New Study Shows Pre-Shopping
Powers Brick & Mortar Spending

The combination of search engine marketing teamed with display ads is proving to be influential to the way consumers shop, according to a study from Yahoo and comScore entitled “From Clicks to Bricks: The Impact of Online Pre-Shopping on Consumer Shopping Behavior.”

The study was based on eight months of data from 175,000 comScore participants and five major retailers, which included JC Penney. One of its key findings was that campaigns which use both display ads and search marketing convert more online shoppers into buyers than those which use only one of those methods.

In addition, the study established that consumers exposed to online advertising tend to research or “pre-shop” online prior to purchase. These “pre-shoppers” spend an average of 41 percent more in-store when compared to consumers not exposed to online advertising, according to the report.

The integration of search and display campaigns has resulted in a deeper engagement for consumers exposed to those ads, leading to increased sales. Consumers who had seen a combination of search/display ads spent an average of 83% more than those who had not seen either type of ad, according to the report.

The study also found that consumers who had seen only search ads spent 26% more than those who had not seen any ads. This exposure to display ads lifted in-store sales an average of 11% over spending by buyers who had not seen ads.

In addition, among the consumers in the study group exposed to both search and display ads, 43% made in-store purchases, compared to 26% who only viewed search ads, and only 6% who had only seen display ads.

Other significant results from the study include that almost 90% of the incremental sales generated by online advertising take place in-store and consumers exposed to online advertising tend to spend an incremental six dollars in-store for every one dollar spent online.