The Future of Conversion Tracking: Store Visits

June 12th 2019 by Director of Paid Search

With an experienced digital advertising partner, you can track calls, emails, and form leads, but what about actual sales that happen? In order to solve the mystery of what happens after the click, Google has unveiled what they call Store Visits. Store Visits help you connect the digital picture to the physical one. For the first time, businesses are now able to fully connect real-world customer actions to their online marketing.

This is BIG for any local business, law firm, or dealership marketing strategy!


How Do In-Store Visits Work?

Your cellphone can trigger a conversion when you visit the business you previously searched. In short, Google uses your location history, click data, Google sign-ins, and cross-device data to track store visits. Google states that this additional visits measurement is more than 99% accurate.

Better Ad Engagement

Having more accurate measurements from Google ads lets us better optimize for more meaningful conversions. Google campaigns using store visits data have seen as much as a 25x increase in return on ad spend. Knowing which keywords and ads are generating visits allows us to optimize campaigns for the best real-life results.

Time Matters

The time between a click and a visit matters, but so does time spent at the business. Google takes a few precautions with how they attribute visits. Google excludes data for anyone that spends less than a minute within the business they are visiting. Google also knows how to filter out employees, too. Their algorithm will exclude anyone who spends a long time (more than what they consider a normal number of hours) at the store. Google also excludes anyone who visits too frequently, like a mail delivery person, for example.

The time between a click and visit measurement is also limited. Google only counts visits that happen within 30 days of an ad click, making sure your lowest funnel prospects are accounted for.

Who is Eligible for Store Visits Matching?

Only businesses with verified locations and linked Google My Business, Analytics, and AdWords accounts can reap the benefits of Store Visits. Advertisers must maintain a certain number of ad impressions and customer visits per month to be eligible.

Google Store Visits is still in Beta, meaning it still isn't available to everyone just yet.


Do You Need Additional Equipment for Store Visits Tracking?

No additional equipment is needed to track Store Visits. Data comes in through Wi-Fi, cellular towers, IP addresses, and Bluetooth connections. The data is then anonymized for customer privacy and attributed back to your campaigns.


Where Can You Find My Store Visits Data?

Store Visit data is linked to your Google Ads account. Currently, less than 1% of advertisers have access to Google's Store Visits technology. Click Here Digital is part of Google's inclusive Store Visits rollout.


Want to see if you qualify for Store Visits tracking? Contact us today!

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