You’ll be hearing a lot about Google Attribution in the days and weeks to come. This is Google’s newest tool to help businesses determine where their customers are coming from. Attribution is powered by a combination of Google Adwords, Analytics and DoubleClick search data, as well as in-store purchase data collected by third-party providers – namely, credit and debit card companies.

This is a further enhancement of the store visit conversion data that Google has been collecting for about five years now. Previously, business owners were able to tell, to a limited degree, what percentage of their in-store traffic was attributable to using Google’s advertising products. Now it will be possible to see what specific products were purchased in response to digital ads; retailers won’t be able to discern which individuals purchased which items just yet.

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Using Data to Grow Your Business: Are You Taking Full Advantage of What Google Offers?

Now that we’ve covered Google’s constant quest to capture more and more data about user behavior, let’s talk about you. Most small business owners have Google Analytics for their website, but relatively few access this information regularly. Part of the problem may be the fact that the sheer mass of information available from Google Analytics is overwhelming. With multiple reports to choose from, how do you know what’s relevant to your business?

You have to start somewhere. We work with our clients to understand their data, and how they can use the insights found there about customer behavior online to improve their digital marketing efforts. The launch of Google Attribution means we can expand our assistance to include in-store performance concerns: if you know that ads for a given product are being clicked, and then store visit conversion data indicates that customers are indeed coming to the store, but the product isn’t being sold, there’s clearly a breakdown that needs investigation. Something as simple as repositioning merchandise within the store so it’s easier for customers to find can boost sales exponentially – but you won’t know that customers are even interested without looking at the data first.

The important thing to understand with Google Attribution and all of Google’s other tracking tools is they’re really only any good if you use them. Collected data that’s never looked at doesn’t help anyone. Here’s a quick video Jennifer created to help you get started:

Keep watching this space. We’ve got some great new tools that will make working with your data incredibly easy and highly profitable coming soon!