Google expanding store visitation and local conversion reporting

Google has begun an expanded rollout of store visits reporting for AdWords (soon to be called Google Ads) customers of all sizes that provides performance breakouts by individual store locations.

Marketers will be able to see in-person visits to their physical stores and other types of “offline” conversions associated with each business location:

The per-store report shows you an estimate of how many in-person visits you’re getting for each of your physical locations, and conversions from other shop-specific actions – like phone calls, website visits, getting driving directions and more. Using this information, you can move your budget around to increase the performance of shops that are already successful, or to shops that require more support.

The following are the additional offline actions or engagements included by default in the reports, in addition to physical store visits:

• Calls — clicks on call buttons.
• Directions — clicks on “get directions” buttons.
• Website visits — clicks on website links associated with location-based ads.
• Orders — clicks on “order” buttons.
• Menu actions — clicks on menu links.
• Other actions — “Clicks on other tracked user actions (for example: share location, save, etc.) on any Google location-based ad or service after an ad interaction.”

In order to access the data (in the new interface only), advertisers select the desired campaigns and then Locations in the left navigation, then click the “Geographic report drop-down” and “per-store report.” For more details, see the Help Center page.

Google told us that all customers using location extensions (all geographies) should be able to access these reports by the end of July. It’s not only available to enterprises but small business customers as well. Google stressed that all visitation data is “aggregated and anonymous.”

Previously, store visit conversion reporting was only available to large enterprise customers with multiple store locations that had “thousands of ad clicks and viewable impressions.” Advertisers seeking to tap the new reporting will still need to have Google My Business accounts linked to their AdWords accounts. And, as mentioned, location extensions must be active.

This expansion of offline visitation and conversion reporting further mainstreams the connection between online research and offline purchase behavior that has been years in the making. To get a complete picture of online-to-offline activity, however, marketers also need to consult Google My Business Insights reporting.