Every business that serves a specific geographical area can set up a Google My Business (GMB), now called Google Business Profile, listing. These listings display on search results pages and Google Maps when someone searches for your business or for keywords that you rank high for.
Getting started
CallRail's GMB integration automatically swaps the primary phone number listed for your GMB location with a CallRail tracking number, so you can track calls that come from that listing. We also set your actual business number in GMB as a secondary number to maintain NAP consistency.
Setting up your GMB integration in CallRail
- Click the Settings icon on the left navigation bar.
- Choose the company you'd like to integrate with Google My Business.
- Click Integrations at the top of the page.
- Choose Google My Business from the list of integrations.
- Click Authorize.
- Select the Google Account associated with the GMB location you'd like to track.
- When you return to the GMB integration page, select the GMB location you'd like to track from the dropdown menu in the Connect to your GMB location section.
- Use the Assign a tracking number section to choose the tracking numbers that this integration will use.
- In this section, click the dropdown menu under CallRail Tracking Number to select the tracking number to use as the primary business number for this GMB location. The numbers shown in this dropdown are existing tracking numbers with a source of “other” or “Google My Business”. If you'd like to create a new tracking number, follow the steps in the next section.
- You can also click the dropdown menu under Ads Location Extension Number to choose a tracking number to use for that purpose. This number will display in your Google Ads. For more information on ad location extensions, see this help article
Note: If you set a new location extension number in your integration while you have a preexisting one in Google Ads, you’ll need to go into Google Ads afterwards and edit the existing location extension or disable it and create a new one. This will not change automatically, since Google Ads doesn't refresh the data when the GMB profile is updated. They only pull data from GMB at the time the location extension data itself is created or edited. - Check the box in the Track GMB visitors on your site section to allow UTM parameters to be automatically added to your site's URL. A preview of your URL will display after the box is checked.
(If this step is applied after your initial GMB integration activation, make sure to click Update to save your changes.) - Click Activate.
Note: If you are managing your GMB listing through a directory service (for example, Yext), integration failure is possible unless you disable sync for your listing’s phone number, and maybe the location. These services can overwrite the tracking numbers in your listings. If that happens, the integration will fail and your calls will not be tracked.
Creating a new GMB tracking number
Follow these instructions to create a new tracking number for Google My Business from the integration page.
- On the integration page, select the GMB location you'd like to track from the dropdown menu in the Connect to your GMB location section.
- In the Assign a tracking number section, click the dropdown menu under CallRail Tracking Number.
- Click the Create new number button at the bottom of the menu.
- On the screens that follow, name your new tracking number and set up further options as desired.
- Once your number is activated, click on the pencil icon to the right to finish configuring the number.
- Update the tracking number’s source to Google My Business.
Changing your Google account, location, or tracking number
- Click the Settings icon on the left navigation bar.
- Choose the company where you'd like to change the integration.
- Click Integrations at the top of the page.
- Choose Google My Business from the list of integrations.
- Click the link in the first section of the integration page, Use a different account, location, or tracking number.
- Select the Google Account you'd like to use.
- When you return to the GMB integration page, select the GMB location you'd like to track from the dropdown menu in the Connect to your GMB location section.
- Select the tracking number you created for this GMB location from the dropdown menu in the Assign a tracking number section.
- Click Activate.
Deactivating your GMB integration
- Click the Settings icon on the left navigation bar.
- Choose the company where you'd like to deactivate the integration.
- Choose Google My Business from the list of integrations.
- Click Deactivate Integration on the right side of the page.
Note: If you choose to deactivate the integration or completely close your CallRail account, you will need to manually remove your tracking number from your listing. Your listing may not update automatically, and calls to a tracking number that remains listed will not connect to your business.
FAQs
I activated the integration but I still see my old number
It takes time for Google to process number updates. Typically, this takes longer on the search engine results page (SERP) than it does on Google Maps. You can confirm our change by logging on to http://business.google.com and viewing the location information. In time (up to three days in some cases), the changes will be reflected in the SERP panel and on Google Maps.
What number will my visitor see if they click on my GMB listing and visit my website?
The visitor to your site will see your website pool number and the source will be credited as GMB.
Can I use the GMB integration if my business has multiple locations?
Yes, there are two ways you can do this. The first is to create a separate company sub-account for each location. Integrations are company-specific, but there is no limit or cost to creating as many companies in your CallRail account as necessary.
Learn more about creating companies in your CallRail Account.
The second is to connect one location through the GMB integration and set up the rest manually (in the same company). Follow the instructions in the article below to learn how.