end up being messy.
The first breakthrough to refining and analyzing data is data visualization.
As we said, it’s only the first step. Conventional data visualization tools have been embedded in worksheets like Microsoft Excel.
These basic tools have been used to create simple visuals. However, in this age where data has become huge and complex, advanced visualization tools have emerged.
ChartExpo for Excel has been used by many data analysts and digital marketers to create cool and stunning visuals for their data. This helps them to understand the data without taking hours to crunch numbers. This also gives an easy representation in less time.
In this article, we have seen 10 cool charts and graphs that you can create with ChartExpo. From the Pareto Bar Chart to the Bar Stacked Comparison Chart, the refined gold is now at your fingertips.
You do not have to be an expert to get this done. It is all codeless and super easy. Just go and get it.
Way to go!
How much did you enjoy this article?
We will help your ad reach the right person, at the right time
Actionable insights discovered for you. Now you can do more in less time.
PPCexpo Keyword Planner will help you align your keywords with the customers’ intent.
Frequent audits will help you optimize your PPC campaign for success.
Visualizations give you the ability to instantly grasp the insights hidden in your numbers.
Experience the new revolution in reporting … click your way to insights, don’t scroll.
Calculate the number of combinations in your PPC campaign. It may surprise you.
Related articles
A waterfall chart breaks down change step by step, exposing what drives the outcome. Want clarity in decision-making? Learn more in this guide.
What makes a dot plot chart effective—or misleading? Learn how layout, labels, and tools shape what stakeholders see and what they might miss. Read on!
Clarify the differences between charts and graphs, with insights on their definitions, examples, and benefits for enhanced analysis.
