More than half of purchases by consumers who conducted online searches for various product categories occur offline, according to a new study by Google and ComScore Networks, reports AdWeek. Among such searchers, 25 percent eventually made purchases; of those purchases, about 37 percent were online, and the rest - 63 percent of purchases - took place in bricks-and-mortar stores. The proportion of online and offline conversions varied among the categories, but in all of them the majority of conversions were in physical stores, reports MediaPost.

Web-only metrics such as click-through rates and online conversions don't provide a full picture of search campaigns, according to James Lamberti, comScore vice-president of marketing solutions, "The ROI being realized here is significantly higher than the analytics packages can pick up," he's quoted as saying.

"This research helps quantify exactly how influential search is for the overall buying process," said John McAteer, head of retail at Google, in a statement. Those who searched for information about videogames, for example, visited stores to purchase the product 93 percent of the time; 80 percent or more of searchers bought offline in the electronics, music and toys categories.