• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 4, 2021

Google has updated the performance data reported in Google My Business, allowing companies to discover information about people logged in to the system who viewed their business profile. This looks to be one way that Google will gain additional first-party data to target ads.

This new section — how people discovered you — shows how people found a company’s local listing, either on desktop or mobile, through Google Search or Google Maps.

Google in January introduced an Insights report. The change allows businesses to track the performance of their Business Profile during a given time period. Companies can set a date range and get insights on how people interact with their business on Google.

In a new help document, Google details the available performance metrics. In the business performance report, for example, users can monitor specific profile interactions such as searches, users who viewed the profile, calls, messages, and total interactions.

For searches, the data shows the queries people use to find a business. Search queries display whenever the Business Profile serves up for a particular query.

The data also shows the users who viewed the Business Profile as well as unique visitors. A user can be counted a limited number of times if they visit the Business Profile on multiple devices and platforms such as desktop or mobile and Google Maps or Google Search.

Per breakdown device and platform, a user can only be counted once daily. Multiple daily visits are not counted.

The number of clicks on the call button on a Business Profile is available when the business provides their phone number to start tracking this metric. Messages also are tracked, such as the number of unique conversations through messages, as well as total interactions such as a summary of all total interactions.