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Enabling Google Group Expansion for Accurate Recipient Tracking

Google Group Expansion allows ContactMonkey to count individual recipients in your Google Groups and nested groups, giving you accurate campaign metrics without manual tracking.

What Google Group Expansion Does

By default, ContactMonkey cannot count individual members in Google Groups. This feature allows ContactMonkey to access your Google Groups in read-only mode and count each member as a unique recipient in your campaign dashboard.

Benefits:

  • View accurate recipient counts in your ContactMonkey dashboard
  • Send to existing Google Groups while maintaining metric accuracy
  • Eliminate manual counting of Google Group membership
  • Track campaigns without uploading CSV files

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

  • Contacted your Customer Success Manager to enable the feature
  • Google Workspace Administrator access
  • Permission to create service accounts in Google Cloud Console
  • Permission to manage domain-wide delegation in Google Admin Console

Setup Steps

Step 1: Create a Google Cloud Project and Service Account

  1. Go to Google Cloud Console
  2. Create a new project or select an existing one
  3. Navigate to APIs & Services → Library
  4. Search for "Admin SDK API" and click Enable

Step 2: Create the Service Account

  1. In Google Cloud Console, go to IAM & Admin → Service Accounts
  2. Click Create Service Account
  3. Enter a name (example: "ContactMonkey Group Expansion")
  4. Click Create and Continue
  5. Skip the optional access grant step by clicking Done

Step 3: Generate the Service Account Key

  1. Click on the service account you just created
  2. Go to the Keys tab
  3. Click Add Key → Create New Key
  4. Select JSON as the key type
  5. Click Create
  6. Save the downloaded JSON file securely—you'll share this with ContactMonkey

Step 4: Set Up Domain-Wide Delegation

Domain-wide delegation allows ContactMonkey to read your Google Groups on behalf of users in your organization.

  1. In the service account details, copy the Client ID (found at the bottom of the Details tab)
  2. Click View Google Workspace Admin Console or go to admin.google.com/ac/owl
  3. Go to Security → Access and data control → API Controls → Manage Domain Wide Delegation
  4. Click Add New
  5. Paste the Client ID you copied earlier
  6. In the OAuth Scopes field, enter: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.group.readonly
  7. Click Authorize

Note: This scope grants ContactMonkey read-only access to Google Groups only—no other data.

Step 5: Provide Information to ContactMonkey

Share the following with ContactMonkey Technical Support (support@contactmonkey.com) via your preferred secure file-sharing method:

  1. JSON key file from Step 3
  2. Example Google Group email (e.g., sales@yourcompany.com) for connection testing—this group will not receive emails
  3. Google Workspace Admin email address

Minimum permission required: The Groups Reader role provides sufficient access. See Google's admin roles documentation for details.

Optional: Create a dedicated ContactMonkey admin account for this purpose.

Step 6: Wait for ContactMonkey Setup

After you provide the required information, ContactMonkey will configure domain-wide delegation for your service account. You'll receive confirmation when setup is complete.

Test the Connection

After ContactMonkey confirms setup is complete, verify Google Group Expansion is working:

  1. Click your name at the top right of the ContactMonkey dashboard
  2. Click Settings
  3. Click Integrations
  4. In the GSuite Utility card, click Show Details
  5. Enter a Google Group email address
  6. Click Test Count
  7. Check your email inbox for the test results

If the test fails, verify your Client ID and OAuth scope are correctly configured in the Google Admin Console.

Troubleshooting

Issue: Test count returns an error
Solution: Verify that the OAuth scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.group.readonly is correctly entered in Google Admin Console with no extra spaces.

Issue: Can't find the service account Client ID
Solution: Go to Google Cloud Console → IAM & Admin → Service Accounts, click on your service account, and find the Client ID in the Details tab.

Issue: Domain-wide delegation not authorized
Solution: Ensure you're signed in as a super administrator when setting up domain-wide delegation in the Google Admin Console.

See Also

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