Google Tests Tracking Offline Purchases

It’s no surprise that Google monitors our online shopping habits. Keeping track of internet purchases is the only way to tailor online advertisements according to our individual needs, interests, and tastes. Recent trends, however, show that the multinational tech company has started tracking offline shopping behavior as well.

The Connection Between Physical and Digital Purchases

Google announced a new tool to track how much money people spend at brick-and-mortar stores after clicking their online ads. In other words, if you see a social media ad for a well-known department store’s upcoming sale, click on the link to learn more, and then physically drive to the store to do your shopping, Google will know about it. The company can now examine specific items purchased in person following a digital ad click, along with how much money an individual spends.

Credit and Debit Card Data

Google already has access to 70 percent of credit and debit card sales in the United States through partnerships with data-tracking companies. With the ability to match ad clicks with this data, Google can inform merchants when digital ads translate to in-store sales. Before this new technology, when a customer clicked on an ad and purchased something in the store, the advertiser might have assumed the ad was a waste of money. This is good news for the retailer, which now has more accurate information regarding each marketing campaign. The technology can potentially boost a company’s ROI and make it easier to identify effective social advertising and marketing campaigns.

Naturally, privacy concerns have arisen because certain data can be converted back in ways that can identify individuals, but protections are in place, including the fact that Google is blocked from seeing personal information held by partners.

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