Hey hey!
Quick one for you today. Google just rolled out a native way to link your Google Business Profile directly to GA4, and if you haven't set it up yet, it's worth 5 minutes.
Here's why it matters: before this, GA4 could only see people who clicked from your profile to your website, and only if you'd tagged the link with UTM parameters. Every phone call, direction request, or booking made straight from Search or Maps? Invisible. You had no idea it was happening unless you were logging into your GBP dashboard separately and doing the math by hand.
Now, once you link the two, GA4 shows you seven metrics in one place:
- Interactions: Total engagements across Google Search and Maps.
- Website Clicks: Users navigating from your profile to your website.
- Calls: Phone calls initiated from your profile.
- Directions: Requests for map directions to your location.
- Messages: Direct chats initiated by customers.
- Bookings: Appointments scheduled through native integrations.
- Menus: Interactions with listed food items.
Click this LOOM VIDEO link to walk you through the process. You'll need Editor or Admin access in GA4 and Owner or Manager access on the profile.
A couple of things to know before you get excited:
- GA4 only retains 6 months of this data, regardless of how far back your GA4 property goes.
- If you manage more than one location, you can't break the data out by individual profile.
- It won't tell you which ad or campaign drove a spike in calls or dirlick ections. It's a reporting upgrade, not an attribution tool.
Still, this is the first time calls and direction requests have shown up next to your website data in the same report.
If you want help getting this linked up or reading what it's telling you once it's live, grab 15 minutes with me: https://calendly.com/glenneth/15minβ
Talk soon,
Glenneth
Fueled by data and Diet Coke.
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