Everything You Need to Know About the Google Business Profile Manager Agency Dashboard
In June 2018, Google announced the launch of a new agency dashboard for Google My Business, now called Google Business Profile Manager. The design of it is very similar to a My Client Center (MCC) in Google Ads. To sign up, you go here: https://business.google.com/agencysignup. If you’re considering whether or not to use it for your agency, I’ll share what we experienced when switching over and how we’ve found using it at my agency.
On this Page:
- Signing up for the GBP Agency Dashboard
- Requesting Access to the GBP Agency Dashboard
- Having the Business Add You as a User
- Issues with the GBP Agency Dashboard
- Advantages of the GBP Agency Dashboard
- Contact Us
Signing up for the Google Business Profile (GBP) Manager Agency Dashboard
In order to sign up for the dashboard you should be aware that you need a domain email (not Gmail) for your organization. This Google account cannot currently manage any Google business listings or it won’t work. In order to add any employees to the agency dashboard, they also need to have zero listings in their account or it will give them an error and won’t let them join.
- Google has instructions for migrating your existing business listings to the account once it’s set up.
Requesting Access to Google Business Profiles with the Agency Dashboard
One of the great things about the GBP agency dashboard is that now you can request access to listings instead of having people add you. To do this, go to the “Manage invitations” section in the GBP dashboard and click to request access to a listing. It’s important to make sure you request manager access (not owner). If you request owner access, it will make you the primary owner and bump every other user on the account currently down to a manager level. This is not ideal for an agency since the business owner should remain the primary owner and have control over who he/she adds. With manager access, you will only be able to add users that are a part of your organization.
Having the Business Add You as a User
If the business is set up as a service area business listing with the address hidden, it will not populate to allow you to request access. In order to get access to these, the current owner of the listing has to add you.
To add you to a listing, the business owner cannot add your email address as a user. If they add your email address you will still get an email to accept it but clicking the button will result in an error.
How to Get Added to a Single Listing
If they are adding you to a single listing, they need to add one of your location group ID numbers. To get this, click the location group you want to add them to and press the gear icon. The Location Group ID will be listed on the next page.
When a user goes to add your location group ID number, it should auto-populate the name of your location group. It’s important to note that the client will see the name of your location group, so name it appropriately. Additionally, if they accidentally put a space at the beginning, it doesn’t auto-populate.
How to Get Added to a Group of Listings
If the business owners are adding you to a Location Group (previously called “brand accounts”) that contains a group of listings, you want to have them add your organization ID as a user to the Location Group. If they try to add your Location Group ID (as mentioned in the last section) it will give them an error since you cannot add a location group as a user to another location group.
Issues with the Google Business Profile Manager Agency Dashboard
Historically, Google has not sent out email alerts to “bulk users” (accounts with 100+ listings) when listings get new reviews, Q&A or public edits to the listing. After switching to the Agency dashboard, you’ll likely lose email notifications even if you have under 100 listings. To get notifications for edits to your Google listings, follow these tips.
Advantages of using the Google Business Profile Manager Agency Dashboard
The main two reasons why I’d suggest agencies use the agency dashboard are:
- The interface loads faster
- It’s easier to keep different sets of businesses separated and have different employees manage each group. This article details how to organize this.
Do you have questions about the agency dashboard? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
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Hi Joy,
Big fan of the forum and the blog (need to sign up one of these days)! I’m curious, how did you find the migration process? I imagine you already had access to many GBP profiles before you switched to an agency account. Any tips on making it a smooth transition process for clients? 🙂
Hey Daniela,
We moved everything a very long time ago so I would imagine it would be even easier now. I couldn’t originally use my email because it had listings in it so I transferred them out to a Gmail before setting up the agency account.
Thanks for this really helpful post Joy. It appears that the client adding the agency as a user can only be done on desktop. On mobile prompt for a username or email address.
Hi Joy, good article. We have started using the agency dashboard to manage client profiles in the last couple of months. This was to consolidate hundreds of client-specific gmail accounts we were trying to manage. Have you noticed that you don’t get email notifictions for new reviews left on the gbp’s any more? Even with notification settings turned on for reviews, I don’t get ANY. Have you noticed that too? any ideas if you want to receive and monitor those reviews on behalf of clients?
Hey Zac,
We found a workaround for it here: https://www.sterlingsky.ca/how-to-get-review-notifications-when-you-manage-over-100-google-my-business-listings/
Hi Joy! Thanks for this article. I’ve read that another benefit to using the Agency platform is access to the Business Profile API. Is this something you have utilized? If so, what has your experience with it been like (i.e. has it actually saved you time)? Thanks!
I have not used the API yet so I’d be the wrong one to ask about that 🙂
Hey Joy – great content here, much appreciated. Google lists one of the benefits of this as their support. Do you have any insights as to how the support is different once registered as an agency? Do you get a dedicated support rep, are tickets prioritized (particularly curious about the reinstatement process given their backlog right now)? Thank youuu
Hey Maria,
There used to be a dedicated team that dealt with agency dashboard issues but you definitely don’t get any type of priority simply by signing up for this dashboard for general support issues.
Hi Joy,
I setup the agency dashboard for our company and I have a few users that I set as a member at the organization level. They are now receiving google alerts for all of the clients that we manage within our organization versus just receiving her client’s alerts. She is set up with her own user group to manage her clients but she is also set up as a manager of the organization. How do I go about her getting notifications only for her clients under her user group?
Hey Chase,
I think a workaround for this would be to disable alerts in the setting on her account, then set up a gmail that you add to the location group you want notifications for and have that email forward to her. It should work. More details on how this works here: https://www.sterlingsky.ca/how-to-get-review-notifications-when-you-manage-over-100-google-my-business-listings/
Hi there, I’m looking at using a group account/agency account for bulk verificaiton, but keep having issues with this. Can you help at all?
Ant – do you have an agency account set up already? If so here are some resources on bulk verification:
– https://support.google.com/business/answer/4490296?hl=en
– https://uberall.helpjuice.com/directories-google/483539
If you do not yet have an agency account, learn how to create one here:
– https://support.google.com/business/answer/7353903?hl=en
If neither of those help, can you explain the issue you are having in more detail? I suggest heading over to the Local search Forum and posting there to see if others are having a similar issue. If not, tons of experts there can help diagnose your specific problem! -> https://localsearchforum.com/
Hi, thank you for the article, there are not many guides around about this topic.
I wanted to ask a question, in this article, you mentioned requesting access to an existing client listing, but what if the client does not have a Google Business profile yet? Can I create one for them from the agency dashboard or do they have to create the listing first and then I can ask the access to it?
Thank you