LSA19: Getting the Most Out of the GMB API
0 likes453 views
This document summarizes the Google My Business API, including: - The API allows management of GMB account and listing information, reviews, posts, menus, insights, and more. - It has gone through 9 releases in 4 years, adding new capabilities over time. - Major benefits include building your own GMB dashboard, speeding up and scaling business data management, and better serving clients.
LSA19: Getting the Most Out of the GMB API
- 1. Getting the Most out of the GMB API Damian Rollison VP Product Strategy LSA19
- 2. About Brandify $1 billion transactions supported per year 4.5 million managed locations across the globe 300+ brand clients in 15+ industries Slightly older than Google! About Brandify
- 3. Locator Pages Listings Reputation Advertising What Brandify Does
- 4. About Me What I knew about local in 2006
- 5. About Me What I know about local now
- 6. A Brief History of Time: The Local Edition
- 7. 2005 Google Maps launches Local Business Center introduced And the modern local search era begins …
- 8. 2006 One Box showcases listings in search (look familiar?)
- 9. 2007 Reviews added to Maps
- 12. 2010 Local Business Center becomes Google Places
- 13. 2011 Google Places API launches
- 15. 2012 Google+ Local introduced; we all try to make sense of it
- 16. 2013 Google+ not winning any popularity contests
- 17. 2014 Google My Business launches
- 18. 2015 Local Guides program launches
- 19. Also 2015 Snack Pack replaces 7-Pack; it’s 2006 all over again
- 20. And in late 2015 GMB API launches!
- 21. 2016 - present Party time
- 22. GMB API Timeline: 9 Releases in 4 Years V3 adds reviews and attributes, May 2016 V1 limited release to ad partners, October 2015 V2 public launch, December 2015 2015 2016 2017 2018 V3.1 adds real time notifications, September 2016 V3.2 adds Insights, January 2017 V4 adds Posts, October 2017 V4.1 adds descriptions, April 2018 V4.2 adds verification, August 2018 V4.3 adds Q&A, November 2018
- 23. The API in the Google Data Ecosystem Google Sources (Maps, Street View) Google Users (Android, Local Guides) GMB Users (Dashboard, App, API) Third Parties (Aggregator, Gov, Telco)
- 25. • Account management • Listing management • Review moderation • Google Posts • Chain settings • Menus • Media • Insights • Notifications • Questions and Answers • Recommended Locations A Local Search Toolkit
- 26. Account Management • Manage users, accounts, account admins, invitations • Create, find, claim, delete, or move locations • Trigger verification • View statuses like ownership conflict, duplicate listings, disabled listings • Support for organization accounts and location groups
- 27. Listing Management • Add, delete, or update any information found in a listing including name, address, phone, website, hours, categories, and lots more • Add business description and open date • Check for attributes against primary category and add to listing • Manage service area business settings
- 28. Reviews • Gather all reviews for a location • Gather reviews for multiple locations via batch request • Respond to reviews • Update or delete responses (even if created manually, when you use the same account) • Retrieve author info for reviews: name, photo, Local Guide status
- 29. Google Posts • Create, delete, or update Product, Offer, and Event Posts with photo or video, description, start/end dates etc. • Add CTA button: Book, Order, Shop, Learn More, Sign Up, Call • Add interstitial coupon link for Offer Posts • Gather Post Insights (views, clicks) • Limited to accounts with <10 locations
- 30. Chain Configuration • Link a listing to the chain to which it belongs • Chain must be found in Google’s chain/brand database • “Department of” and “independent establishment in” are in beta
- 31. Menus • Create and manage menus and price lists • Specify that a list section contains “food” or “services” • Create multiple sections within a list • Item name is required but descriptions and prices are optional
- 32. Media • Upload photos and videos • Add captions to photos • Specify photo categories: cover, profile, logo, interior, exterior, product, at work, food and drink, menu, common area, rooms, teams, “additional” • Download and see view counts for user uploaded photos and videos • Retrieve media author info
- 33. Insights: What’s There • Retrieve most Insights available in dashboard and mobile app • Searches, views, actions, driving directions • Photo views and count, UGC views and count, Post views, Post actions • Includes new Branded Searches (called QUERIES_CHAIN) • Like Local Reports, goes back 18 months
- 34. Insights: What’s Not • No “Queries used to find your business” • No day of week/time of day stats on phone calls • No photo views or counts for “businesses like you”
- 35. Real-Time Notifications • When a location has a new review • When a review is updated • When there are Google updates pending (we used to check every listing!) • When a user adds a photo or video to your listing • Now applies across org accounts and location groups you are admin for
- 36. Questions and Answers • Create, update, and delete questions • Create, update, and delete answers • View metrics including question and answer upvotes, number of answers per question • Retrieve answers (max 10 per question) • Retrieve author info • No notifications (yet), no upvoting
- 37. Recommended Google Locations • Helps you find locations you should have claimed • Uses machine learning to find matching listings • Available though still being actively tested and refined
- 38. Stuff You Can’t Do Yet • Hotel check-in and check-out times • Posts for 10+ locations • Notifications for Questions and Answers • Some Insights data • Messaging • GMB Websites • Manage email notification settings • Say “yes” to Google Assistant calls • Create Local Reports (Google version) • Showcase Products • Create Ads
- 39. Major Benefits #1: Build Your Own Dashboard • Pretty close though not identical to the capabilities of the GMB dashboard and mobile app • Flexible administrative features more or less allow you to recreate a GMB dashboard experience • Could establish a user-driven “claim my business” workflow for SMBs within your interface
- 40. Major Benefits #2: Speed and Efficiency • Updates can be transactional; synchronize client data with GMB and change only what needs to be changed • Timeliness of updates greatly increased • Monitor (and quash) user “suggestions” • Access some features exclusive to the API, like Recommended Google Locations
- 41. Major Benefits #3: Serve Clients Better • Turns location data management into a scalable business • Spend more time solving edge cases and much less time on basic functions, like hours updates • Be more responsive to timely needs like natural disasters • Create reputation management features that make our users much more efficient • Huge improvement to onboarding time (days to hours)
- 42. Go to developers.google.com/my- business/ Getting Started Create Google API project Request access to GMB API If approved, add GMB API to your project Start coding! Help is available in the GMB forum, just search “Google My Business API” on www.en.advertisercommunity.com