Upcoming changes to your Brand Accounts

[kathleen.rhodes]

What do the emails I received today from Google mean regarding "Upcoming changes to your Brand Accounts?" The message is vague and doesn't specify the location(s) affected:

"Beginning August 1, 2022, Business Groups will no longer be able to own or manage Brand Accounts.

You're currently an owner or manager of at least one Brand Account that's connected to a Business Group. Anyone who has access to your Brand Accounts via a Business Group will be able to opt in to keep access. If they opt in, they'll be added as a direct owner or manager beginning July 20, 2022. If they don't opt in, they'll lose access to the Brand Account.

If a Brand Account has no owner left, all managers will lose access to it beginning August 1, 2022. If you own or manage a Brand Account from a Business Group, you'll receive another email with instructions on how to opt in to keep access to your account.

This upcoming change doesn't affect Business Profiles."

Thanks for any clarification.

 

[Justin Mosebach]

I think the key is the second-to-last sentence: "If you own or manage a Brand Account from a Business Group, you'll receive another email with instructions on how to opt in to keep access to your account."

 

[krystaltaing]

This seems to be a broad communication for most accounts. As @Justin Mosebach mentioned, you should be safe unless you receive the follow up message referenced here: If you own or manage a Brand Account from a Business Group, you'll receive another email with instructions on how to opt in to keep access to your account.

If you are not sure which of your accounts are a brand account, you can use this link: Account settings: Your browser is not supported.

 

[kathleen.rhodes]

This seems to be a broad communication for most accounts. As @Justin Mosebach mentioned, you should be safe unless you receive the follow up message referenced here: If you own or manage a Brand Account from a Business Group, you'll receive another email with instructions on how to opt in to keep access to your account.

If you are not sure which of your accounts are a brand account, you can use this link: Account settings: Your browser is not supported.

Thanks for the link, Krystal. I seem to have access to 20 Brand Accounts, many of which I'm not currently managing. However, I also have many more locations that I manage that are not showing up as Brand Accounts. It's a bit confusing.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I got the second email this morning. This is what it looks like:

Action needed to keep access to Brand Accounts

Dear Joy Hawkins,
Business Groups will soon be removed from Brand Accounts. You currently own or manage at least one Brand Account from a Business Group. To keep access to your Brand Accounts, visit myaccount.google.com/brandaccounts/businessgroupremoval and opt in by July 20, 2022. This upcoming change does not affect Business Profiles.

After July 20, 2022:

• Business Groups will be removed from Brand Accounts
• If you've opted in, you'll be added as a co-owner to any Brand Accounts you previously owned from a Business Group
• If you've opted in, you'll be added as a manager to to any Brand Accounts you previously managed from a Business Group
• If you didn't take action, you'll lose access to any Brand Accounts you previously owned or managed from a Business Group

 

[JS Girard]

The part about "This upcoming change does not affect Business Profiles." is kind of baffling since our agency does only that and so we can't even begin to figure out a) where any brand accounts are involved in our case and b) whether this will actually affects our ability to access these GBPs (I don't entirely trust Google on this!).

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

Not all links work properly, but check them yourself. Instead of waiting until July 20, I have the opportunity to accept it today

Unfortunately, the version is only in Polish.

 

[Jeffrey]

Yeah I got both emails as well. Is it possible to find out which brand accounts are being managed through a business group? And also, how is it possible to manage a brand account through a business group?

 

[E.Dieter Martin]

I got the second message as well. The way I understand it, you are losing the ability to manage your profiles as a group. A couple of years back they created the option to put profiles under your management in a group and give it a name. You will see that group name listed as a user of those profiles. You could also assign various Google accounts as members of the group, which gave them access to all profiles in the group.

The groups are going away and the individual members of a group who opt in will now become users of all profiles in that group.

 

[Jim Froling]

This is all as clear as mud.

I manage a number of GBPs through two Google accounts, only one of which has a group set up. I opted in on that account to maintain ownership/management to the clients listed. And then some. There were a few listed that are not in either GBP dashboard and which I didn't know I had any relationship with.

I think I'm good with the accounts I'm most concerned with. If not, I'm sure I will get follow up emails from G before August that will either help or further muddy the water (more likely).

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Hi all,

I just tested this, and it seems that our access to the GBPs from our agency's brand account is not affected when I manually remove the business account from the brand account.

I'm thinking that we are safe to either do nothing or choose "Don't add me as a direct owner or manager" if we want to stop receiving the emails from Google.

Has anyone else experimented with this at all? Is there something I'm missing?

 

[Justin Mosebach]

Try going to Account settings: Your browser is not supported. when you're logged into the Google account that got the email. I did that and was given an option to opt-in for all connected Brand Accounts.

However, I tried it with a client's Google Account and didn't see that option, even though they received the email.

 

[JS Girard]

Okay, looking at the brand accounts we are connected to, the major reason people have them connected without knowing is that they were linked to Google Plus pages (!):

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Try going to Account settings: Your browser is not supported. when you're logged into the Google account that got the email. I did that and was given an option to opt-in for all connected Brand Accounts.

I get that option too. My worry is that accepting this will make my own Google account an owner of the brand account. Since all of my team members who have access to our business account also have the same option, my worry is that they would also give their own Google account login access as well. This isn't ideal since our access would remain if we were ever to leave the agency.

I think I'm going to test this to see if my hunch is correct.

I tried it with a client's Google Account and didn't see that option, even though they received the email.

That's strange. We have individual Google account logins for each of our clients, and I do see their access to their brand account when I log in and check. When you go to manage users in the brand account, do you see their individual account as having access in addition to your own or your agency's?

I swear this is getting as convoluted as Facebook's Admin vs Business Admin nonsense.

 

[Jeffrey]

Can someone give an in depth overview of what this whole thing is about. I'm not too familiar with brand accounts, but I see that I do have access to quite a few. Is this also somehow tied to business groups within the GBP dashboard? Any insight would be helpful! Thanks

 

[Justin Mosebach]

@Jeffrey Do you have any specific questions on the above thread?

 

[Jeffrey]

Hi @Justin Mosebach! Although I've read articles on brand accounts and what this change is about, I just don't understand it. Here are my questions?

1. What is a brand account and how is it made?
2. How does this affect business groups within GBP
3. What is this change and do we know why Google is making it?
4. Is there any harm in just opting in?

 

[Jeffrey]

Hey @Justin Mosebach Any thoughts on the above!

 

[Jeffrey]

Hey guys! Any input on my above questions would be extremely helpful. I'd like to be knowledgeable on this subject so that I know what to do, and can assist my clients and colleagues on what they should do.
Thanks a bunch!

 

[JoyHawkins]

This is just a backend thing and is no big deal whatsoever based on what Google told me. Just click the button to opt in and then you can move on