What is in-store visit measurement? We explain the mechanism of measuring ad exposure and the benefits of implementing it.

Store visit measurement is an advertising effectiveness measurement method that measures how much of the results of digital advertising, such as web ads and app ads, or offline advertising, such as out-of-home (OOH) advertising, led to actual store visits. It estimates whether users who were exposed to the advertisement subsequently visited the store, and this can be tracked as indicators such as the number of visits and the visit rate.

While measuring store visits from offline advertising was previously considered difficult, recent advancements in location data technology, such as GPS, smartphone base stations, and Wi-Fi hotspots, have made highly accurate analysis possible.

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Location data refers to information about a location that can be obtained from devices such as smartphones. It mainly includes latitude and longitude coordinates, as well as location, place name, and altitude, and can also be used to track behavioral patterns such as travel routes and time spent at specific locations.

Location data is obtained primarily from four sources: GPS, smartphone base stations, Wi-Fi hotspots, and beacons. The characteristics of each are as follows:

Conducting measurements in-store offers four main benefits. Let's look at each of them in detail.

<Main benefits of measuring customer visits>

• Visualizing advertising effectiveness
• Optimizing Return on Investment (ROI)
• Understanding customer attributes
• Coordination of online and offline initiatives

Visualizing advertising effectiveness

The advantage of measuring store visits is that it allows you to visualize, in numerical terms, how many users who were exposed to an advertisement subsequently visited your store, and to quantitatively understand the effectiveness of the advertisement.

Furthermore, comparing online and offline advertising across different media allows you to identify which ads are more likely to drive store visits and understand which ads are most effective. The data obtained can be used not only to improve future advertising campaigns, but also to quickly correct underperforming ads if the media allows for real-time optimization.

Optimizing Return on Investment (ROI)

By visualizing the effectiveness of advertising, it becomes possible to understand the return on investment (ROI), which is an indicator that shows how much result was obtained in relation to the cost invested.

By comparing the contribution of each channel and campaign to store visits, you can determine which measures offer the best return on investment (ROI). Based on this data, you can review ad delivery and adjust budget allocation, preventing wasted spending on ineffective measures and leading to a more optimal advertising budget.

Understanding customer attributes

In-store visit tracking allows you to understand customer attribute data in a way that does not identify individuals, based on location data. By understanding visitor trends from information such as age, gender, and place of residence, it is possible to analyze the gap between the actual visitors and the initially anticipated target audience.

By utilizing this gap analysis, improvements can be made, such as reviewing the wording of advertisements or their placement.

Furthermore, understanding customer attributes can be used not only for advertising strategies such as narrowing down flyer distribution areas, but also in business situations requiring decision-making, such as product lineups, store management policies, and campaign planning.

Coordination of online and offline initiatives

By measuring store visits, the effectiveness of both online and offline advertising becomes visible, making it easier to strengthen the collaboration between the two. This deeper collaboration will lead to an improved, seamless customer experience across online and offline channels.

For example, if it's discovered that many customers visit a store after seeing an online advertising campaign, you could consider displaying the campaign's featured products near the store entrance to attract their attention. Such initiatives contribute to the realization of an omnichannel strategy, which provides a consistent purchasing experience regardless of the channel through which customers approach you.

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In store visit measurement, a common method is to acquire location information from devices that have interacted with advertisements under certain conditions such as time and distance, and then estimate whether or not the user visited the area around the store.

It's important to understand that the figures obtained from store visit measurements are merely statistically processed "estimates" and do not directly represent the actual number of people who visited. Estimates are used for privacy reasons, to prevent the identification of individuals, and to supplement data that cannot be obtained.

However, even estimated values are considered to be quite useful for understanding advertising effectiveness and return on investment (ROI), and store visit measurement is used in various situations, including marketing.

There are several methods for measuring store visits. When choosing a method, it is important to select the most suitable service based on your company's media usage, budget, number of stores, and technical integration requirements.

Here, we will introduce two specific methods for measuring store visits.

Utilize the store visit measurement function provided by the advertising platform.

The four major digital advertising platforms—Google, Yahoo! JAPAN, Meta, and LINE—each offer in-store visit measurement functions that leverage their own unique technologies and user bases.

Because it can be used in conjunction with ad delivery on each platform, it has a relatively low barrier to entry. However, advertisers will need to do some preliminary preparations, such as registering their stores and setting up measurement conditions, before they can use it.

Utilizing location data for store visit measurement and analysis services

To measure store visits, you can use store visit measurement and analysis services provided by companies that specialize in location data. For example, GeoTechnologies, Inc.' "store-chart" is a service that visualizes store visit patterns and enables customer analysis by combining maps and location data.

store-chart 's strength lies in its unique analysis utilizing map data, allowing you to understand not only your own store's customer traffic and methods of arrival, but also that of competitor stores, as well as traffic conditions on the road in front of your store. Furthermore, reports can be customized according to your needs, contributing to cost reduction.

Furthermore, by linking with "Geo-Research," a web-based survey that utilizes the location information of users of the point-earning app "Torima," it is possible to measure the effectiveness of the campaign in more detail, such as the number of ad reaches and interest scores based on whether the ad was viewed or not.

If the standard features of advertising platforms are insufficient, or if you want to conduct a deeper analysis tailored to your company's specific challenges, we recommend utilizing these specialized services.

store-chart- Customization Analysis of Visiting Customers

Store visit measurement is a method of measuring the effectiveness of advertising by determining how much of an advertisement translates into actual store visits. In recent years, advancements in location information technology have made it possible to measure the effectiveness of not only online advertising but also offline advertising, making store visit measurement indispensable for developing efficient advertising strategies.

If you are considering implementing customer visit measurement, please feel free to contact GeoTechnologies, Inc..

Q. What is in-store measurement?

Store visit measurement is a method of measuring the effectiveness of advertising by determining how many users who were exposed to an advertisement actually visited a store. While measuring store visits for offline advertising was previously difficult, advancements in location information technology have made it possible to measure them now.

Q. What are the advantages of in-store measurements?

The benefits of measuring store visits include "visualization of advertising effectiveness," "optimization of return on investment (ROI)," "understanding of customer attributes," and "coordination of online and offline initiatives." Visualizing store visit data not only leads to improvements in future advertising campaigns, but also to optimizing advertising budgets, obtaining information for decision-making through gap analysis, and realizing omnichannel strategies.

Q. How do you measure customer visits?

To measure store visits, you can use the visitor tracking features provided by the four major digital advertising platforms: Google, Yahoo! JAPAN, Meta, and LINE. Alternatively, you can use visitor tracking and analysis services provided by companies specializing in location data. For example, GeoTechnologies, Inc.' "store-chart" combines map and location data to visualize store visits and even perform customer analysis.