An interesting study has been released by RevTrax. The study was conducted over a two year period and found that paid search had a significant impact on in-store sales. The summary, which you can download here, highlights some cool stats:

• The average click on a paid search ad generated approximately $15 of in-store revenue, with some
  merchants seeing as much as $28 of in-store revenue.
• Approximately 9% of clicks on a paid search ad generated an in-store sale, with some merchants seeing up
  to 26% of clicks on a paid search ad generating an in-store sale.
• Many merchants reported that 40-50% of customers acquired via the study were new

To conduct the study, RevTrax used the following process:

• a paid search advertisement was displayed to a consumer;
• the paid search ad led the consumer to a printable or mobile landing page displaying a coupon with a
  unique barcode; and
• the consumer redeemed the coupon inside a brick & mortar store.

Utilizing its unique barcode or promo code technology, each coupon was tracked back to the search activity that
drove engagement. RevTrax also utilized a variety of proprietary coupon security features to ensure clean
measurement of data only from the paid search channel.

Another interesting bit of info that’s not in the summary, but can be found on Search Engine Land is that, in the words of RevTrax COO Seth Sarelson:

As for PC vs Mobile, we’re working on a later study that will address these results, but most of what we’re looking at here is printable coupons from a PC.

Before I found this tidbit, I was ready to assert mobile as the primary driver of the results. After all, with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, it would seem to be a  logical conclusion.

I look forward to the follow-up study.

@MarkPalony

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