An exposed device entered the geofence around one of your locations during the measurement window. It is single-touch attribution: exposed first, then present at the location.
The definition, precisely
A device was collected as exposed in a unit's viewshed, and that same device was later present inside the geofence of a location you supplied. That is the whole claim. It does not assert a purchase and it does not assert intent.
You supply locations as addresses or coordinates and set a radius. The point of interest radius runs from roughly a tenth of a mile up to 25 miles, depending on what the location is.
Presence alone is not enough. A custom dwell time is set for each type of location, so the device has to stay long enough for the stop to read as a visit rather than as passing through. A few minutes is right for somewhere like an art gallery; half an hour suits a restaurant.
Why conversions sometimes show as null
Tight geofences plus partial opt-in rates can produce samples too small to report. Where the number of unique device IDs captured falls below the threshold at which a conversion figure means anything, the field stays empty rather than showing a misleading number.
An empty conversion column is usually a sample size statement, not a bug. A spiky exposure chart is often the same thing: real variation in a small sample.
What can and cannot be measured
Two limits decide whether footfall is available to you at all, and both are worth checking before you buy.
The locations have to be yours: advertiser-operated stores only. Third-party retail, where your product is simply sold on someone else's shelf, cannot be measured this way. A visit to a grocery chain or a warehouse club tells us nothing about whether your product left with the shopper, so that case needs checkout conversion tracking instead.
The locations have to be near the units: stores within about five miles of the units you bought. Beyond that the exposed set and the visiting set stop overlapping enough to measure.
Setting up footfall is separate from your campaign
Adding locations to your campaign map as points of interest does not enroll them in footfall measurement. Only locations uploaded to store attribution are measured. These are two different steps, and the disconnect surprises people.
You cannot currently see the geofence that was mapped on your behalf. Ask and we will confirm it by screenshot; for irregular sites, send us the boundaries.
The report runs on a weekly backend job, so first conversions typically appear within a week of the geofence going in, usually on a Monday.
Reading the numbers
A visit counts if it happens within 30 days of that device's exposure, the same rule used for web and app attribution. There is no separate footfall clock. Collection continues until 30 days after your last unit goes dark, because the last devices exposed still have their own 30 days to run.
There is no published benchmark to compare your rate against yet, so a single number in isolation is hard to read. A benchmark study is being scoped. Until then the useful comparisons are your own: market against market, campaign against campaign, and this flight against your last one.
In house and partner delivery
AdQuick processes footfall attribution against its licensed panel. Traditional footfall lift with a test-and-control cell is a different product, delivered off platform through partners. The article on which lift study answers which question covers where each one fits.
Common misconceptions
Myth: A footfall conversion means a sale.
Reality: It means an exposed device entered the geofence. Nothing about revenue is claimed.
Myth: Locations added to the campaign map are being measured.
Reality: Only locations uploaded to store attribution are measured. Campaign setup and footfall setup are separate steps.
Myth: An empty conversion figure means the report is broken.
Reality: It usually means the sample was too small to report.