Google Metrics Closes 'Loop' Across Search, TV, YouTube, In-Store

Google will make several announcements Monday during Advertising Week related to measurements and metrics. While some aim to prove the lean-in influence of television and YouTube campaigns on search. Others focus on the impact of online ads to in-store visits and sales and remarketing across devices, apps and Web sites.


The features will roll out during the next few months.

Advertisers rely on search advertising to increase brand awareness and drive conversions for television and YouTube video ads. On Monday, Google will announce the forthcoming release of Brand Lift metrics to measure TV campaigns showing how television ads increase searches on Google and YouTube.

The tool measures the direct impact that YouTube ads have on consumer perception and behavior from the initial impression to the final conversion -- metrics such as brand awareness, ad recall, and consideration.

Early tests show that YouTube generates almost two times the searches per impression that TV generates, Brad Bender, Google VP of display and video advertising, wrote in a blog post. When running Brand Lift on both a TV campaign and a YouTube campaign, Google can report on the incremental searches for the brand, he wrote.

But Google's obsession to "close the loop" through measurement and metrics doesn't stop there. The series of announcements in New York also includes cross-device remarketing for Google Display Network and DoubleClick Bid Manager to help advertisers reach the same user across devices, apps, and sites.

"In addition to the interaction between TV, YouTube and online search, there is now a real connection between online ads and offline visits to stores," Bender wrote. "Thirty percent of smartphone users who visit a Web site or app on their phone buy something in a store within 24 hours."

Foot traffic in stores increase when the ad shows a business address, Google Maps directions and photo, per Bender.

The trend prompted Google to introduce what it calls location extensions and store visits measurement for the Google Display Network measures the impact of ads on actual visits to the store, hotel, auto dealership or restaurant.

Display ad location extensions for Home Depot reached consumers browsing their phones near the brand’s popular stores, delivering eight times the return on investment the stores.

Google also introduced cross-device remarketing for Google Display Network and DoubleClick Bid Manager to help connect with the same individual across devices, apps and sites. 

2 comments about "Google Metrics Closes 'Loop' Across Search, TV, YouTube, In-Store".
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  1. Doug Garnett from Protonik, LLC, September 26, 2016 at 1:55 p.m.

    Having worked quite a bit with Google metrics and even attempts by Google to attribute online action to TV advertising, I doubt if this has any significant value.

    Oh, they'll charge a lot of money and agencies will weave magical stories using buzzwords like "engagement" and "multi-screen metrics"... But Google doesn't have a track record of success in these metrics meaning anything. They only have a solid track record in using these metrics to make themselves a lot of money.

    in fact, even the pure online play marketers I know find Google's metrics incredibly spotty and weak - and not nearly as informative as Google will tell us they are.

  2. Timothy Daly from Vincodo, September 26, 2016 at 5:31 p.m.

    Would have to concur with Doug Garnett's sentiments.  Much of this is self-serving to encourage overspend by advertisers by taking full credit for conversions that Google merely assisted on.  In-Store visit conversion metrics are questionable in many cases because the beacon can fire simply by walking past a storefront or in many cases people were going to destination for general shopping that had nothing to do with the item searched upon.  For example, just because someone searched for lipstick, went to Macy's and bought a dress doesn't mean that the paid search listing had any influence on the final sale.  This is just a new form of cookie stuffing that is adding fuel to fire of brick and mortar store closings due to poor online attribution metrics to in-store sales.

    As for cross device tracking, while they lifted the estimated asterisks...it is still estimated and questionable.  Google only has reliable data on logged in users and they are forecasting out expected conversion for non-logged in users.  Therefore, they've made an assumption that the non-logged in user looks just like the logged in user, which is a leap they made which favors Google overcounting.  Further, Google refuses to confirm what percent of the cross-device conversions are logged in and which are not.  Surely if the percent of logged in users was as high as Facebook, Google would be touting such.  Given their silence, we must assume that Google is forecasting out much more of the cross device conversions that it is actually capturing.  And then don't forget, cross device conversions may be assisted by other media channel prior to the final cross device action.

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