Yes, out-of-home advertising can drive store visits, and footfall studies can show how much. A footfall study compares store visits from people exposed to a campaign against a similar group that wasn’t exposed. In Carvertise campaigns measured this way, exposed audiences were 13.16x more likely to visit Albertsons stores and 1.67x more likely to visit Planet Fitness locations than their control groups.
Retail, grocery, restaurant and fitness brands buy out-of-home media to get people through the door. For years, the industry could only report how many people might have seen an ad. Footfall measurement closes that gap by connecting exposure on the street to visits in store.
How a Footfall Study Works
- Define the locations. List the stores, restaurants or gyms the study will measure.
- Capture exposure. Record which mobile devices were near the branded vehicles during the campaign.
- Build a control group. Select similar devices in the same markets that weren’t exposed.
- Compare visit rates. Measure how often each group visited the locations during the study window.
- Report lift and confidence. The difference between exposed and control visit rates is the lift, reported with a confidence level.
The control group is what makes the result credible. Without it, you can’t tell whether visits came from the campaign or from normal shopping patterns.
What Carvertise Footfall Studies Show
Albertsons: 13.16x More Likely to Visit
Albertsons wanted to drive visits to its Tom Thumb and Randalls stores in Dallas, Austin and Baton Rouge. Carvertise activated 45 branded rideshare vehicles for four months, with more than 20 game-day SWARMS™ around home football games.
StreetMetrics measured visitation across 142 store locations using exposed and control audiences. The study recorded 58,973 visits from more than 1.77 million exposed devices. The exposed visit rate was 3.33% against 0.25% for the control group, making exposed audiences 13.16x more likely to visit. Read the Albertsons case study.
Planet Fitness: 67% Visitation Lift
A multi-state Planet Fitness franchisee activated 50 branded rideshare vehicles across Phoenix, Kansas City and Oklahoma City for 12 weeks, with six SWARMS at local events. The fleet drove 163,418 miles and delivered 23,750,848 reported impressions.
A StreetMetrics visitation study compared 1,202,716 exposed devices with 761,097 unexposed devices. People exposed to the branded vehicles were 1.67x more likely to visit, a 67% lift at 99% confidence. Read the Planet Fitness case study.
More Retail Footfall Studies
Carvertise has also published footfall studies for Fry’s Food Stores, Total Wine and Rita’s Water Ice.
Why Branded Vehicles Work for Drive-to-Store Campaigns
- They travel where shoppers do. Branded rideshare vehicles move through neighborhoods, shopping corridors and commuter routes near your locations, instead of staying on one stretch of highway.
- They build frequency. A fleet covering a market for weeks or months puts your brand in front of the same local audience again and again.
- They can concentrate at key moments. SWARMS put a group of vehicles around game days, festivals or store openings when crowds gather.
- They can be measured to the visit. GPS data shows where the vehicles traveled, and footfall studies connect that exposure to store visits.
How to Plan a Measurable Drive-to-Store Campaign
- Choose the locations to measure before launch, and share the store list with your provider.
- Match coverage to your footprint. Concentrate vehicles in the neighborhoods and corridors around your stores.
- Run long enough to see normal visit cycles. Weekly shoppers need less time than once-a-month visitors.
- Ask for a control group and confidence level in the study design.
- Keep the creative simple: logo, offer or reason to visit, and a clear store or app cue.
For a step-by-step plan, see how to plan a citywide rideshare advertising campaign and mass market rideshare advertising for retail launches.
How Carvertise Measures Store Visits
Carvertise activates fleets of branded rideshare vehicles across priority markets through Mass Market Saturation, with SWARMS™ for concentrated moments. Signal IQ provides reporting on impressions, mileage and GPS heat maps, plus footfall and visitation studies, digital retargeting and web lift, depending on the campaign.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does out-of-home advertising increase foot traffic?
It can, and it can be measured. In Carvertise footfall studies, people exposed to branded vehicles were 13.16x more likely to visit Albertsons stores and 1.67x more likely to visit Planet Fitness locations than unexposed control groups.
How is OOH foot traffic measured?
A footfall study compares store visits from devices that were near the campaign (the exposed group) with visits from similar devices that weren’t (the control group). The difference between the two visit rates is the lift.
What is a good foot traffic lift for an OOH campaign?
It depends on the category, visit frequency and campaign size. What matters most is that the study uses a control group and reports confidence, so the lift reflects the campaign and not normal shopping patterns.
How long does a campaign need to run to measure foot traffic?
Long enough for exposed people to make their normal visits. Carvertise retail and fitness footfall studies have covered campaigns of 12 weeks to four months.
Can a footfall study cover multiple markets and locations?
Yes. The Albertsons study measured visitation across 142 stores in three markets, and the Planet Fitness study covered gym locations in Phoenix, Kansas City and Oklahoma City.
Drive More Visits to Your Locations
Share your markets and store list, and we’ll plan a campaign with footfall measurement built in. Plan a campaign or request pricing.