🔑 Getting a Google Places API Key
GeoAudience uses the Google Places API to search for businesses. You need a free Google Cloud account and API key. New accounts get $300 USD free credit — more than enough for thousands of searches.
Go to Google Cloud Console
Open your browser and go to console.cloud.google.com. Sign in with your Google account (or create one free).
Create a New Project
Click the project dropdown at the top → New Project. Name it "GeoAudience" or anything you like. Click Create.
Enable the Places API
Go to APIs & Services → Library. Search for "Places API". Click it and click Enable.
Set Up Billing
Go to Billing in the left sidebar. Link a credit card. You won't be charged — the $300 free credit covers all your usage. Billing just needs to be active for the API to work.
Create Your API Key
Go to APIs & Services → Credentials → + Create Credentials → API Key. Copy the key that appears. Paste it into GeoAudience's API Key field.
💳 Understanding Costs
Google Places Text Search costs $0.017 USD per query. GeoAudience shows you an estimate before you start and pauses automatically when your budget is reached.
Cost examples:
- Pain clinics across Australia (15 keywords × 40 regions) = 600 queries = ~$10 USD
- Physiotherapy across NSW only (7 keywords × 10 regions) = 70 queries = ~$1.20 USD
- Full national sweep all categories (50 keywords × 70 regions) = 3,500 queries = ~$60 USD
🔍 Using GeoAudience
Starting a scrape
- Go to New Scrape
- Enter your Google Places API key
- Select a category preset or enter custom keywords
- Choose your country and regions
- Set a budget (default $10 USD)
- Click ▶ Start Scrape
During a scrape
Watch results come in live on the Activity Log, Map View, or Results Table tabs. The progress bar shows completion percentage. You can stop at any time and download what's been collected.
Budget pause
When your budget is reached, the scrape pauses and shows a dialog. You can extend by $5, $10, a custom amount, or stop and save the CSV.
📝 Keywords Guide
Keywords are what gets searched in Google Maps. Be specific — Google searches for exact businesses matching your terms near each location.
Good keyword examples:
chronic pain specialist
physiotherapy clinic
medical imaging centre
Tips:
- Use the category presets — they've been tested and optimised
- Don't add "Australia" — the location parameter handles that
- More specific keywords = more relevant results but fewer total records
- Try variations: "pain clinic" and "pain management centre" may return different results
📍 Regions Guide
Each region is a central point with a search radius. GeoAudience searches for businesses within that radius of each point.
Radius settings:
- 5km — Dense city centres (CBD)
- 15km — Recommended for most suburbs (default)
- 25km — Regional cities and towns
- 50km — Large regional areas and outback
📥 CSV Export
Every scrape exports to CSV with these columns:
latitude, longitude, rating, review_count, place_types,
search_keyword, search_region, place_id, scraped_at
The latitude and longitude columns are ready for direct import into GeoAudience, Google Maps, or any GIS tool.
🗺 Data Integration
GeoAudience is designed to feed directly into GeoAudience for MAID-based audience targeting.
Workflow:
Scrape venues
Run GeoAudience to collect all target venues (pain clinics, physios, imaging centres etc.) with lat/long coordinates.
Import to GeoAudience
Upload the CSV to GeoAudience. Each row becomes a geofence point. Set dwell time (e.g. 10 minutes) to distinguish visitors from passers-by.
Harvest MAIDs
GeoAudience captures Mobile Advertising IDs (MAIDs) of devices seen within each geofence. Practitioners = regular 9-5 visitors. Patients = irregular visitors.
Target & serve ads
Use the MAID audience to serve targeted ads — NeuFit device ads to pain sufferers, practitioner ads to clinicians.
❓ FAQ
Is this legal?
Yes. GeoAudience uses the official Google Places API which is a paid, licensed service. All data returned is publicly available on Google Maps.
Why am I getting INVALID_REQUEST errors?
Usually means the Places API isn't enabled on your project. Go to Google Cloud Console → APIs & Services → Library → Places API → Enable.
Why is my API key being denied?
Either billing isn't set up on your Google Cloud project, or the key was created in a different project than where Places API is enabled. Make sure both are in the same project.
Can I run multiple scrapes at the same time?
Not recommended — it can cause API rate limit issues. Run one at a time for best results.
How do I deploy this online?
GeoAudience is built with Flask and can be deployed to any Python hosting platform — Railway, Render, Heroku, or a VPS. Change the secret key and database path for production.