The digital marketing space can be challenging, yet it also presents numerous opportunities for retail businesses to thrive. In today’s landscape, one of the most promising avenues for these businesses to direct their efforts is within retail media networks.
Retail media has developed into a robust 50 billion dollar market as of 2023, making up a significant 20% of ad spend within the United States. This underscores retail media networks’ immense potential and relevance for strategic growth and influence.
What is Retail Media?
In short, retail media is marketing and advertising on major retailer’s digital properties. The largest examples of this are Amazon ads and Walmart Connect. In many cases, those advertising are brands that sell through those retailers, though this is not a requirement.
Ultimately, digital retail media can be equated to advertisements for brands in a physical retail store.
Optimizing Efforts within Retail Media Networks
Choosing the Right Platform
The first and most crucial step in mastering retail media networks is choosing the right partner platforms. This aligns with one of the fundamental principles of marketing: relevancy.
In other words, brands must ensure their products are relevant to the platform’s audience. For instance, skin care retailers wouldn’t advertise on Best Buy’s retail media network. By making the right choice, you can steer your brand towards success within the retail media landscape.
Don’t Settle for Basic Ads
Since countless brands will be joining the retail media network train, it is vital for brands to stand out. The most common form of advertisement within retail media networks is native ads. These will blend into the other search results, with a small ‘sponsored’ tag added. However, retailers and brands will also be able to capitalize through display and interactive ads. These forms of ads can deliver significantly more active engagement to viewers.
A perfect example of this is the partnership between L’Oréal and Walmart Connect. L’Oréal launched targeted ads through Walmart’s platform, which employed AR technology to let customers “try on” hair dye colors before committing. These interactive ads produced a staggering 25% increase in sales.
Moreover, the opportunities for improved advertising over traditional ads continue to expand. For instance, DICK’s Sporting Goods is now allowing advertisers to purchase audio ad space over their in-store speakers.
The True Strength of Retail Media Networks: First-Party Data
Personalization is vital in modern marketing efforts, and retail media networks make it easier than ever to truly connect with customers. Retail media networks have the advantage of giving brands access to the first-party data of major retailers like Walmart and Amazon. In other words, brands can understand shoppers’ habits, preferences, dislikes, and more.
Brands must leverage this information to deliver carefully crafted and timed ads that will connect with customers when they are most likely to convert. When properly executed, this can contribute to significantly higher returns.
The Retail Media Network Future
As massive retailers continue to capitalize on selling their ad space, every retail media network will become an invaluable weapon for targeted marketing efforts. Brands that employ strategic efforts along these channels can contact customers at a significant decision-making junction.
However, don’t treat retail media networks as the end-all-be-all of your marketing strategy. They are effective as part of your entire omnichannel approach, so don’t cut successful efforts elsewhere; integrate them for a seamless strategy. Moreover, they need to be measured and optimized like any other campaign. Keep a close eye on KPI performance and refine as necessary.
Are you truly harnessing the full potential of your retail media networks?
