Pay Per Click Advertising drives 6 times more offline sales than online sales – US Study Reveals

For every $1 in online sales generated from PPC advertising, $6 is generated from in-store sales.  This is according to US Retail Market Research Firm, Revtrax. RevTrax also revealed that 89% of conusmers pre-shop by conducting research online but less than 7% of sales take place online.  These statistics were based on a 2 year study conducted by RevTrax analysing the Impact of Online Advertising on In-Store Sales. While many commentators have previously spoken about the impact of PPC on offline sales; this study is the first time its impact has been measured on such a large scale.

Revtrax tracked in-store sales through use of printable coupons with a unique identifier. When users clicked on PPC ads they were brought through to a landing page that allowed them to print a coupon to be used in-store. Coupons used in-store were traced back to the keyword used during the online search.

What does this mean for Irish businesses? Firstly, businesses where possible should attempt to use Pay Per Click advertising to push sales offline and not just through e-commerce. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, this study truly dismisses the myth that you have to sell online in order to reap the benefits of Pay Per Click Advertising.

The biggest challenge in promoting offline sales through PPC has been tractability. The effects of PPC on offline sales have remained hidden to advertisers. This is beginning to improve with growth in Smartphone penetration. Google have recently made Google Check-in Offers available for Google+ users on Android devices. The feature allows Businesses with a Google Places Page to target mobile users by making offers to Google+ users checking in at their location. Mike Blumenthal recently wrote a Blog Post on how to setup Google Places Check-in offers. At the moment the feature is only available to US Advertisers.

Jason

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By: JasonKellyDate: 19.12.2011
Posted in Google Search, Google+ No Comments »