
Google foot traffic data can help you understand your customers' behavior and preferences. This data provides insights into how people interact with your business, including the times of day and days of the week they visit.
By analyzing this data, you can determine the busiest times of day and week for your business, and plan accordingly to maximize customer engagement. For example, if your data shows that most customers visit your store on Saturdays between 10am and 2pm, you can adjust your staffing and inventory to meet the demand.
Google foot traffic data can also help you identify patterns in customer behavior, such as whether they tend to visit your business during lunch breaks or after work. This information can be used to tailor your marketing and promotions to reach your customers at the times when they are most likely to be interested.
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Understanding Google Foot Traffic Data
Google Maps offers helpful indicators of foot traffic, such as the number of direction requests and popular visit times.
To track foot traffic in Google Analytics, you need to have your Google Ads and Analytics accounts linked, as well as Google My Business listings for at least two locations.
You can set up Google Signals to track foot traffic by signing in to your Google Analytics account, selecting a property, and clicking on the admin tab.
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Why Maps for Insights
Maps for insights are a powerful tool for businesses and organizations. They provide a visual representation of Google foot traffic data, helping to identify trends and patterns.
Google Maps offers a feature called "Google Foot Traffic" that allows users to view the number of people visiting a specific location over time. This data is based on aggregated and anonymized information from Google users who have enabled location history.
By analyzing this data, businesses can determine the busiest times of day or week, and make informed decisions about staffing and resource allocation.
Google's foot traffic data is also useful for understanding how different events, such as holidays or weather patterns, impact foot traffic. For example, a ski resort may see a significant increase in foot traffic during winter months.
Maps can also be used to identify areas of high foot traffic, and visualize the movement of people between different locations. This can help businesses identify potential opportunities for expansion or marketing.
Google's foot traffic data is only available for locations that have been visited by a significant number of people, typically at least 10,000 per month.
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Supporting Data
Google's research reveals that 76% of people who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a business within 24 hours.
According to Google, 28% of local searches result in a purchase, making online actions a significant driver of in-store visits.
These statistics highlight the importance of having a strong online presence, especially for local businesses.
Google's data shows that people are more likely to visit a business after conducting a local search, making it a crucial aspect of a business's marketing strategy.
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Measuring and Tracking Foot Traffic
Measuring and tracking foot traffic is a crucial aspect of understanding how your business is performing offline. Google Maps offers helpful indicators like the number of direction requests and popular visit times.
Direction clicks on Google Maps can be a strong indicator of foot traffic, but they are not a guaranteed measure. Several factors can influence whether the person actually follows through with the visit.
Google Store Visits provides a great way of tracking offline footfall in order to improve your shopping experience. To enable Google Store Visits tracking, your account must be eligible, and no additional steps are required.
The accuracy of offline attribution is ensured by Google, who have surveyed over 5 million users who have visited a store, validating first-hand that they did in fact visit. Google claims their in-store attribution is now 99 percent accurate.
Google Ads account for 97% of Google's total revenue, and people are four times more likely to click an ad on Google than on any other search engine. This makes Google Ads a major driver of online exposure for brands and retailers.
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To track foot traffic in Google Analytics, you must have your Google Ads + Analytics accounts linked, and Google My Business listings for 2+ locations. This allows you to set up Google Signals and track store visits.
Here's a summary of the requirements for tracking foot traffic in Google Analytics:
- Google Ads + Analytics accounts linked
- Google My Business listings for 2+ locations
By following these steps and requirements, you can start tracking your offline footfall and improving your shopping experience.
Enhancing Ads with Location Extensions
Enhancing Ads with Location Extensions can help drive foot traffic to your store. You can use geo-targeting to focus your ads on customers near your location, which can lead to higher conversion rates and more in-store visits.
By using location-based advertising, you can indirectly measure foot traffic. Google Maps may not offer detailed foot traffic data, but location extensions can help you reach the right customers at the right time.
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Enhance Ads with Location Extensions
Google Ads can be a powerful tool for driving foot traffic to your store. By using geo-targeting, you can focus your ads on customers near your location, which can lead to higher conversion rates and more in-store visits.
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Google Ads account for 97% of Google's total revenue, and people are four times more likely to click an ad on Google than on any other search engine. This makes Google Ads a major driver of online exposure for brands and retailers.
To measure the impact of Google Ads on store foot traffic, you can use the Google Store Visits metric. This metric has already measured over one billion store visits since December 2014.
Target found that one out of every three clicks on its mobile search resulted in a store visit, causing the company to boost mobile search spending. This shows the potential of using Google Ads to drive foot traffic to your store.
Here are some key facts about Google Ads and store foot traffic:
- 96% of brands spend money on Google Ads
- Google Ads account for 97% of Google’s total revenue
- People are four times more likely to click an ad on Google than on any other search engine
- Google Shopping Ads account for almost 86% of combined clicks for Adwords and Google Shopping campaigns
By using location extensions and geo-targeting, you can enhance your Google Ads and drive more foot traffic to your store.
Local Inventory Ads
Local Inventory Ads are a game-changer for retailers, allowing them to drive sales in-store by making local inventory and other vital information readily available to consumers.
Mobile queries for 'Where to buy' + 'near me' have grown by over 200% in the past two years, indicating a strong demand for in-store shopping experiences.
Consumers want to shop in-store, but on one condition: it must be convenient. Shoppers within 5 miles of a store are 1.7x more likely to visit after seeing the ad than those who are further away.
Google's Local Inventory Ads can help retailers tap into this trend by driving footfall through its local inventory ads, which are similar to regular Google PPC ads but with the objective of driving sales in-store.
By leveraging Local Inventory Ads, retailers can provide convenient, customer-first experiences that meet the changing needs of consumers.
Offline Attribution and Accuracy
Google's offline attribution accuracy is a game-changer for businesses. They've surveyed over 5 million users who have visited a store, validating that they indeed visited, and claim their in-store attribution is now 99 percent accurate.
This level of accuracy is impressive, especially considering the complexities of online-to-offline purchase attribution. Google's experience shows a strong correlation between spend and efficacy when configuring campaigns and using in-store conversion.
Larger budgets generally show a clearer lift sooner, as the behavior isn't washed out in short-term trends. However, smaller budgets or businesses with limited store visits may struggle to see a significant impact.
Ensuring Offline Attribution Accuracy
Google advises that their in-store attribution is now 99 percent accurate after surveying over 5 million users who have visited a store.
This level of accuracy is a significant improvement, allowing businesses to rely on the data to inform their marketing strategies.
Google's experience shows that when campaigns are properly configured and in-store conversion is used, a strong correlation alignment between spend and efficacy is seen.
This correlation holds up across categories and brands, but there is one exception: when testing Offline Conversions for the first time with a small budget or for a small business that doesn't get enough visits.
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In these cases, the incremental sales can get "washed out" by external factors like weather, time of day, or local traffic issues.
However, larger budgets tend to show a more clear lift sooner, as the behavior isn't affected by short-term trends.
Google presented several case studies during its keynote, including Target, Nissan UK, and Seven & i Holdings in Japan, to illustrate how factoring in offline visits can dramatically increase ROI.
Offline visits boost mobile search ROI
Offline visits boost mobile search ROI. In fact, once the connection between search ads and incremental offline visits is revealed, ROI dramatically increases. Google presented several case studies during its keynote to illustrate this point.
Target, Nissan UK, and Seven & i Holdings in Japan were brand examples used to show the value of capturing offline store visits. These case studies highlighted the importance of considering offline visits when evaluating the effectiveness of mobile search ads.
The average consumer spends 13 days researching a product before making a purchase. This statistic makes a solid case for a multi-channel strategy that includes offline attribution.
Google Ads have been shown to be successful, with a few key stats that reflect their effectiveness.
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Enabling Visit Tracking
Enabling Visit Tracking is a straightforward process, and you don't need to take any steps to start seeing "Store visits" statistic in your account. As long as your account is eligible, your "Store visits" data will automatically start showing up.
To be eligible for Google Store Visits tracking, you must have your Google Ads + Analytics accounts linked, and Google My Business listings for 2+ locations. This is a one-time setup that will give you access to valuable insights on offline footfall.
The good news is that you don't need to do anything extra to enable tracking - just make sure your accounts are linked and your listings are in place. Sometimes, it may take a few days for the "Store Visits" conversion goal to show up, but with the right setup, you'll be able to track offline footfall in no time.
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Enable Visit Tracking
To enable visit tracking, you'll need to link your Google Ads and Analytics accounts. This requires you to have Google My Business listings for 2+ locations.

Google Store Visits will automatically start showing up in your account if it's eligible, but you'll need to enable and activate location extensions or affiliate location extensions on your ads.
Your campaigns must be set to show extensions, and your ads must pass a certain threshold of ad clicks or impressions – a good ballpark figure is 100,000 monthly clicks.
The process is relatively straightforward: sign in to your Google Analytics account, select the property you want to track, and click on the admin tab on the left. From there, click on "Tracking Info" and "Data Collection" to activate Google Signals.
You may need to wait a few days for the "Store Visits" conversion goal to show up, and up to 60 days to start seeing conversions. But the sooner you get it set up, the better.
Here are the minimum eligibility criteria to see "Store visits" in your account:
- Have a physical brick-and-mortar store in an eligible country
- Store location should not be “sensitive” (e.g. related to healthcare, religion, sexual content, or children)
- You must enable and activate location extensions or affiliate location extensions on your ads. Your campaigns must be set to show extensions.
- Your ads must pass a certain threshold of ad clicks or impressions - this varies by advertiser but 100,000 monthly clicks is a good ballpark figure.
This will allow you to track offline footfall and improve your shopping experience.
What Is Visits?

Google Store Visits is Google's attempt to link your store's offline footfall to your customers' prior exposure to Google Ads. It's a way to track the impact of your online advertising on in-store visits.
The average consumer spends 13 days researching a product before making a purchase, and Google Ads can be a great way to reach them at each stage of their journey. This makes a solid case for a multi-channel strategy.
Google Store Visits tries to make the consumer journey more transparent by linking online exposure to offline footfall. It's powered by your product data feed, which is crucial for surfacing your ads in front of relevant online shoppers.
A high-quality data feed is key to ad performance, so make sure yours is in good shape. If you're unsure, consider getting a free product feed audit to identify areas for improvement.
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Digital Impact on Physical Stores
Consumers often use a variety of channels to decide what to buy, including Google Shopping, third-party marketplaces, and physical stores.
In 13 days, a consumer is likely to use multiple channels to make a purchase decision.
Going to a nearby physical store is a common option for consumers.
Google Shopping and third-party marketplaces can drive online-to-offline visits to physical stores.
An omnichannel strategy can help track these online-to-offline visits.
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Defining Key Terms
Google foot traffic data is a measure of the number of people walking into a physical store or location. It's a way to track the movement of people in the real world.
Google collects foot traffic data from a variety of sources, including mobile devices and GPS signals. This data is then used to create a picture of where people are going and how they're moving around.
Foot traffic is influenced by many factors, including the time of day, day of the week, and season. For example, foot traffic tends to be higher on weekends and during holidays.
Google's foot traffic data is based on anonymous and aggregated information, meaning that individual users' data is not identifiable or trackable. This ensures that the data remains private and secure.
Google uses machine learning algorithms to analyze foot traffic data and identify patterns and trends. This helps businesses understand their customer behavior and make data-driven decisions.
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