If you’re a digital marketer (or, honestly, pretty much anyone) you know much of today’s purchases — surprise! — are online. But, despite this rise, shopping in person is still a huge part of how things are done. Sure, buzzword-heavy tech stars might try to convince you brick-and-mortar establishments are obsolete, but the reality is that — while in-person stores are no longer the sole place to shop — they are still where 90% of purchases happen, plus their conversion rate tends to be greater than their online counterparts. With this in mind Google in-store conversion tracking helps you track efficiency and more, giving you access to some of the same precision data we normally associate with e-commerce.

What is in-store conversion tracking and how does it work?

In-store conversions are tracked based on a customer’s phone location and previous ad interactions. (It should be noted, since it relies on mobile location to understand behavior, unless a retailer has cross-device tracking enabled for customers, in-store conversions cannot be tracked based on a user’s prior ad interactions on a computer. After all, it’s not super common for people to go shopping while carrying a laptop around.)

The basic process for tracking is started when someone uses their phone or any device where they are logged into a specific google account, to interact with an ad online. Google then can identify that interaction and, with Google Maps’ GPS, can tell if/when that users phone ends up in the store corresponding to that ad. It’s kind of like how astronomers can’t track a black hole but can track the behavior of objects around it — Google can’t track an actual human, but it can track the phone that goes everywhere with them.

In order to identify which store visitors are relevant, Google considers the length of each user’s visit. This differentiates between applicable and non-applicable users, such as people just walking through a location (who are there very briefly) or employees (who are there for quite a long time). What in-store tracking doesn’t determine is whether a purchase was made, or which specific ad may have initiated a user’s in-store visit.

So, why does it matter?

To get a sense for the effectiveness and conversion rate, there’s a handful of stats available. A Google case study with Nissan UK found that 6% of mobile ad clicks resulted in an in-store visit, and PetSmart data revealed that 10-18% of customers who clicked a search ad then visited a store within 30 days.

That might not sound like a high rate but, when you have ads visible to so many people, it’s quite a significant amount of new shoppers who likely wouldn’t be there otherwise. And, most importantly, people who search on mobile end up buying more during an in-store visit than they would have had they just bought online. So not only are you getting a large amount of people to enter your store, but you’re benefiting from a higher volume of income per in-store visitor than you’d get if they purchased online.

In general, tracking in-store conversions helps you understand the effectiveness of your ads; by showing the correlation between ad clicks and store visits, you can find out if your ads are bringing in less people than is ideal — and, subsequently, can get a head start on re-imagining your ad campaign to be more effective.

Furthermore, in-store conversions can be attributed to PPC ads which hasn’t been possible until now.

Cool. But also, what goes into making it work?

We mentioned earlier that Google uses GPS to track, which is true. It’s not a comprehensive explanation for how the whole system functions. The other variables from which Google draws data includes Bluetooth low energy beacons (also used to track phones), Google Maps, Google Street View data and WiFi signal to understand a businesses’ locations.

Google’s gigantic storage of data has allowed them to compile a comprehensive list of store locations, primarily via Maps and Street View. This means they know almost exactly where your store is, and it ensures that people who are simply nearby are not included in your in-store conversion list.

Beacons, on the other hand, are products bought through Google which communicate with phones. It’s through beacons that you can provide special offers to people in your store via their phones. It’s also through beacons that Google determines what your “busy hours” are that show up on your Google My Business profile. (Speaking of Google My Business, we recently published a rundown on it that you might find useful.) Having a beacon doesn’t instantly make you eligible to track store visits. Here’s what does make you eligible, and how to get started:

Setting up in-store conversion tracking

So, if a beacon isn’t enough, what else do you need? Google has a few requirements that advertisers must meet to be eligible. For digestibility’s sake, we’ll just list them out:

• Your business must have multiple physical locations
• Your ads must receive thousands of clicks and viewable impressions
• Your Google My Business and Google Ads accounts must be linked
• At least 90% of your linked locations must be verified on Google My Business
• Your location extension must be active and running on Google Ads

Once you’ve met these requirements, Google then needs to make sure your ads and business have enough data to be properly recorded. Then you’re good to go!

In the end, while not all businesses are eligible to track-in store visits (mostly when they’re too small and don’t have enough data), this tool is fantastic for attributing PPC spend with real life visits to brick-and-mortar locations. Plus, in-store conversion tracking is great for determining which devices are the most effective for your business’ advertising. Lastly, it’s good to remember that people tend to make larger purchases when in-store versus online. Knowing how effective your ads are at bringing users into a store means you know how well you’re putting people in a position to generate more revenue for your business and knowing is half the battle.

At Fujisan Marketing, we can assist you with getting started with in-store conversions for PPC. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.