Documentation · Admin Reference

Content Studio Reference

This document is a reference for the Content Studio screen of the ADP Car Market Hub plugin. Content Studio is the plugin's marketing assistant: it turns a vehicle that is already in your inventory into a ready-to-post text for social media and other channels (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google Business Profile, WhatsApp, a dealership newsletter or your own website). It is reached from CMH Center → Content Studio (admin.php?page=as24ci-content-studio).

When to use this document

Read this if you are an administrator or marketing user and you need to:

Generate a social-media or marketing post for a specific vehicle.
Pick the right platform format (for example a Facebook post versus an Instagram story).
Generate the post in one or more languages.
Set the default language, tone and dealership "voice" used for generated posts.
Store the Google API key that powers text generation.
Find, copy or delete content you generated earlier.

Overview

Content Studio reads the data of a vehicle that already exists in your inventory and writes a short, channel-ready text package (caption, hashtags and, depending on the format, a call to action). It only ever writes to its own Content Studio records — it does not change vehicle posts, imports, leads, analytics, search alerts or any frontend page. You copy the generated text out of Content Studio and paste it into the channel of your choice; the plugin does not publish to social networks for you.

Text generation runs through Google's generative AI. Your dealership supplies and owns the Google API key; it is stored encrypted inside the plugin. Without a key, you can still set up formats and create draft jobs, but no text is generated until a key is saved.

The screen is organised into three sections (subtabs), shown as pills at the top of the page:

Subtab	Purpose
Create post	Pick a vehicle, choose a format/platform, tone and language(s), and generate the post. This is the default subtab.
Library	Browse, filter, copy and delete the posts you have already generated.
Settings	Store the Google API key and set the default language, tone, brand voice and compliance/disclaimer guidance.

Above the subtabs, a row of status cards gives an at-a-glance summary: Google connection (Ready or Missing), Vehicles available, Generated posts, Marketing images and Saved content.

Requirements or prerequisites

A user with the plugin's management capability (the same role that can open the other CMH admin pages).
At least one vehicle in the inventory to generate content about. See Car Importer Reference.
A Google API key for text generation, entered under the Settings subtab. Your dealership owns this key.
Content Studio must be included in your licence. If it is not, the page shows a single "Content Studio is not active for this license" card and no settings, key field or generation controls are rendered. Contact ADP Car Market Hub support to enable it.

The three Content Studio subtabs

1. Create post

This is where you produce a post. Working top to bottom:

Find the vehicle. Use the filter bar (Make, Model, Status and a free-text search) to narrow the vehicle list, then select the vehicle you want to promote. The list is paginated for large inventories.
Choose a format. Formats are grouped by platform. The active formats are: - Facebook — Facebook Post - Instagram — Instagram Feed Caption, Instagram Story Overlay - TikTok — TikTok Hook and Caption - Google Business Profile — Google Business Profile Post - WhatsApp — WhatsApp Sales Message - Newsletter — Dealership Newsletter Teaser - Website — Website Teaser Block
Choose a tone. The tone controls writing style only. Regional automotive wording (for example Swiss Garage, German Autohaus, French concessionnaire) is applied automatically based on the selected output language, so you do not set it here.
Choose one or more languages. You can generate the same post in several languages at once; one post is produced per selected language.
Generate. When you generate, the post is created and — if a Google API key is stored — generated immediately in one step. The finished text package appears below, ready to copy. If no key is stored yet, the job is created as a draft and a reminder tells you to add a key in Settings.

A status pill at the top of this subtab reads System ready when both a Google API key and at least one vehicle are present, or Setup required with a shortcut to Settings otherwise.

2. Library

The Library subtab is your archive of generated content. Each generated post is shown as a card with its vehicle, platform and language, and (where available) its generated marketing image. You can:

Filter by Vehicle, Platform, Language, Status (Ready, Draft, Scheduled, Failed, Archived) or a free-text Search.
Open a card to review and copy the generated text package.
Delete an individual saved item you no longer need.

Bulk cleanup is not yet available; remove items one at a time using the Delete action on each card.

3. Settings

The Settings subtab holds everything that applies to every generated post. It is grouped into three cards:

Google connection — Enter the Google API key (stored encrypted; leave the field empty to keep the existing key). A checkbox lets you remove the stored key. The card header shows whether a key is currently stored.
Brand voice — Set the Default language, the Default tone, and an optional Dealer brand voice (a short, factual description of how your dealership usually speaks in posts, up to 800 characters). Do not put secrets, prices or finance terms here.
Compliance and disclaimer — Set an optional Default disclaimer text (up to 500 characters, e.g. "Price changes and prior sale reserved") and optional Compliance notes (up to 1000 characters, e.g. "Never mention specific finance rates"). These mandatory rules always override both the tone and the brand voice.

Setting up the Google API key

Content Studio generates text (and, for some formats, draft images) with Google Gemini, and it uses an API key that your dealership owns. This is different from the AI Assistant on the AI Assistant Reference page, which uses a managed key provisioned by AD Promotion. For Content Studio you supply and manage the key yourself, and any Google usage or billing runs on your own Google account.

1. Obtain a Google API key (Gemini API)

Go to Google AI Studio (https://aistudio.google.com) and sign in with the Google account you want to use for billing and usage.
Open the API keys area and choose Create API key (creating or selecting a Google Cloud project if prompted).
Copy the generated key. Treat it like a password — anyone with the key can use your Google quota.

Google occasionally changes the exact wording and layout of these screens. If the steps differ, look for "Gemini API" / "API key" in Google AI Studio.

2. Store the key in Content Studio

In WordPress, open CMH Center → Content Studio and click the Settings subtab.
In the Google connection card, paste the key into the Google API key field.
Click Save Google connection. The key is stored encrypted; for security the full key is never shown again — the card simply reports that a key is stored.

3. Confirm it is active

The Google connection status card at the top of Content Studio changes from Missing to Ready.
The Create post subtab no longer shows "Setup required"; once a vehicle is also available it reads System ready and generation runs immediately when you create a post.

Replacing or removing the key

Replace: enter a new key and save. Leaving the field empty on save keeps the existing key (so saving other settings never wipes it).
Remove: tick Remove stored key and save. Generation is then disabled until a new key is stored; your existing generated content is left untouched.

If you generate a post before a key is stored, Content Studio still creates the job as a draft and shows the reminder "Add a Google API key in settings to enable generation."

Configuration reference

Setting	Where	Notes
Google API key	Settings → Google connection	Owned by your dealership, stored encrypted. Required for text generation.
Default language	Settings → Brand voice	The language pre-selected on the Create post subtab.
Default tone	Settings → Brand voice	Writing style only; regional wording follows the output language.
Dealer brand voice	Settings → Brand voice	Optional, max 800 characters. Overridden by compliance rules.
Default disclaimer text	Settings → Compliance and disclaimer	Optional, max 500 characters. Always applied.
Compliance notes	Settings → Compliance and disclaimer	Optional, max 1000 characters. Always override tone and brand voice.

Operational notes

Content Studio is read-only towards the rest of the plugin: it reads vehicle data and writes only to its own Content Studio records. Generating content never changes a vehicle, a lead or a published page.
The plugin does not post to social networks. Content Studio produces text (and, for some formats, a draft marketing image) that you copy and publish manually.
Generation depends on Google's service and your API key. Generation can fail if the key is missing, invalid or rate-limited; failed items appear with a Failed status in the Library.
The social sharing buttons that visitors see on vehicle pages are a separate feature configured under Design & Styles, not in Content Studio. See Design And Styles Reference.

Troubleshooting

The status card shows "Google connection: Missing". Open the Settings subtab and enter a valid Google API key.
The Create post button says "Setup required". Either no Google API key is stored or there are no vehicles in the inventory. Add a key in Settings and confirm at least one vehicle has been imported.
A generated item shows "Failed". The generation request did not complete. Confirm the Google API key is valid and not rate-limited, then generate the post again.
The whole page shows "Content Studio is not active for this license". Content Studio is not included in your current licence. Contact ADP Car Market Hub support to enable it.
Generated wording ignores my brand voice. Compliance notes and the disclaimer always override the brand voice. Check that your brand-voice guidance does not conflict with a compliance rule.