Google on Online Ads Boosting Offline Sales

Google is talking about how online ads can boost in-store sales at a couple of its different blogs today. The
"This is the Holy Grail of advertising and marketing funding if you think about it," he adds. "You have read on this blog before about Google partnering with Retailers to learn exactly what a dollar spent online can do for in-store sales, well now a number of the tests have been completed and the results are in! Online advertising drives in-store sales!"

The other study from comScore, which shows that online advertising is on par with television advertising in growing retail sales of consumer packaged goods brands. Over 12 weeks, online ad campaigns with an average reach of 40% of their target segment successfully grew retail sales of the advertised brands by an average of 9%. It was only 8% for tv ad campaigns over 12 months.

"Identical traditional TV ads were shown on three distinct platforms: 1) on TV, 2) on a computer screen replicating a YouTube video environment, and on a computer screen replicating a click-to-play video embedded in content," Google explains. "The Harris Interactive results showed that :30 commercials on YouTube and embedded video ads performed at parity with TV. All three were on par with the ability to communicate key messages about the brand, strengthen likeability, and drive purchase intent."

The research discussed above is positive news for online advertising in general. In fact, it makes helps make the case for