The mechanism, which for digital marketers is called Store Sales Measurement , works like this: a user clicks on a Google ad advertising a particular product available in an offline store. If within 30 days that customer goes to the advertiser's store to buy that item using a MasterCard, Google receives the data (probably an anonymous ID) and tracks the offline conversion, showing the advertiser a report on the cross-channel effectiveness of its advertising.
Last year, when Google first announced its Store Sales australia email list Measurement service, it said it had access to “about 70 percent” of U.S. credit and debit cards. Purchases made with MasterCard represent approximately 25% of the total in the United States. Although Google did not name its partners, the 70 percent figure tells us that other credit card and/or banking institutions may have similar agreements with Google and possibly with Facebook.
From a web analytics point of view, this innovation opens up great possibilities for tracking the effectiveness of online on offline; for a few months now we have started similar tests with our European customers (using other methods, given that Store Sales Measurement is a beta). From an individual tracking point of view, this innovation should be communicated (by all operators involved) and redefines and waters down the concept of privacy.