What we learned after adding Google Maps Reviews to our Google Sheets add-on

Hey IH
A few weeks ago we shipped Google Maps Reviews extraction as part of Marketing Data Extractor. We wanted to share a few things we learned along the way, since some of it surprised us.
The API barrier is a bigger deal than we thought.

A lot of the people who need this data have already tried the Google Places API and bounced off it. Setting up a Cloud Console account, enabling billing, generating API keys, parsing JSON, it's a lot of steps before you see a single review. We kept that in mind when building. Our add-on handles everything behind the scenes. Users just need their Google account to install it.
"Search by name" unlocked a different workflow.

We initially built it around pasting Google Maps URLs. It worked, but it meant users had to already have the links. Once we added name + city search, it opened up cold competitor research where someone only knows the brand name and city, no URL needed. That turned out to be a common starting point for a lot of the use cases we were building for.
The free tier needs to let you do something real.

We set 30 free credits at launch, which is 300 reviews. Enough to run a real competitor or reputation analysis on one location and see actual value before spending anything. If the free tier just teases the product without delivering a complete result, the upgrade doesn't mean anything.
Credits over subscription was the right call for this use case.

Marketers don't pull Google Maps reviews every day. A competitor audit happens once a quarter. A client review audit happens once a month. A monthly subscription would feel wrong for that kind of usage pattern. Pay-as-you-go with credits that never expire fits how people actually work with this data.

Still early, still learning. If you're doing any kind of review monitoring or competitor research, we'd love to hear how you're currently handling it.
Try it free: https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/marketing_data_extractor/543953835556?utm_source=smacient&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=mde-parent-page&utm_content=final-cta