How to Track Offline Activity with Google Analytics

By Beacon News | Published April 30, 2014 | Categories: Digital Marketing , Google Analytics

What’s the biggest challenge you face as a web marketer? I’ll bet dollars to donuts it has something to do with the accurate assessment of ROI.

Customer life-cycles often have multiple components to them – both online and offline. They may start with a phone call and end the buying cycle with a purchase at a bricks and mortar location. Unfortunately, folks don’t have chips embedded in them, scanned automatically upon purchase and referencing them by Google Analytics User ID (Don’t worry. If there is anything we know about Google, this cannot be far behind).

We’d been conditioned to believe that regardless of how great a job we’ve done with organic SEO, email campaigns and print promotions, an answer for how to track offline conversions with Google Analytics would remain allusive. Then along came Universal Analytics, Google’s answer to the deficits inherent in current multi-channel attribution models.

Is Universal Analytics the answer?

On the surface, Universal Analytics may appear to address this issue by leveraging an API to record offline transactions and attribute them back to a unique user ID. Problem is, the user has to carry that ID wherever they go. If they use multiple browsers or devices, the entire premise behind this method of accurate visitor tracking becomes compromised. Finding an original touch point may be akin to finding a diamond ring in a box of Cracker Jack. Good luck.

The development of GA Fusion is a true game changer. Through use of a centralized database that connects offline conversions to your online marketing efforts, this “middleware” maps offline transactions back to GA visitor sessions. Using Google Analytics as the reporting platform, GA Fusion provides superior ROI models, attribution models, time to purchase date, etc.

And did I mention that GA Fusion works with the Async code you probably already use? That’s right. If you don’t want to update to Google’s Universal Analytics, you don’t have to. GA Fusion empowers you to make that decision for yourself.

Now you know how to track offline conversions with Google Analytics effectively and accurately. If you’re not ready to upgrade to Universal Analytics or just prefer the asynchronous tracking method, Beacon can add the functionality of GA Fusion to your analytics without any interruption of data flow to your GA account.

Contact Beacon today to step though a demo and find out how a seamless transition to GA Fusion can provide you with the offline conversion information your business needs to flourish.