Google Business Profile insights: What they are & how to use them

If you manage multiple business profiles for the same Google Business Profile account, you already know that no two locations perform the same way. A shop in a dense city center attracts different searches, expectations, and behaviors than one in the suburbs or a rural area serving an entirely different customer base. Even when the services are identical, the way people discover, evaluate, and choose a business can vary dramatically by location.

That’s why a one-size-fits-all local search engine optimization approach rarely works for agencies supporting a business owner across locations with different demographics, devices, and search behavior.

Google Business Profile (GBP) insights give agencies a clear view into how each location is actually performing, so you can adjust your marketing strategies based on real behavior.

What are Google Business Profile insights?

Google Business Profile insights–sometimes referred to as Google insights or performance insights–show how a business listing appears in search results and how users interact with it.

These built-in analytics surface key business profile interactions, making them one of the most accessible Google Business Profile reporting tools, especially for agencies managing multiple local clients.

Having a Google Business Profile will help your local business appear in search. It's also a content goldmine for sharing everything from photos to news and even testimonials. A Google Business Profile provides the rare opportunity to share key messages even before your customer reaches your website.

Valerie Jennings, CEO, Jennings Social Media + Martech

Think of GBP insights as “local intent data,” rather than traditional analytics. Instead of overwhelming you with charts, filters, and custom reports, GBP insights focus on the basics: how often your clients show up in search and what people do next. You can see which search queries or search terms triggered a result, how often a business profile appears, and which business profile interactions follow.

This is what we mean by accessible analytics. The data is easy to find, easy to understand, and directly tied to real customer actions. No setup required, no tagging, no dashboards to maintain.

For agencies, GBP insights make it easier to connect the dots between visibility and intent. They show how often a listing appears in relevant searches and which locations are actually driving engagement that could turn into leads or bookings.

Why GBP insights matter for local SEO

While GBP insights don’t show traditional rankings, they provide strong signals about local search performance, including how many users see a Google listing and how many searchers take action from local search results. When customers are calling, clicking, and asking for directions, it’s usually a good sign that a listing is doing something right. Over time, that kind of activity often goes hand in hand with stronger local visibility.

When you apply a one-size-fits-all mindset with local service businesses, it can feel like fishing with the same bait in different lakes and wondering why the results don’t match.

If you’re using worms in a spot where the fish don’t eat worms, that doesn’t mean worms are bad bait. It just means you’re using the wrong approach for that environment. The same logic applies to Google Business Profiles.

On the surface, a multi-location service business might look like one entity. In practice, each location is its own “lake,” with different customer behavior, competition, and intent. Google Business Profile insights help agencies figure out what kind of bait actually works in each one.

When you look at GBP data across a client’s locations, patterns start to pop up. Maybe three shops are getting plenty of profile views but far fewer calls than the rest. Or one location gets tons of direction requests but barely any website clicks. On paper, they’re all “the same business.” In reality, customers are using them very differently.

The real win for agencies comes from asking why.

Let’s say you manage GBP for a multi-location auto repair client. You notice that locations in suburban areas are getting more phone calls, while urban locations skew heavily toward direction requests and “open now” searches. That insight alone can shape your marketing plan. Suburban shops might benefit from call-focused CTAs and call-only Local Service Ads, while urban locations could prioritize accurate hours, parking info, and stronger photo coverage to help searchers make quick decisions on the go.

Or maybe a few locations are lagging on bookings. When you dig in, you notice they also have fewer reviews and weaker service descriptions. That’s not a coincidence. Instead of launching a generic “get more reviews” push, you can roll out a targeted review-generation campaign just for those locations and track the impact directly in GBP metrics like calls, clicks, and direction requests.

The most important metrics are the number of calls, number of requests for directions, and how often your local listing is shown in Google search results.

Ross Taylor, President, Alameda Internet Marketing

On mobile devices, this difference becomes even more obvious. One location may drive clicks to the business profile website, while another generates mostly calls sometimes resulting in missed calls if staffing or hours aren’t aligned.

These patterns help agencies understand how potential customers move from discovery to action and where new customers may be dropping off.

GBP insights also help agencies test and refine messaging. If one mechanic location sees a spike in calls after adding services like “same-day brake repair” or “no-appointment oil changes,” that’s a signal. You can borrow that language, adapt it for similar locations, and build it into service descriptions, posts, and even paid local campaigns.

In other words, GBP reporting isn’t just about proving performance to clients. It’s a feedback loop. It tells you how real people are finding these businesses, what actions they’re taking, and where your marketing plan needs to flex at the local level.

For agencies managing service-based clients, Google Business Profile insights are less about dashboards and more about translating local behavior into smarter, location-specific strategy.

Go beyond impressions. Measure real customer engagement from your clients’ Google Business Profiles with AgencyAnalytics. Try it free for 14 days.

Where do I find Google Business Profile insights?

You can access Google Business insights directly inside Google, no extra tools or setup required.

Option 1: From Google Search 

If you’re logged into the Google account that manages the profile:

1. Go to Google Search

2. Search for your client’s business name

3. You’ll see the Business Profile management panel at the top of the results

4. Click Performance (or View Performance)

That’s where Google shows:

• Searches

• Profile views

• Calls

• Website clicks

• Direction requests

• Bookings/messages (if enabled)

This is the most common way agencies check insights day-to-day.

Option 2: From Google Business Profile Manager (multiple locations)

If you manage several locations:

1. Go to business.google.com

2. Select the business or location group

3. Click Performance in the left-hand menu

4. Use filters to compare locations or date ranges

This view is especially useful for:

• Multi-location clients

• Spotting performance gaps

• Comparing locations side by side

What you won’t find there 

GBP insights are intentionally lightweight. You won’t see:

• Traditional keyword rankings

• Session-level behavior

• Attribution across channels

That’s by design. GBP insights focus on local visibility and intent, not full-funnel analytics.

From the Business Profile Manager, you can download reports, view a device breakdown, and export insights in bulk. For multi-location clients, this makes it easier to compare business information and performance across locations.

Key metrics in GBP insights

The most useful metrics are the ones that show how customers are actually engaging with a location, not just how often a listing appears. 

Some of the core performance metrics you’ll see in GBP insights include:

• Total searches

• Phone calls

• Direction requests

• Website clicks

• Photo views

• Bookings or messages (if you’ve enabled messaging)

At a high level, business profile insights help you understand:

• How customers are finding a business (searches and visibility)

• What actions they’re taking (calls, clicks, direction requests, bookings)

• Which locations are driving real intent versus passive views

TL;DR: Focus on metrics that signal real intent and conversions, not vanity views.

How to report on Google Business Profile insights

Based on internal AgencyAnalytics research, clients don’t want more metrics–they want clarity. Reports that explain what changed, why it matters, and what’s next are far more engaging than raw data dumps.

For many agencies, Google Business Profile insights are a key piece of broader local SEO reporting strategies, helping connect visibility to real customer actions. 

What to include in reports

Focus on a small set of action-oriented metrics, like calls, direction requests, website clicks, and bookings. These are the metrics clients actually care about because they connect directly to leads and revenue.

How often to report

According to the 2025 AgencyAnalytics Marketing Agency Benchmarks Report, 65% of agencies send reports monthly. It’s frequent enough to spot trends without overreacting to normal week-to-week fluctuations. For higher-volume or multi-location clients, a lighter weekly check-in can help catch issues early.

How to contextualize the data

Numbers don’t mean much on their own. Compare performance month over month, call out location-specific trends, and explain why metrics may have changed–seasonality, reviews, new services, or local promotions all matter.

How to tie metrics back to business outcomes

Whenever possible, translate GBP metrics into real-world impact. An increase in calls or direction requests isn’t just “engagement,” it’s more people trying to book an appointment, visit a location, or request a quote.

Good GBP reporting helps clients understand not just how they’re performing in local search, but how that performance supports real business goals.

Understand how customers actually find your clients. Track direct vs. discovery searches, views on Google Maps, and search trends. Try AgencyAnalytics free for 14 days.

Best practices to utilize your GBP insights

Data doesn’t drive results–decisions do. Collecting GBP insights alone won’t move the needle on your clients’ marketing goals. Here’s how to put that data to work.

Segment by location

Always look at performance at the location level. Even within the same brand, customer behavior can vary widely based on physical location, competition, and intent. Segmenting by location helps you spot underperforming profiles, identify outliers, and avoid drawing the wrong conclusions from blended data.

This is especially important when it comes to reporting and analysis. AgencyAnalytics’ first-party research shows that smaller, owner-led businesses tend to focus on bottom-line outcomes like leads and calls, while larger or more marketing-savvy teams expect deeper context and comparisons. That difference matters when deciding how much detail to include and where to focus.

Compare time periods

GBP insights are most useful in context. Comparing performance for a specific date range, say month over month or year over year, helps you separate meaningful trends from normal fluctuations. This is especially important for service businesses affected by seasonality, promotions, or changes in local demand.

Tie insights directly to action

Every insight should lead to a decision. Low calls paired with high views might signal a CTA issue, while fewer bookings combined with weak reviews often point to a reputation gap.

Many agencies use GBP insights as the starting point for a Google Business Profile audit, using performance data to uncover gaps in reviews, services, photos, and conversion paths.

Avoid one-size-fits-all optimizations

If every location gets the exact same updates, you’re probably optimizing for convenience over performance.

Restaurants are a good example of this. One location might see a high number of food menu clicks, but very few actual food orders. Another might convert menu views into orders at a much higher rate. If you’re treating these two locations the same–same CTAs, same updates, same priorities–you’re missing what the data is actually telling you.

The same goes for rankings. It’s tempting to chase position improvements, but ranking data alone doesn't tell you whether customers are taking meaningful action. A listing that ranks slightly lower but drives customer actions like calls and bookings is often outperforming one that looks better on paper.

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Turn GBP insights into action

Your clients’ Google Business Profiles are veritable goldmines if you know how to read the signals. From direct searches and clicks on a website link, to how many reviews, messages, and calls each location receives, GBP insights show how potential customers actually engage with a business before they convert.

When combined with tools like Google Analytics and Google Ads, these insights help agencies connect local visibility to real marketing efforts, highlighting where response times, unanswered messages, or even negative reviews may be costing opportunities. They also reveal where small changes, like posting answers to common questions or improving message response rate, can help encourage customers to take the next step.

Mastering GBP insights means turning local visibility into clearer decisions, smarter optimization, and more customers without guessing or relying on one-size-fits-all tactics.

Want to learn how to mine your clients’ Google Business Profiles for valuable insights into user behavior? Try AgencyAnalytics free for 14 days.