Set Up Publishing for a Customer

Before you start

• Google connected to the location with Grant Access (signing in with Google), or by a Customer Connect Link the client completes without logging in. Public Access reads reviews only. The Google account must be an Owner or Manager of the Business Profile
• The Business Profile is verified. Google takes posts from verified profiles
• An AI provider under Platform -> AI & Automation -> Artificial Intelligence if you want Write It for Me or Autopilot. Writing posts by hand works without one
• An email sender under Platform -> Messaging -> Email: your own email provider, or the free built-in service, which sends from [email protected]
• Your company name and logo under Platform -> White-Label -> Configuration. Approval emails and approval pages carry them. Emails go out as soon as you have an email sender. Until then they wait, and your daily summary lists them under Approval Emails Not Sent
• Your own domain under Platform -> White-Label -> Domains, set as primary. Until then, links in approval emails use your platform address (yourname.app.embedmyreviews.com). Emails still go out

• Google: Grant Access and Public Access
• Customer Connect Links for Google and Facebook
• Getting Google Business Profile access from your customers
• BYOK Setup: Email, SMS, and AI
• White-Label Configuration
• Custom Domains

Step 1: Choose what each plan includes

Open Business -> Billing & Revenue -> Custom Plans, edit a plan, open Features & Options and choose the Publishing sub-tab. Save with Save Plan Options in the price dialog, as for every other option.

• The three ready-made plans start as: Starter, Publishing and Autopilot both Upgrade; Professional, Publishing Enabled and Autopilot Upgrade; Enterprise, both Enabled. Plans you built yourself start at the defaults in the table
• Posts and AI drafts you make with Open dashboard never count toward a customer's limits. Work done with View as customer counts, as the customer's own would. Autopilot's posts and drafts count. Your own agency organization has no limits
• Posts count in the month they are scheduled for, in the location's time zone. Shared review images never count
• The cost calculator on the plan shows Posts per month and an AI for posts (estimate) line, so you can price the service

• The Custom Plan Feature Matrix

Step 2: Decide how much the customer does alone

The plan decides whether Publishing runs for a customer at all, for you as well. What the customer can do themselves decides who operates it.

• For a done-for-you service, choose Nothing: the agency does everything and add the client's address as an approver (step 5). They approve from email without logging in
• To set it for one customer only: Business -> Customers -> Manage Customers, click Manage on the customer, scroll to Plan Options and choose Publishing

Step 3: Turn on publishing for the location

Open the customer's dashboard, pick the location in the location switcher, and use either place:

• Connect -> Integrations -> Sources: the connected Google card has a Publishing line. Click Turn On Publishing
• Posts -> Settings, Publishing tab: click Turn On Publishing. Posts go to the Business Profile that the location's Google source is connected to; to post to a different profile, change the Google source under Connect -> Integrations -> Sources
• Turning publishing on posts nothing. It only lets posts go to that profile
• A profile can be connected to one location only. One already used elsewhere shows This profile is already connected for another location.
• The Publishing line on the Google card reads On, Off, Paused or Needs attention. Paused means the card has a problem to fix first, and Needs attention means the channel needs a look under Posts -> Settings. Until the time zone is confirmed, the line offers Confirm Time Zone
• A source added with Public Access reads: Posts need Grant Access. This source was added with Public Access, which reads reviews only. Click Sign in with Google to upgrade it
• Many locations at once: Business -> Publishing, Turn On Publishing (on a running account, Review and Turn On under the list). Pick locations across customers, confirm each time zone (prefilled from the business or your default) and add one approver per customer if you like. It takes up to a minute, and any location that cannot be turned on is listed under Needs Attention

Step 4: Confirm the time zone

On the Publishing tab, check the Time Zone card and click Confirm. Once it is confirmed, posts can be scheduled ahead and Autopilot can plan. Publish Now works at any time.

• Every time under Posts is shown in the location's time zone, and the pages name the zone
• Scheduled posts keep their local time when the time zone changes
• Business -> Publishing, Playbook tab, Default time zone. New locations start with it, and each location still confirms it once

Step 5: Choose who approves

Open Posts -> Settings, Approvals and Notices tab.

• With no approver, posts wait in the Approvals tab under Posts and under Business -> Publishing for someone to approve them in the dashboard
• Autopilot can be started from the dashboard with no approver. Its drafts then wait in those Approvals tabs
• An AI assistant starts Autopilot at a location once an approver address is set
• A new approver gets a short introduction with their first approval request
• Send Me a Sample on the Approvals and Notices tab sends you the approval email, marked Sample. Send Me a Sample Approval Email sits on Business -> Publishing
• Approvers get one automatic reminder when a post is still waiting about 24 hours before its time
• Optional: Monthly summary of live posts. On the 1st of each month, each location's notice addresses get the posts that went live the month before, under your brand. Months with no live post send nothing. Turn it on under Business -> Publishing, Playbook, Emails to Your Customers. Send Me a Sample Summary previews it

• Approve Google Posts by Email Link
• What Your Client Sees When Approving

Step 6: Publish a first post

Go to Posts and click New Post, or use the customer dashboard's onboarding item Publish Your First Google Post. On an empty calendar, Write the First Post for Me drafts one from the business facts. The next guide covers every field of the composer.

• Create and Schedule Google Posts
• Autopilot for Google Posts

Who sees what

• You, inside a customer's dashboard (Open dashboard or the Customer tab): every Posts tab, whatever the plan. Posts are only created and sent while the plan sets Publishing to Enabled; until then the pages say Publishing is not in this customer's plan with a link to switch it on
• Your agency sidebar: Business -> Publishing, with the Approvals, Needs Attention and Playbook tabs across all customers. Only the account owner sees it
• Sales agents see Posts while they use View as customer, exactly as that customer does. At an Approve posts only customer they may also write posts, and the post's history names them. Their own sidebar has no Posts
• A customer with Create and schedule posts: Posts with the Posts, Media, Autopilot (when the plan's Autopilot is not hidden) and Settings (with the Manage publishing permission) tabs
• A customer with Approve posts only: the Posts and Media tabs, and Settings with only a read-only Business Facts tab
• The customer's dashboard shows a Posts card, and a line when approvals are needed
• A customer with Nothing: the agency does everything: no Posts item
• A plan set to Upgrade: Posts shows with an upgrade badge. When only Autopilot is Upgrade, only the Autopilot tab carries it
• Team members also need the Publishing permissions of their role, for example View posts to see Posts
• Customers see Autopilot's posts as Written for you. They never see the AI provider, the model or the name of your playbook

Common questions