GMB ranking factors?

Was wondering if there are ways to boost the GMB up above the competition? New to GMB, but found an awesome method that I'm going to try out. Wondering if people can tell me what kind of dynamics G determines which GMB ranks first?

Assuming the typical ratings, reviews, -social media shares?

Anything that might not be obvious helps.Thanks.

Local traffic have helped me a lot.
Of course a nice GMB profile.

Branding - profiles with citation
GEO Tags
Google Custom Maps
Citation Audit
Citations... Match your citations against your competition only if more than 2-3 are using the same one.

Beyond that if a citation is relevant... meaning it's a citation site that's the same thing you are promoting
then get on it. Don't get all the garbage everyone is getting.

From there having people search for your brand and click on it will help. (USA traffic is best).

Also making sure you post weekly in GMB, getting on Bing, Yahoo, Yandex and AppleMaps will help. And fill out your listings completely

Scholarship links are good but only if they are truly in the area...

Super relevant directories (only a handful)
Super relevant comments (10+ max)

Map Embeds

PBN / Map Embeds

Then you can get a few Google reviews...
BUT, make sure they add your main keywords in the
review. You don't need many.

This should keep you busy and give you an extreme boost.
If you do the branding+citations right, many times you'll rank with just that.

I do all the time.

Make sure your website is optimized, good content, good structure, good website speed and so on... Busines NAP info on every page... Claim your GMB listing and make sure there is no duplicates.. use the same information across the web... Concentrate on good citations, quality over quantity... good web profiles, active blog on your site etc