Survey: Consumers want to see Upside offers in Google Maps

Already using Google Maps to navigate and Upside to earn cash back, over half of our survey respondents want them together in one place.

Google Maps is the most popular way for consumers to decide where to go. Upside is the most popular way for consumers to decide where to save.

Consumers say they want both experiences in one.

We recently polled Upside users to better understand the tools they use to make buying decisions. The results showed that they want to see Upside offers right in Google Maps, so that they can compare offers along their route and earn automatically without switching apps.

Putting Upside promotions in Google Maps would deliver wider benefits, too. Participating brick-and-mortar retailers can capture incremental transactions from consumers who often seek out a better net price — producing measurable lifts in visits and revenue. And Google can turn Maps into a commerce engine with more valuable sessions tied to real-world outcomes.

Here’s what else we learned from these consumers.

Incentives drive real-world behavior change

We first wanted to understand how consumers make decisions about where to fill up their tanks. For our survey respondents, the three most important factors as they consider where to buy their fuel are:

Fuel price (81% said it is important to them)
Distance from home or work (38%)
Discounts or coupons (38%)

Next, we asked how they evaluate each station on this criteria to ultimately make a choice. Unsurprisingly, 88% of respondents said they use Upside to help inform their decision; only 12% search nearby in navigation apps.

Although not many individuals use navigation apps to inform their fuel decisions, Google Maps is their top choice for planning their route once they have chosen their station. More than 60% of respondents said Google Maps is their preferred navigation app.

In relying on these digital tools to find value, consumers make it clear that they aren’t attached to any one retailer or brand. In fact, the majority of Google Maps users say they are frequently influenced by Upside offers to choose a different gas station or brand than usual. In all, six in 10 Google Maps users in our survey said Upside “always” or “often” motivates a change in behavior.

Now, this is the big takeaway: More than 60% of survey respondents would like a simple way to see Upside locations on the navigation map, and 46% of them said they want to earn cashback without opening multiple apps.

There’s clear appetite for Upside offers in Google Maps, and we’re ready to deliver — for consumers, for SMBs, and for Google.