Duplicate lists and promotions more quickly, and build multi-section forms more easily with these updates.

None of these are big, headline features on their own, but each removes a specific point of friction that partners run into constantly: rebuilding a list from scratch instead of copying one, hunting for a form's public URL, guessing which of two send buttons to use, or hitting a confusing form bug because a section was misconfigured. Individually small, together these changes make day-to-day CRM work noticeably smoother.

No setup required. These updates are live now!

New guidance right in Business App helps businesses overcome common US A2P text-message registration challenges and get approved.

Two updates make US A2P (10DLC) registration easier to get right the first time.

Most A2P registration rejections come down to something in the business's own setup: a missing privacy policy, incomplete terms of service, or an incomplete contact form. Previously, there was no single place to send someone stuck on a specific requirement, and a business could be told their SMS was "active" while no phone number had actually been assigned yet.

Now there's a clear, self-serve path to fix the most common rejection reasons, and account status accurately reflects what's actually working.

A2P registration is required for businesses located in the United States. These updates are helpful to:

A: No. Approval is still up to the carrier review process, but the guide addresses the most common rejection reasons: privacy policy, terms of service, opt-in language, and contact form issues.

A: Yes. Registrations can now be re-submitted, including ones previously rejected without a clear reason.

A: "Sender ID available" means your registration has cleared far enough to be assigned a number. "Phone number active" means SMS is actually working on that number. The settings card now shows both states separately, plus an in-between "being assigned" status.

The AI Voice Receptionist now runs on a more capable voice engine by default, and businesses that already have a favorite ElevenLabs voice can connect it themselves.

The real-time voice engine behind the AI Voice Receptionist has been upgraded from OpenAI Realtime 1.5 to 2.0, bringing a bigger context window, better reasoning, and more accurate pronunciation of names. This rolls out automatically to every account — no setup required.

Paste in your own non-surcharge ElevenLabs voice ID directly in the receptionist's settings, instead of requesting a code change from Vendasta to swap voices.

Voice quality is one of the first things a caller notices. With these updates, conversations sound more natural and hold up better in longer, more complex exchanges. Additionally, businesses that already know which ElevenLabs voice they want can connect it themselves in minutes

Available to all accounts with Conversations AI Premium.

No action needed — Realtime 2.0 is rolling out to all AI Voice Receptionist accounts.

A: Non-surcharge voice IDs are supported today.

A: Only non-surcharge ElevenLabs voice IDs are supported at this time, so there's no additional Vendasta charge for connecting one.

AI employees can now respond differently depending on how customers reach out: via web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. Provide channel-specific instructions so it adapts tone, response format, and personality to match where the conversation happens.

AI Receptionists and other employees tasked with customer communication can intelligently adapt their responses based on the channel. Tell it to be professional and concise on web chat, conversational and emoji-friendly on WhatsApp, or visual and engaging on Instagram.

Different channels attract different communication styles. A customer texting via WhatsApp expects a different tone than someone messaging through web chat on a business' site. Instagram DMs feel more casual and visual than email.

Previously, you'd either use one-size-fits-all AI response instructions or manually manage separate AI employees for each channel. Now, a single AI assistant can match the norms of each channel, delivering better customer experience without multiplying complexity.

Any business communicating with leads and customers through more than one channel.

There's no separate menu for per-channel behavior. Instead, you write channel-specific instructions in the same places you write your other instructions, and the AI applies them only when it's responding on that channel.

A: No. One assistant can now serve multiple channels with different behavior per channel. This reduces management overhead and keeps customer experience consistent at the brand level.

A: The assistant will use its default behavior across all channels. Channel-specific instructions are optional: use them only for channels where you want different behavior.

A: Yes. Channel instructions are additive and don't change the core assistant configuration. You can update any channel independently by adding channel-specific instructions to any prompt in an employee's "Role" field, or any capability.

A: No. The assistant processes instructions the same way regardless of channel, with no impact on latency.

Distribute custom account configurations at scale by applying an account template to any filtered set of companies directly from the CRM.

Partners managing large books of business can now filter companies in the CRM, select all, and apply an account template to the entire group in a single action.

Whether you customize configuration of client CRMs, AI employees, automations, and more to suit a certain industry vertical, such as automotive dealerships, and apply those settings to all your auto clients in a few clicks.

For a partner onboarding dozens or hundreds of new businesses a week, manually applying templates one account at a time doesn't scale. This update replaces manual group management with a single bulk action.

A: The template applies the same way it would for a single account; review your template's configuration before applying it broadly to a filtered group.

A: This is designed for large filtered sets; if you hit any limits in practice, reach out to your Account Manager.

A: Yes, any filter you can build in the CRM company list can be used to select the group before applying a template.

Starting today for Early Access partners, inviting a new client kicks off a completely new first-touch experience. Instead of the classic "set your password" welcome email, your client receives an showing the work their AI has for their business — and when they log in, the Business App Home Screen greets them with a matching card, recommended next steps, and one-click product upgrades.

Every line in the summary is driven by the business's real data and the products active on the account. Your client only ever sees work that was genuinely done.

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The summary adapts to the products on the account and their edition. Depending on setup, your client may see that their AI has:

Lines are shown only when the work applies, and each one naturally retires about 30 days after the work was done, keeping the card fresh and honest.

We just simplified how you activate your clients. Starting with Early Access on July 23rd, every new account you create comes alive on its own: the AI Workforce researches the business, builds a live website, trains an AI receptionist, and runs a visibility scan — before your client ever logs in.

What's changing:

It's the demo you've always asked for — except it isn't a demo. It's your client's real business, already working.

You're in control. Set it up product by product, choose buy or order mode, and turn the experience off entirely if it's not for you. Nothing is billed to anyone without clear terms shown first — no surprises for you or your clients.

What to do now: nothing yet. Early Access partners will get an email from us on launch day with a walkthrough video and a quick-start guide. Our best advice for day one: try it on your own business first. It takes about 10 minutes, and you'll see exactly what your clients will see.

Want to know how to add your business to Early Access? Reach out to your account representative.

The fastest-growing local advertising channel is now inside Vendasta MatchCraft. Channel Partners can offer TikTok campaigns to their local business clients, with Vendasta's expert ad team managing each campaign end-to-end. Qualifying advertisers can also earn up to $10,000 in matched TikTok ad credits, available through December 31, 2026.

One dashboard for TikTok budgets and reporting, alongside every other channel

Once a TikTok campaign is created and connected to the MatchCraft platform, partners and their advertisers see TikTok spend and performance inside the same MatchCraft dashboard they already use for every other channel. No separate reporting stack to reconcile. No exporting from TikTok Ads Manager to assemble a cross-channel story.

Example: An agency managing a beauty salon's Google search and Meta retargeting campaigns can now add a TikTok awareness campaign through MatchCraft and surface the results in the same client report they already send.

Vendasta's expert ad team handles campaign setup, creative, targeting, and ongoing optimization, linking each campaign back to MatchCraft for budget control and unified reporting. Creative is built from the assets the local business already has, including logo files, social posts, product photos, and brand imagery. No production crew. No agency retainer. No learning curve for your team.

For Vendasta Partners, this is a new revenue line on managed TikTok ad spend, with no new stack to build and no team to retrain.

The TikTok Channel Sales Partner designation is awarded to a small group of ad tech platforms TikTok recognizes as best-in-class for delivering TikTok advertising at scale.

For Channel Partners, that means three things:

Eligible local business advertisers receive matched TikTok ad credits based on cumulative qualifying spend during a 60-day window from their registration date. Matching is tier-based across six tiers, from $250 to $10,000, and advertisers receive the matched value of the highest tier they reach. Credits expire at the end of the quarter following the advertiser's registration.

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Local consumers spend significant time and attention on TikTok, and the content they watch on the platform influences their purchasing decisions. Until now, the cost of getting a local business onto TikTok, producing the creative, learning a new ad system, and running TikTok in one tool while every other channel lived in another, was higher than many clients would pay. Local businesses watched competitors go viral from the sidelines, and partners passed on a channel they couldn't deliver or report on profitably.

Local businesses don't need a production crew or an in-house video team to run TikTok ads through Vendasta. We offer a short-form video creative service as an add-on to the MatchCraft Managed Ads Campaign for TikTok.

Have our team produce TikTok-ready short-form video from the assets the local business already has, including logo files, brand photos, and product imagery.

For Partners whose clients already have TikTok-ready video creative, the add-on is optional. The standard MatchCraft Managed Ads Campaign for TikTok will run the campaign with whatever assets the client provides.

TikTok campaigns are fulfilled through MatchCraft Managed Ad Campaigns and can be purchased in Partner Center. Need short-form video creation as well? Order our upcoming TikTok Ad Creatives add-on, and our team of experts will create AI videos to drive your business goals.

Disclaimer: New advertisers register as TikTok Ads Manager advertisers via Channel Sales Partners. Upon registration, the offer will be sent to their TikTok Ads Manager within 1-2 business days. Each new advertiser may participate once. Duplicate business or ad details are ineligible for multiple rewards. Participants must meet all local registration and compliance requirements. The new client (advertiser) has 60 days from registration to reach any spend tier. The 60-day period is considered the promotion window. Only cash (out-of-pocket) spend counts toward accumulation. The 60-day accumulation window cannot be extended or rolled over. Ad credits apply only to campaigns run in TikTok Ads Manager. All ad credits expire by the end of the next quarter following the client's registration date. TikTok reserves the right to pause, deny, or revoke credits for any policy violations.

Search has changed. Customers don't dig through ten blue links anymore, they ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity for a recommendation and go with whatever answer comes back. The AI Search Specialist is Vendasta's newest AI Employee, built to make sure your client’s business is the one that gets picked.

Starting July 14, it's live in open beta for every account with Local SEO Pro active, at no additional charge, until the end of September 2026.

Most local businesses have no idea how they show up when a customer asks AI for a recommendation, and even fewer have the time to keep their Google, Apple, Facebook, and various other online business profiles fully optimized by hand. The AI Search Specialist closes both gaps: it manages your Business Profile in the background automatically, and it tells you, on demand, exactly where you stand with LLM brand visibility, as well as onsite AEO and SEO, and what to fix.

The AI Search Specialist lives right inside Business App. Ask him about keyword performance, add/delete keywords, listing health, or search visibility in plain language, and he answers and recommends next steps, no digging through reports required.

The AI Search Specialist reviews your listing data across Google Business Profile, Bing, Apple Maps, Facebook, and more, fills in missing services, attributes, and descriptions, payment methods and service areas. Nothing to click, nothing to approve.

Click the Brand Visibility Report chip and get a benchmark of how your business appears in AI-generated answers across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, compared against your competitors.

The AEO Audit evaluates your site's AI-readiness and flags the structural gaps holding you back from showing up in AI-generated answers, with prioritized recommendations.

A search-optimized website is still crucial to show up in the LLM. The SEO Audit delivers a prioritized, ranked list of what to fix on your website, no guesswork required.

Reports are triggered by you, right from the chat. Click a chip, and your report generates in about 10 minutes. Each report type is available once per month per account, and it's shared across everyone on that account, so if a teammate already ran one this month, you'll see their results rather than triggering a new report.

This open beta is a free preview of new features arriving later this year. Everything you explore now carries forward if you choose to upgrade at general availability.

No, it's included with any existing Local SEO Pro subscription.

Each report type, Brand Visibility, AEO Audit, and SEO Audit, is available to run once per month per account.

The Business profile optimization toggle is turned off by default

These features will move to a new offering at general availability. You'll get advance notice and an upgrade option before anything changes for your account.

The future of automated content has arrived. Two new AI employees are now live in Social AI Premium, built to execute your clients' social and blog strategy automatically, week after week. The AI Social Media Manager handles social content creation, scheduling, and provides insights on performance. The AI Blogger turns business context into publish-ready, SEO-optimized blog posts. Together, they give local businesses a full content department that never needs to be briefed.

Many local businesses and time-strapped partners struggle to maintain a consistent online presence, often lacking the time or dedicated staff to create high-quality social posts and blogs. This leads to missed opportunities for leads and search visibility.

The new AI employees solve this by providing a workflow that ensures on-brand content goes live every week. This allows partners to deliver a full-service marketing experience at scale, while local businesses gain professional-grade consistency and domain authority without the overhead of a marketing team.

The AI Social Media Manager generates and publishes social posts every week based on the business's goals, brand voice, and trending topics. Businesses choose whether content goes live automatically or saves as a draft for review.

The AI Blogger writes one FAQ-style blog post every week based on the business's services, active promotions, and the questions customers are actually searching. No briefing required. Posts are published directly to WordPress or saved as drafts for review.

For businesses that want more control, Social AI Premium includes a conversational experience inside Business App. Generate, draft, schedule, and publish social and blog content through a chat interface, including image generation and editing, all in one workflow.

With this launch, Social Marketing has officially become Social AI, reflecting our shift toward an agentic, automated experience. You will now find three editions in the Marketplace: Standard, Professional, and Premium.

Our team of experts can configure Social AI Premium for your clients so it delivers value on day one. The AI Social Media Manager & AI Blogger Setup or Optimization Plan include:

Recommended for: Time-strapped partners managing multiple SMB clients, and service-based businesses, such as home services and professional services, who need consistent content but don't have a dedicated marketing team.

Managed content services are getting smarter, thanks to AI, and our goal is to make sure every partner keeps getting maximum value from Vendasta. As part of this launch, on July 14th, the following services will be available only to partners currently purchasing them. All new activations, including for current partners, close entirely on September 30, 2026.

Ready to move forward? You can place new orders for all your content needs on our two AI Employees anytime through AI Employee Setup or the AI Workforce Optimization Plan.

As part of this release, each business will enjoy a temporary unlimited number of AI-generated images per month with Social AI Premium, with a future limit of 50 images per month. This includes images for social posts, blogs and image regenerations. As adoption grows and we keep improving the software, we'll adjust this limit to keep pace.

Social AI Premium is the always on content department for SMBs. With the AI Social Media Manager and AI Blogger, businesses can:

Ready to get started? Log in to the Marketplace to activate Social AI Premium today!