Jim Koehler, director of research for Google (who as several other attendees have noted via Twitter, is very, very smart) shared some interesting methods that search marketers can use to quantify the
effect of search ads on offline or brick-and-mortar retail sales. Basically, what does having a prominent placement on Google paid search results yield in offline sales -- presenting a plan of action
for addressing this hot button issue. Basically Google and a well-known manufacturer partnered to conduct a national, randomized trial in which the manufacturer paid for an Ad Words campaign in half
of U.S. markets, leaving the other half as a control group. As noted, the sorting into experimental versus control groups was randomized, and I can only presume that any other media presence by the
manufacturer was either negligible or evenly distributed between the two markets. Long story short: they found a significant lift in offline sales results, although the precise results were immersed
in numbers which make my head feel fuzzy (the whole Koehler is “very smart” part). But since he shared it with us, I bet Google would publicize these results elsewhere and might even send
you a white paper if you ask nicely.
