INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
For the past year, select Google advertisers have had access to a potent new tool to track whether the ads they ran online led to a sale at
a physical store in the United States That insight came thanks in part to a stockpile of Mastercard transactions that Google paid for.But
most of the 2 billion Mastercard holders aren't aware of this behind-the-scenes tracking
That's because the companies never told the public about the arrangement.Google and Mastercard brokered a business partnership during
about four years of negotiations, according to four people with knowledge of the deal, three of whom worked on it directly
The alliance gave Google an unprecedented asset for measuring retail spending, part of the search giant's strategy to fortify its primary
business against onslaughts from Amazon.com and others.But the deal, which has not been previously reported, could raise broader privacy
concerns about how much consumer data technology companies like Google quietly absorb."People don't expect what they buy physically in a
store to be linked to what they are buying online," said Christine Bannan, counsel with the advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information
"There's just far too much burden that companies place on consumers and not enough responsibility being taken by companies to inform users
what they're doing and what rights they have."Google paid Mastercard millions of dollars for the data, according to two people who worked on
the deal, and the companies discussed sharing a portion of the ad revenue, according to one of the people
The people asked not to be identified discussing private matters
A spokeswoman for Google said there is no revenue sharing agreement with its partners.A Google spokeswoman declined to comment on the
partnership with Mastercard, but addressed the ads tool
"Before we launched this beta product last year, we built a new, double-blind encryption technology that prevents both Google and our
partners from viewing our respective users' personally identifiable information," the company said in a statement
"We do not have access to any personal information from our partners' credit and debit cards, nor do we share any personal information with
our partners." The company said people can opt out of ad tracking using Google's "Web and App Activity" online console
Inside Google, multiple people raised objections that the service did not have a more obvious way for cardholders to opt out of the
tracking, one of the people said.Seth Eisen, a Mastercard spokesman, also declined to comment specifically on Google
But he said Mastercard shares transaction data with merchants and their service providers to help them measure "the effectiveness of their
advertising campaigns." The information, which includes sales volumes and average size of the purchase, is shared only with permission of
the merchants, Eisen added
"No individual transaction or personal data is provided," he said in a statement
"We do not provide insights that track, serve up ads to, or even measure ad effectiveness relating to, individual consumers."Last year, when
Google announced the service, called "Store Sales Measurement," the company just said it had access to "approximately 70 percent" of United
States credit and debit cards through partners, without naming them.That 70 percent could mean that the company has deals with other credit
card companies, totaling 70 percent of the people who use credit and debit cards
Or it could mean that the company has deals with companies that include all card users, and 70 percent of those are logged into Google
accounts like Gmail when they click on a Google search ad.Google has approached other payment companies about the program, according to two
people familiar with the conversations, but it is not clear if they finalized similar deals
The people asked to not be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the matter
Google confirmed that the service only applies to people who are logged in to one of its accounts and have not opted out of ad tracking
Purchases made on Mastercard-branded cards accounted for around a quarter of United States volumes last year, according to the Nilson
Report, a financial research firm.Through this test program, Google can anonymously match these existing user profiles to purchases made in
The result is powerful: Google knows that people clicked on ads and can now tell advertisers that this activity led to actual store
sales.Google is testing the data service with a "small group" of advertisers in the United States , according to a spokeswoman
With it, marketers see aggregate sales figures and estimates of how many they can attribute to Google ads -- but they don't see a shoppers'
personal information, how much they spend or what exactly they buy
The tests are only available for retailers, not the companies that make the items sold inside stores, the spokeswoman said
The service only applies to its search and shopping ads, she said.For Google, the Mastercard deal fits into a broad effort to net more
Advertisers spend lavishly on Google to glean valuable insight into the link between digital ads a website visit or an online purchase
It's harder to tell how ads influence offline behavior
That's a particular frustration for companies marketing items like apparel or home goods, which people will often research online but walk
into actual stores to buy.That gap created a demand for Google to find ways for its biggest customers to gauge offline sales, and then
connect them to the promotions they run on Google
"Google needs to tie that activity back to a click," said Joseph McConellogue, head of online retail for the ad agency Reprise Digital
"Most advertisers are champing at the bit for this kind of integration."Initially, Google devised its own solution, a mobile payments
service first called Google Wallet
Part of the original goal was to tie clicks on ads to purchases in physical stores, according to someone who worked on the product
But adoption never took off, so Google began looking for allies
A spokeswoman said its payments service was never used for ads measurement.Since 2014, Google has flagged for advertisers when someone who
clicked an ad visits a physical store, using the Location History feature in Google Maps
Still, the advertiser didn't know if the shopper made a purchase
A tool, introduced the following year, let advertisers upload emails of customers they've collected into Google's ad-buying system
Additionally, Google layered on inputs from third-party data brokers, such as Experian and Acxiom, which draw in demographic and financial
information for marketers.But those tactics didn't always translate to more ad spending
Retail outlets weren't able to connect the emails easily to their ads
And the information they received from data brokers about sales was imprecise or too late
Marketing executives didn't adopt these location tools en masse, said Christina Malcolm, director at the digital ad agency iProspect
"It didn't give them what they needed to go back to their bosses and tell them, 'We're hitting our numbers,'" she said.Then Google brought
In May 2017, the company introduced "Store Sales Measurement." It had two components
The first lets companies with personal information on consumers, like email addresses, upload those into Google's system and synchronize
ad buys with offline sales
The second injects card data.It works like this: a person searches for "red lipstick" on Google, clicks on an ad, surfs the web but doesn't
Later, she walks into a store and buys red lipstick with her Mastercard
The advertiser who ran the ad is fed a report from Google, listing the sale along with other transactions in a column that reads "Offline
Revenue" -- only if the web surfer is logged into a Google account online and made the purchase within 30 days of clicking the ad
The advertisers are given a bulk report with the percentage of shoppers who clicked or viewed an ad then made a relevant purchase.It's not
an exact match, but it's the most powerful tool Google, the world's largest ad seller, has offered for shopping in the real world
Marketers once had a patchwork of consumer data in their hands to triangulate who saw their ads and who was prompted to spend
Now they had far more clarity.Google's ad chief, Sridhar Ramaswamy, introduced the product in a blog post, writing that advertisers using
it would have "no time-consuming setup or costly integrations." Missing from the blog post was the arrangement with Mastercard.Early signs
indicate that the deal has been a boon for Google
The new feature also plugs transaction data into advertiser systems as soon as they occur, fixing the lag that existed previously and
letting Google slot in better-performing ads
Malcolm said her agency has tested the card measurement tool with a major advertiser, which she declined to name
Beforehand, the company received $5.70 in revenue for every dollar spent on marketing in the ad campaign with Google, according to an
With the new transaction feature, the return nearly doubled to $10.60."That's really powerful," Malcolm said
"And it was a really good way to invest more in Google, frankly."But some privacy critics derided the tool as opaque
EPIC submitted a complaint about the sales measuring tack to the Federal Trade Commission last year
A report in August that Facebook was talking with banks about accessing information for consumer service products sparked similar criticism
For years, Facebook and Google have worked to link their massive troves of user behavior with consumer financial data.And financial
companies have plotted ways to tap into the bounty of digital advertising
The Google tie-up isn't Mastercard's only stab at minting the data it collects from customers
The company has built out its data and analytics capabilities in recent years through its consulting arm, Mastercard Advisors, and gives
advertisers and merchants the ability to forecast consumer behavior based on cardholder data.Ad buyers that work with Google insist that the
company is careful to maintain the walls between transaction information and web behavior, keeping any info flowing to retailers and
"Google is really strict about that," said Malcolm.Before launching the product, Google developed a novel encryption method, according to
Jules Polonetsky, head of the Future Privacy Forum, who was briefed by Google on the product
He explained that the system ensures that neither Google nor its payments partners have access to the data that each collect
"They're sharing data that has been so transformed that, if put in the public, no party could do anything with it," Polonetsky said
"It doesn't create a privacy risk."Future Privacy Forum, a nonprofit, receives funding from 160 companies including Google.Google's ad
business, which hit $95.4 billion in 2017 sales, has maintained an astounding growth rate of about 20 percent a year
But investors have worried how long that can last
Many major advertisers are starting to funnel more spending to rival Amazon, the company that hosts far more, and more granular, data on
online shopping.In response, Google has continued to push deeper into offline measurements
The company, like Facebook and Twitter, has explored the use of "beacons," Bluetooth devices that track when shoppers enter stores.Some ad
agencies have actively talked to Google about even more ways to better size up offline behaviors
They have discussed adding features into the ads system such as what time of day people buy items and how much they spend, said John
Malysiak, who runs search marketing for the Omnicom agency OMD USA
"We're trying to go deeper with Google," he said
"We'd like to understand more." Google declined to comment on the discussions.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
