by John Bowman
What is a Google Post?
Not long ago Google released Google Posts to small businesses everywhere. It was first introduced in January 2016 labeled as “Candidate Cards”. It allowed the presidential candidates to speak directly to voters and control content in search of them.
A few months later it evolved as an experiment to select businesses. The “Business Cards” allowed the company to highlight products and services. A year later Google Posts were released for use by movies, museums, and sports teams.
It wasn’t until June 2017 that it was disseminated amongst all small and local business. As a small business owner, you can easily attract new customers and build relationships with the ones that you already have.
How To Get Started With Google Posts
To access this exciting new feature you would need to go to your Google My Business account page. On the left-hand side click on “Posts”.
From there you will be able to see several options: upload a picture, write up to 300 words of text, add an event title, add start and end dates, and include a call to action such as “Get Offer”, “Sign Up”, “Buy”, “Reserve”, and “Learn More”
Google Post
The finished post would appear in search results and in maps looking like this:
These ads allow you to:
- Share daily specials or current promotions that encourage customers to take advantage of offers.
- Promote events and tell customers about upcoming happenings at your location.
- Showcase your top products and highlight new arrivals.
- Connect with customers directly from your Google listing: by giving them a one-click path to make a reservation, sign up for a newsletter, learn more about latest offers, or even buy a specific product from your website.
Within the post section of Google My Business, you can view insights based on how many views and engagements you have received.
Google Post Insights
How To Track Google Posts in Google Analytics
You are able to gather additional information by tracking it inside Google Analytics. From inside analytics, you can view various key performance indicators such as the number of sessions, new users, bounce rate, page per session, duration, and goal conversion information.
Google Post in Google Analytics
In order to do this, you would need to set up custom campaigns using UTM codes. It takes just a moment to create but well worth it if you want the track the data.
First, you need to go to the Campaign URL Builder provided by Google Analytics.
Campaign URL Builder
The most important fields you would need to include are
- Website URL
- Campaign Source
- Campaign Medium
In the website URL field, insert the full website URL that you intend to track with analytics.
Website URL
Next, for Campaign Source enter the referrer as “Google”
Campaign Source
In the last field list “Post” as your campaign medium
Campaign Medium
Lastly, copy the generated campaign URL and paste it into the google post.
Generated Campaign URL
Digital Marketing isn’t a fad – it is one of the large trends that fundamentally change how business is done. If you don’t catch up, it could spell disaster for your business.