The digitalisation of society has changed the way we interact with the world. We turn to our mobile phones to get inspiration for our next trip abroad, learn how to assemble the new kitchen table or research the release of the latest TV device. We shop with our mobile phones too. In Sweden, 42%1 of people say they’ve bought a product via their smartphones, and mobile purchases are growing fast. Yet 9 out of 10 purchases still happen in a brick-and-mortar store in Scandinavia.2
Ever since the dawn of the Internet, companies have wondered about the impact of online marketing on offline sales. Connecting the two worlds has been considered a hallmark for online marketing. We are therefore very proud to announce that store visits is coming to Sweden, Denmark and Norway this autumn, which will help advertisers do just that.
Store visits is a measurement feature in AdWords that helps advertisers to understand how search ads are driving people to their stores. When a user clicks on a search ad, has Location History enabled, and then visits a store; it’s calculated as a store visit. The data is based on aggregated, anonymised data from a representative sample set of users which is then extrapolated to represent the broader population. Store visits data is only shown in AdWords if it reaches a strict, highly conservative confidence level.
Store visits opens up a variety of possibilities to optimise your advertisements. Early results from our beta clients in Scandinavia show exciting insights. For example, product categories that contain more expensive, complex products and services to a larger extent renders a store visit than low-involvement product and vice versa. It makes sense that we also want to research the product physically and perhaps talk to the clerk for a second opinion. Another interesting finding emerged when segmenting on device types. It revealed that ads on mobile phones drive more people into stores than ads on laptops and tablets. Naturally, on the go we’re closer to the store. This may help explain the lower performance advertisers experience from mobile traffic. After all, 30% of all mobile searches are related to location.3
During the autumn, we will roll out store visits to more advertisers. To make sure you don’t miss out on understanding how your online search advertising affects the footfall to your stores, please follow the the below guidelines:
- Setup a Google My Business account and list all your stores (you need several stores for this product as of now) in eligible countries.
- Link it to your Google AdWords account and activate Location Extensions
- Receive thousands of ad clicks and store visits in order to get the sufficient stats to surface the store visits data
For more information on how store visits work, read our article in Search Engine Land or visit our Help Center.
