For businesses that sell both in physical stores and online, it can sometimes be difficult to measure the full value of advertising. When a user closes the browser and continues their journey offline, our ability to track the purchase and measure the value of any ad clicks also disappears. However, there are methods to get closer to the truth—here we share a few of them.
Traffic that costs – but might convert?
Some argue that many customers do their research digitally and then purchase the product in the nearest store to avoid delivery time. Others may believe that non-converting traffic is simply unprofitable and instead reflects different behavior across different target groups. Regardless of what the truth is, it can be difficult to assign a fair value to traffic from Google Ads, especially if you have many physical locations. If all we have is standard conversion tracking, we can only speculate. However, there are certain reports we can use to make the hypothesis slightly more credible.
Conversion rate in store-adjacent areas
Using the reporting tools in Google Ads, we can generate a geographic report that shows conversion rates broken down by area. We recommend using the attribute “Most specific location target,” meaning the most specific geographic data Google had access to at the time of collection. In many cases, we can see data down to the municipality level—and this is where things can get interesting. It is not uncommon for the report to show a lower conversion rate in areas close to physical stores. Is that a coincidence? It could be. Another possible explanation is that, at the point of purchase, the customer realizes there is a nearby store and is simply too impatient to wait for delivery. As with all analysis, make sure you have sufficient data before drawing conclusions. A low conversion rate does not say much if the total number of clicks is only ten, for example.
Store Visits
Another way to get a sense of how search advertising contributes to in-store conversions is through Store Visits. Store Visits is a conversion action in Google Ads used to measure the number of store visits after a user has interacted with an ad. This KPI can, of course, be very interesting. With insights into in-store behavior, such as average order value, we can also estimate the revenue these visits generate. Google will automatically start reporting Store Visits, but there are several requirements that must be met to qualify as an advertiser.
- Store Visits is only available in selected countries. Sweden is one of them.
- Have multiple physical stores.
- Have received thousands of clicks and impressions.
- Have a Google My Business profile linked to Google Ads.
- Have registered all physical stores in Google My Business.
- Have verified at least 90% of your linked locations in Google My Business.
- Have location extensions enabled in the account.
- And finally, “have sufficient store visit data to attribute visits to ad clicks or viewable impressions and meet our user privacy thresholds.” – Google.
“Click and collect” as a delivery method
Perhaps the most effective solution to this problem is to offer “Click and collect,” or “pick up in store.” Offering online customers the option to complete their purchase on the website and pick up the product in-store has become increasingly common in recent years. In addition to saving on delivery costs and being more environmentally friendly, there are other advantages—most notably attribution. Instead of the customer closing the browser and forcing us to speculate about what happens next, we can see completed purchases and assign value to the keywords that contributed. We gain a better understanding of the customer and purchase journey, can evaluate the channel more fairly, and make more accurate optimization decisions. It might even be worth offering some form of “online discount” initially to encourage more customers to choose this option.
Key takeaways
- Be curious and find new ways to analyze your data. Discuss with others.
- Make sure you have enough data for the analysis to be reliable.
- Check whether you meet the requirements for Store Visits.
- Consider whether “Click and collect” or a similar solution could be right for you.
Good luck with your online and in-store sales!
