Google is doing all it can to bring together the data relating to online marketing and sales on the high street. Recently, Google has made changes to its shopping ads, where it makes it possible for advertisers to enhance ad’s based on visits made to Bricks-and-mortar stores. How this works is still a slight mystery but now there might be some sort of insight into how it all works.
Over the last 12 months, Google has been offering Mastercard credit card data to a group of advertiser’s of two billion customers as a way of measuring all spends offline and how that relates to ad campaigns.
It is believed that Google spent millions of dollars on obtaining this information and forming partnerships as a way of dealing with those companies that offer something similar such as Amazon.
Since this arrangement became partially public, Mastercard has denied the fact that the data helps to identify purchases. However, there is a concern over data privacy and this leads to concerns regarding the way in which private financial data is used.
There is one question being asked which relates to whether Mastercard will be paying compensation to their clients?
Google has been using this tool as part of a trial since 2017 and it forms part of its Store Sales Management service, which is accessed by selected advertisers. It gives advertisers the opportunity to find out whether an in-store purchase was influenced by an ad click or a video.
However, since this deal has come to light, Google has come out and said that prior to launching the product in 2017, they put in place advanced technology that ensured both Google and their partners were unable to view the personal information of users’.