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Google Store Visits Attribution Now Available in Google ANALYTICS!

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Ryan Everson

Ryan Everson

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Mar 21, 2012
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#1
Everyone probably already knows about the store visit metric that's been available in Google Ads, well now this same awesome functionality is available inside Google Analytics!

It isn't limited to tracking store visits from Google Ads, you can track store visits from every single website traffic source / medium (organic, bing, facebook, etc)

To access, login to Google Analytics and on the left hand side navigate to Conversion -> Store Visits. Right now it's in beta but will be rolling out to eligible users over the next couple weeks.

You can't get much better showroom visit attribution than this!

Below is a screenshot from one of our Analytics accounts. How do you guys plan to use this new data that's available?

store visits.JPG
 
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#2
reverson said:
Everyone probably already knows about the store visit metric that's been available in Google Ads, well now this same awesome functionality is available inside Google Analytics!

It isn't limited to tracking store visits from Google Ads, you can track store visits from every single website traffic source / medium (organic, bing, facebook, etc)

To access, login to Google Analytics and on the left hand side navigate to Conversion -> Store Visits. Right now it's in beta but will be rolling out to eligible users over the next couple weeks.

You can't get much better showroom visit attribution than this!

Below is a screenshot from one of our Analytics accounts. How do you guys plan to use this new data that's available?

View attachment 3923
Click to expand...
Ryan

The challenge here is separately fact from fiction. Over 80% of store visits I have analyzed associated with the SEM campaigns buying the dealership's name or location. So, once you see that, it is clear that Google is not efficient in bringing incremental new shoppers to the dealership's website. The shoppers it brings are likely cost effective, but Google is attempting to continue its story that it takes credit for the impact created by other brand influences. When you take the shoppers from GMB and Branded campaigns, many will come to the conclusions that the King has No Clothes.
 
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#3
brianpasch said:
Ryan

The challenge here is separately fact from fiction. Over 80% of store visits I have analyzed associated with the SEM campaigns buying the dealership's name or location. So, once you see that, it is clear that Google is not efficient in bringing incremental new shoppers to the dealership's website. The shoppers it brings are likely cost effective, but Google is attempting to continue its story that it takes credit for the impact created by other brand influences. When you take the shoppers from GMB and Branded campaigns, many will come to the conclusions that the King has No Clothes.
Click to expand...
Completely agree with you there, in this particular Google Ads account, 69% of our store visits came from brand ad campaigns.

However, we now have the ability to track store visits from EVERY source, not just Google Ads. So we can see how many store visits facebook traffic generates, referrals from cargurus generates, etc. Definitely a lot more powerful than just seeing the Google Ads store visit stats.
 
Dominion DMS
#5
reverson said:
...we now have the ability to track store visits from EVERY source, not just Google Ads. So we can see how many store visits facebook traffic generates, referrals from cargurus generates, etc. Definitely a lot more powerful than just seeing the Google Ads store visit stats.
Click to expand...

Ryan, you mentioned "referrals from cargurus". By referral do you mean a referral to a dealer's site, or, simply a "view thru cargurus" into the store? Plus, how deeply will Google reveal all the sites AND the engagement (e.g. KBB 3 visits & TOS)?

This performance visibility has the potential to become epically disruptive.
Change is in the air!!
 
#6
brianpasch said:
Ryan

The challenge here is separately fact from fiction. Over 80% of store visits I have analyzed associated with the SEM campaigns buying the dealership's name or location. So, once you see that, it is clear that Google is not efficient in bringing incremental new shoppers to the dealership's website. The shoppers it brings are likely cost effective, but Google is attempting to continue its story that it takes credit for the impact created by other brand influences. When you take the shoppers from GMB and Branded campaigns, many will come to the conclusions that the King has No Clothes.
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I would agree with that statement. They are trying to take credit for something that isn't creditworthy. Totally biased.

As far as CarGurus attribition and other channels etc.,
  1. Why not break out the Automotive Channels through Custom Channel Groups? Ad your spend (inject it into Analytics, Adwords / Ads will automatically do it if it is connected) and the correct attribution model (MTA) and look at your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) with Last Touch vs. MTA.
  2. The same should be said of the Store Visits area, once you define this stuff, Your image shows "Default Channel Grouping." I bet if you expand it with a Custom Automotive Channel Grouping, it will expand the shit out of the results (don't rely on Google to know the referral).

I do like that Google Attribution will pull both Analytics and Ads / Adwords data. The ultimate triumvirate.

reverson said:
Completely agree with you there, in this particular Google Ads account, 69% of our store visits came from brand ad campaigns.

However, we now have the ability to track store visits from EVERY source, not just Google Ads. So we can see how many store visits facebook traffic generates, referrals from cargurus generates, etc. Definitely a lot more powerful than just seeing the Google Ads store visit stats.
Click to expand...
I would guess it rarely deviates from this as well. Branded rarely loses.

BTW, see how much better this is, a Title / Subject for us to easily find than buried in your own thread... ;-)
 
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Dominion DMS
#7
joe.pistell said:
Ryan, you mentioned "referrals from cargurus". By referral do you mean a referral to a dealer's site, or, simply a "view thru cargurus" into the store? Plus, how deeply will Google reveal all the sites AND the engagement (e.g. KBB 3 visits & TOS)?

This performance visibility has the potential to become epically disruptive.
Change is in the air!!
Click to expand...
Hey Joe, any website traffic that shows up in Google Analytics will now have store visit stats. So unfortunately it would only show cargurus referral traffic, ie: someone clicks the visit dealer website button on cargurus.

This is still immensely valuable because instead of only being able to view store visit conversions for Google Ads, we can now track it for every single traffic source.

For example, you can now see how many showroom visits come from each campaign URL you tag with UTM codes.
 
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