How to Generate a Google API Key & Enable Cloud Billing

In order to search Google Maps using Leadinary, you’ll need to have set up a Google Cloud account and API Key for Leadinary to use to perform it’s searches. The high-level steps that you’ll need to follow are as follows:

1. Sign Up for a Google Cloud Account
2. Add a Billing Account with billing details and credit card to the Google Cloud Account.
3. Create a Project for the Leadinary App
4. Enable the appropriate APIs inside of the Project. The following APIs are required to be enabled:
   • Places API
   • Maps Javascript API
   • Geocoding API
   • Geolocation API
   • Maps Embed API
5. Create an API Key.

Video Instructions

Here is a video that walks you through the process that you can follow along and complete the steps:

Step-By-Step Start Guide

Here is a full step-by-step guide with instructions on how to get your Google API Key.

1. Go to the Google Cloud website by visiting: https://cloud.google.com
2. If you already have a Google Cloud account, you can log in by clicking on the “Sign In” link on the upper right. If you do not have a Google Cloud account, follow the next step.
3. If you do NOT have an existing google cloud account, click on the blue “Start Free” button on the upper right corner of the site and follow the prompts to create an account.

4. After either logging in to your existing account or creating a new account, it’s time to add a billing profile.
5. Go to the Google Cloud Platform Console (here), click the Hamburger menu, and click on Billing. Then, click on Create Account.

Note: If a billing account is already associated with your GCP account, you may skip the next 2 steps of this guide and resume at Step 8, however, you should still ensure that billing is connected at step 11.

6. Enter your name, country, select what kind of organization best represents your business, and agree to the terms of service then click “continue“.

7. Next, select the appropriate account type and enter the business / individual name. Then add a payment method and billing address and click on the “Start My Trial” or Submit button.

Note: When you enable billing for the first time, you will receive $300 worth of credit from Google.

8. Select the Hamburger menu again in the upper left of your screen and click on Cloud overview > Dashboard.

9. Access the Project drop-down menu and select New Project inside the window that appears.

10. Name your project Leadinary, ensure the proper billing account is selected (if available) and click Create and wait for the project creation process to complete (it might take a few minutes).

11. After the creation process completes, go back to the dashboard again by clicking on Cloud overview > Dashboard. Next, click on Select a project, choose Leadinary, and click Open.

12. Select the hamburger menu (top-left corner) and choose APIs & Services > Library from the left panel.

13. Search for Places API

14. Select the Places API by clicking on the Places API search result, then on the next screen click Enable.

15. Next, you’ll want to repeat the same process of searching and enabling APIs you completed in steps 12 through 14 for the following APIs: Maps Javascript API, Geocoding API, Geolocation API, & Maps Embed API

16. Next, select the hamburger menu and then choose APIs & Services > Dashboard.

17. On the credentials screen, click on the Create Credentials button.

18. Inside the dropdown menu that appears, click on API Key and wait for the key to be generated.

19. In the API Key created window that appears, click on the Copy to Clipboard icon to copy the API key to your device’s clipboard

20. Once you have the api key copied, go back to your Leadinary dashboard (here), then select the Workspace Settings menu option inside of the Left Admin area

21. Select the API Key tab then paste the API key you just generated inside the box labeled “Google API Key”. Finally, click the blue Save Changes button at the bottom right of the screen.

You’re done! You can now search and find leads using Google Maps as a source!

IMPORTANT NOTE: You must have a valid credit card added to your billing profile inside of google Cloud Console to fully complete this setup. Unfortunately, there is no way to get around this requirement from Google. As long as you are staying within your free monthly credits, you should not get charged.