They have tracked our activities over the web since years, and now paced themselves up to watch us offline too. This means when you make a purchase at a grocery store or pass by Home Depot, google knows.
To make it happen, google primarily makes use of the following two metrics :
1) How many shoppers who saw an ad online- later VISITED that store? Data that we give google by using multiple of their apps like youtube, googlemaps, search, adwords etc. is combined to form a complete customer story. For instance, you saw ad online and later used google maps to visit that store- google tracked that!
2) How many shoppers who saw an ad online- later MADE A PURCHASE from that store? Humongous data that google has about us is combined with millions of transactions hosted by credit card companies. This means they know which cards you use for shopping, and can figure out if a specific transaction happened within 30 days of when a relevant advert is thrown at you.
Their collaboration with credit card companies have drawn immense criticism with regards to privacy- nevertheless the whole process is a big step ahead in the direction of omnichannel customer experience.
This content was originally published for my TechTuesday’s initiative on LinkedIn.
