Co-op has recorded a 134% increase in in-store sales and a 39x return on investment for search after using LiveRamp and Google to connect digital advertising with real-world store visits and food purchases.
The retailer worked with LiveRamp to implement what the data collaboration company described as Co-op’s first closed-loop omnichannel measurement framework. The system used Co-op Member programme data to link digital search campaigns to offline transactions and store visits, giving the retailer a more complete view of how paid search affects physical shopping behaviour.
Initial tests delivered a 134% increase in in-store sales, a 77% uplift in incremental store visits, and a 39x return on investment for search. The framework also identified which campaigns, keywords, and messages generated the strongest footfall and revenue.
The project addresses a long-running measurement gap in grocery and retail marketing. Standard digital metrics such as clicks, online orders, and online revenue can understate the value of search advertising when customers use online discovery but complete their purchases in physical stores. In food retail, where large store estates remain central to sales, that gap can distort marketing decisions.
Using LiveRamp’s Data Collaboration Platform, Co-op connected its first-party membership data to Google’s advertising platform. The matching process allowed the retailer to measure the incremental effect of digital ads on offline purchases while maintaining a privacy-focused approach.
Yawen Deng, performance marketing manager at Co-op, said: “Connecting our digital activity to in-store behaviours has unlocked a new level of understanding of how our members shop. LiveRamp’s privacy-centric approach has enabled us to see the full customer journey – from search to store – and it’s giving us the confidence to invest where it truly matters for our business.”
Dominic Adams, digital marketing lead at Co-op, said: “Co-op constantly demonstrates how we can keep innovating and extracting value from the data that we hold. Both Google and LiveRamp have been supportive and aligned with our strategy to “close the loop” and enable better understanding of our digital marketing investments and omni-channel impact.”
Travis Clinger, international GM and chief connectivity and ecosystem officer at LiveRamp, said: “Digital search is a powerful driver of offline traffic, but retailers have historically struggled to prove it. Through data collaboration and our network, we helped Co-op build its first omnichannel measurement framework, enabling it to draw a straight line between search investment and in-store results. Delivering incremental and measurable returns, maximising efficiency and providing actionable marketing insight, this campaign is a testament to how integral data collaboration is for omnichannel success.”
The results come as grocery groups and retailers turn first-party data into a more strategic asset. Loyalty programmes, app usage, ecommerce behaviour, till transactions, and store visits can provide a fuller picture of customer behaviour than media platforms alone. The challenge lies in connecting those signals in ways that are privacy-conscious, measurable, and commercially useful.
Supermarkets have been investing heavily in retail media and loyalty-led advertising infrastructure. The expansion of Sainsbury’s retail media activity showed how grocery groups are building audience insight, activation, optimisation, and measurement into more mature media offers. Co-op’s work with LiveRamp and Google follows the same direction, with member data used to prove the offline value of digital activity.
The economics of search are also changing. Paid search has often been evaluated through online conversions, cost per click, and ecommerce revenue. In omnichannel retail, those measures can miss customers who search before visiting a local store, compare prices, check availability, or use digital touchpoints as part of a broader shopping journey. Connecting search to store visits can therefore change both budget allocation and campaign design.
Measurement is particularly important in grocery because physical stores still account for frequent, habitual purchases. Even as online grocery has grown, many customers continue to complete low-friction purchases in local stores. Digital media can influence those visits, but without closed-loop data it is difficult to separate genuine incrementality from ordinary shopping behaviour.
Deeper use of customer data also brings trust considerations. Personalisation can improve relevance, but it can create concern if customers feel they are being tracked without sufficient clarity. The value of loyalty data depends on permission, transparency, security, and restraint. Retailers that use data too aggressively risk weakening the customer trust that gives first-party data its commercial value.
Co-op is now planning personalised campaigns tailored to members’ interests and shopping behaviours, using dynamic targeting to improve digital and physical engagement. The next stage will test whether stronger measurement can improve customer experience as well as media efficiency.
Retail marketing is becoming more accountable, with media spend, loyalty data, store behaviour, and sales outcomes increasingly connected. Co-op’s results suggest that search can drive physical retail more strongly than conventional digital metrics show. Across the sector, closed-loop measurement is becoming less of an experimental capability and more of a competitive requirement.
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