• by Laurie Sullivan , 7 hours ago

Google on Tuesday introduced a direct integration between Google Analytics (GA) and Google Business Profiles (GBP), bringing local engagement data such as phone calls, direction requests, bookings, and website clicks into the same reporting environment as web and app metrics.

The update allows companies to link GA properties with GBP through the platform’s administration panel.

GPB data will be available on a rolling six-month window. If users select a longer date range, Google Analytics will show the most recent data available from the profile.

The move is intended to help businesses more effectively measure in-store intent by surfacing proxy signals for physical visits and placing Search and Maps activity alongside broader cross-channel performance data.

The integration gives marketers access to seven GBP metrics in reports, including interactions, calls, bookings, directions, website clicks, messages, and menu views.

For advertisers, the change means local organic and paid performance can now be viewed in a single dashboard, making it easier to connect ad spending with real-world customer actions and shift budgets toward campaigns that generate stronger local conversions.

Google said a dedicated GBP collection will automatically appear in the Reports menu once the two products are linked, giving users a structured view of how local assets drive engagement.

No tag changes are required for setup. Users can connect a Google Business Profile in the Administration panel of a GA-driven property.

Google has not indicated whether the integration is limited to one profile per property or can support multiple GBPs. Its documentation suggests multi-location businesses can link more than one profile.

There has been a continuous update to GA. In May, the company announced a dedicated way to measure and analyze traffic originating from popular AI assistants.

Marketers can identify how users discover their brand’s websites through chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude via a new "AI Assistant channel" in Default Channel Group reports.

This update introduced changes to traffic source dimensions such as a new "ai-assistant" value that is automatically assigned when the referrer matches a recognized AI assistant.

The visits are now categorized under the AI Assistant channel, and traffic from these sources is identified with the "(ai-assistant)" campaign name.

The goal of this feature is to help marketers track user clicks by monitoring how generative AI impacts their business, as well as to track trending AI sources, and how this traffic compares to traditional channels such as organic search.