How to Track Store Visit Conversions on Google Ads (2026)

Google Ads tracks store visit conversions by matching ad clicks and impressions to a device's location signals — aggregated, anonymized data from Google Account users who have Location History turned on — then statistically modeling how many of those interactions were followed by an actual visit to one of your physical locations. It requires a verified Google Business Profile linked to the account, and once an account clears Google's undisclosed eligibility thresholds, the "Store visits" conversion action is created automatically, with no manual setup needed to turn it on.

How the Data Is Collected and Modeled

Google does not track individual shoppers to your door. Instead, it draws on GPS, Wifi, and cell-tower signals from the subset of Google Account holders who have opted into Location History, then uses place-detection models to determine when a device that was exposed to one of your ads later entered the real-world footprint of one of your store locations, applying a time threshold to confirm it was a genuine visit rather than a pass-by.

That sample is then extrapolated statistically to your full audience of clickers and viewers. A visit is never tied to one specific ad click or one identifiable person — Google reports store visits only in aggregate, at the campaign, ad group, or keyword level, typically attributed within a 30-day window of the ad interaction.

Eligibility Requirements

Google states plainly that it cannot guarantee any account will qualify. The published criteria are that an account must meet requirements for eligible country, eligible industry, physical-location count, and click volume — but Google does not publish the exact numeric thresholds for any of these.

A few more concrete signals do surface across Google's own documentation and agency reporting:

• Location count: Local campaigns specifically require more than 10 physical store locations in a country where store visit measurement is offered, though single-location advertisers have reportedly seen the metric appear through other campaign types.
• Click volume: Reporting only begins once an account generates a large volume of clicks and modeled visits within a rolling 30-day period — third-party estimates put this in the low thousands of clicks, though Google does not confirm an exact figure.
• Sensitive categories excluded: Locations Google classifies as sensitive are not eligible for store visit measurement regardless of volume.
• Location assets required: Any campaign that opts out of location assets is automatically ineligible, since Business Profile-linked locations are what visits get attributed to.

Google's own guidance for improving eligibility is to raise bids or budgets to increase click volume, or to run a Performance Max campaign built around store goals, which optimizes toward local actions.

How to Set It Up

• Link your Business Profile: Connect Google Business Profile to Google Ads through Business Manager, or directly via the "Linked accounts" section in Google Ads — this is what feeds your store locations into the system.
• Verify every location: All store locations must be verified inside Business Profile, not just claimed; unverified or incomplete listings (missing address, hours, phone, category) reduce eligibility and can take 24 to 48 hours to sync once corrected.
• Turn on location assets: In Campaigns > Assets, add a Location asset sourced from your linked Business Profile, and make sure every campaign you want measured has location assets enabled rather than opted out.
• Check conversion settings: If your account is eligible, "Store visits" typically appears automatically as a conversion action; if it doesn't, it can be added manually from Conversion actions, after which store-visit columns can be added to campaign, ad group, and keyword reports.

Limitations and What Changed Going Into 2026

Store visits are modeled estimates, not a verified count of transactions — nothing here confirms a sale happened, only that a device associated with an ad interaction was later detected at your location. In September 2025, Google announced it would begin auto-enabling Store Visits conversions with an assigned monetary value for a pilot group of eligible advertisers starting October 8, rolling straight into "all conversions" totals and conversion-value bidding strategies like Target ROAS unless advertisers opted out beforehand. That auto-assigned value drew criticism from advertisers and industry press, since inflating conversion value with modeled offline activity can make Smart Bidding optimize toward visits that never became revenue.

Heading into 2026, this means the setup steps above may no longer be optional — some accounts already have store visits and a dollar value attached without anyone touching a setting. Small-location or low-volume advertisers will also see the data go stale or disappear quickly, since Google's privacy thresholds withhold reporting when the aggregated sample gets too thin.

Bottom Line

Open Google Ads and check Conversions > Summary today to see whether "Store visits" is already listed as an active conversion action with a dollar value attached — if it is and you don't want modeled foot traffic influencing your Target ROAS or Smart Bidding goals, exclude it from your primary conversion set (or opt out via the linked-accounts settings) before it skews your reported ROAS.