Facebook is now tracking your purchases even when you're offline (FB, GOOG, GOOGL) BI Intelligence BI Intelligence 16 June 2016

Facebook is rolling out a new API that will help retailers track the effect of digital ads on in-store traffic and sales.


Offline Conversions API allows retailers to partner with several in-store systems companies to monitor in-store activity, including Square, IBM, Marketo, and Lightspeed, according to TechCrunch. Partnering with Square, for example, would let retailers track if shoppers actually purchase an item that was recently advertised in their area.


This would help retailers more accurately determine the effectiveness of an ad campaign on purchases, rather than on general interest and in-store traffic. This is even more important for brick-and-mortar retailers that do not have an online presence.

Facebook has focused significantly on creating portals for businesses to connect with shoppers. Last fall, the company started to let businesses enable a "Shopping" section on their Facebook Pages, and Messenger now has a shopping assistant feature that lets users buy products online and track their orders. Offline Conversions API should attract several businesses that want to bridge their online and offline campaigns.

But Facebook is not alone in this area. Google has been tracking the effect of digital ads on store traffic since last January, and YouTube (which Google owns) teamed with Oracle Data Cloud in April in order to track how video ads affect offline sales on consumer packaged goods.

Google has an advantage because it simply has more data about locations and businesses and would be able to provide valuable insight to retailers about the effectiveness of digital ads on in-store traffic and sales