Google, Mastercard have a secret deal to track offline sales from online ads: Report

Google has been testing a tool for advertisers that could help track whether an online ad has resulted in a purchase by a consumer in a brick and mortar store.

According a report by Bloomberg, the tool has been made available to select advertisers on Google and is created with the backing of credit card data from Mastercard.

The report also noted that four sources have confirmed the existence of the deal, three of whom have been personally closely involved in the project. Google paid millions for the Mastercard data, according to two people cited in the report, and took four years of negotiations for the deal to reach fruition.

The tool informs advertisers only if a user has logged in with a Google account, clicked on an ad for “shoes”, for example, and does not buy anything online, but makes a purchase for shoes in an offline store within 30 days of clicking on the ad using a credit card.

The advertisers are then given the relevant statistics under a column called “Offline Revenue”. Bloomberg notes that Google provides a bulk report of the percentage of consumers that bought the product advertised after clicking the ad.

The report stated that chief of Google’s advertising division, Sridhar Ramaswamy, first introduced the product in a blog post but made no mention of its deal with Mastercard in it.

The report also quoted a Google spokesperson saying the tool is currently being used by a select number of advertisers in the United States. Marketers are shown aggregate sales figures as well as an estimate of how many of the sales could be attributed to Google ads.

Only retailers are provided the information, and not to the manufacturers of the products bought.

The spokesperson also said retailers are not privy to the consumer’s personal information, their spending activity or what exactly they buy. The spokesperson noted that users can opt out of the ad tracking tool by opting out of “Web and App Activity” online console.

The spokesperson also mentioned of a double encryption tool that does not allow Google or its partners any access to the data. The spokesperson also said there was no revenue sharing between Google and its partners.

The report notes that many of Mastercard’s two billion card holders are unaware of the arrangement between Google and the credit card company. The report quoted Mastercard spokesperson Seth Eisen saying Mastercard does share transaction data with the merchants to understand the effectiveness of their ad campaigns.

The information provided is the sales volumes and average size of the purchase, and is only shared with the permission of the merchants. Personal data or details of individual transactions are not shared.

The report noted that Mastercard has also improved its data and analytics capabilities through its consulting arm, Mastercard Advisors. The firms help advertisers and merchants predict consumer spending behavior using cardholder data.

The report mentions that Google has gone to great lengths to track offline data. It is also looking into Bluetooth devices, known as “beacons”, that track when shoppers enter stores.