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 ready-to-post marketing content — text, images and short videos — for social media and other channels (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, 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 — text, a marketing image, or a short video.
• Pick the right platform format (for example a Facebook post versus an Instagram story, or a Facebook Reel versus a YouTube Short).
• Generate a short marketing video with Google Veo, optionally with a German voice-over.
• 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 produces a channel-ready content package: marketing text (caption, hashtags and, depending on the format, a call to action), a marketing image, and — for video formats — a short marketing video. 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 or download the generated content out of Content Studio and publish it on the channel of your choice; the plugin does not publish to social networks for you.

Text and image generation runs through Google's generative AI, and short videos are generated with Google Veo. 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 content is generated until a key is saved.

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

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, Marketing videos 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:

1. 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.
2. Choose a format. Formats are grouped into five categories. The active formats include: - Social text — Facebook Post, Instagram Feed Caption, Instagram Story Overlay, TikTok Hook and Caption, Google Business Profile Post, WhatsApp Sales Message. - Newsletter & website — Dealership Newsletter Teaser, Website Teaser Block. - Images — a generated marketing image for the vehicle. - Video — short marketing videos generated with Google Veo: for example Facebook Reel, YouTube Short, YouTube Video and a Vehicle gallery video. Videos are roughly 8 seconds long and are produced in 9:16 (vertical) or 16:9 (landscape) depending on the format. - Voice-over — an optional German voice-over that can be added to a generated video.

Some individual formats may be marked Coming soon; those cannot be generated yet, but the rest of the format catalogue is available.

1. 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.
2. Choose one or more languages. You can generate the same post in several languages at once; one post is produced per selected language.
3. For video formats, choose your options. A reference-photo picker lets you select one of the vehicle's photos to anchor the video, and you can enable the optional German voice-over.
4. Generate. When you click Generate post, the page returns immediately and shows a progress banner ("Generating your post…"). Generation runs in the background; when it finishes — usually after a few seconds per language for text, longer for video — the browser moves to the Library automatically and opens the finished content package, ready to copy or download. You can also navigate to the Library yourself while generation is still running: pending entries show a pulsing Generating… badge and the page refreshes on its own once the content is ready. If no key is stored yet, the job is created as a draft and a reminder tells you to add a key in Settings.

If Google is briefly unavailable or rate-limits the request, Content Studio retries automatically (up to three attempts with a short waiting time in between). You only see a Failed status when the problem is permanent — for example an invalid key — and even then the Retry button on the Library card lets you run the job again.

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 content package (Copy full post copies everything in one click), and preview or download any generated image or video.
• Download package (ZIP) — downloads one ZIP per item containing post.txt (the full post text), the generated marketing image or video (when one exists) and alt-text.txt with the image description. This is the fastest way to take everything to the social platform of your choice.
• Retry a failed item, or Delete an individual saved item you no longer need.

Entries that are still generating show a pulsing Generating… badge and update automatically — no manual refresh needed. 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. Below the field, a help box explains how to obtain a key and links to your Google usage and billing pages. Once a key is stored, two more elements appear:
• Verify key — a one-click connection check. It sends a single free metadata request (no tokens are consumed, nothing is billed) and reports either "Key works" or Google's exact error message, so key problems surface at setup time instead of at the first generation.
• Google API usage — a small table of the last three months: generated posts, tokens used and generated marketing images. This is transparency over what the plugin sent to Google; the authoritative billing always lives in your own Google account (the linked "Usage & Billing" page in Google AI Studio, or the Cloud Console billing page for Cloud keys).
• 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 images with Google Gemini and short videos with Google Veo, 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)

The recommended path is Google AI Studio:

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

Keys created directly in the Google Cloud Console (including the newer service-account-bound keys starting with AQ.) work as well, as long as the Gemini API (Generative Language API) is enabled for the key. Important: do not add an HTTP referrer restriction to the key — it blocks server requests from WordPress. Restrict by API (Gemini API) or by server IP instead.

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

1. In WordPress, open CMH Center → Content Studio and click the Settings subtab.
2. In the Google connection card, paste the key into the Google API key field.
3. 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

• Click Verify key in the Google connection card: a free metadata request confirms the key reaches the Gemini API ("Key works — N text models available."). If the key is invalid, restricted or the Gemini API is not enabled, the exact Google error message is shown instead.
• 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.

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

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, marketing images and short videos (with an optional German voice-over) that you copy — or download as a ZIP package — and publish manually.
• Generation runs asynchronously: the page never blocks while waiting for Google. Temporary problems (rate limits, brief outages) are retried automatically up to three times before an item is marked Failed.
• The AI model is fixed by the plugin (currently Gemini Flash, the fast and affordable text model). There is intentionally no model selector in the UI; integrators can override the model in code via the as24ci_content_studio_google_text_model filter.
• 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.
• I am not sure my key is set up correctly. Use Verify key in Settings → Google connection. It costs nothing and shows either "Key works" or Google's exact error (key invalid, Gemini API not enabled, referrer restriction, …).
• 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". Temporary problems are retried automatically, so a Failed status means the problem persisted (most often an invalid or restricted key). Run Verify key, fix the cause, then use Retry on the Library card.
• An entry stays on "Generating…" unusually long. Google was probably rate-limiting; Content Studio waits and retries on its own. If it still has not finished after a few minutes, reload the page and check the Content Studio log under Protokolle.
• 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.

Related documents

• Admin Menu Overview
• Settings Reference
• Car Importer Reference
• Design And Styles Reference
• Support Reference