In a world where “data is king,” it can be difficult to not get overwhelmed by all the metrics that are available to help determine whether a campaign is successful or not. To add to the complexity, retail media data also overlaps with merchandising and inventory data. All of which contribute to success within a retail media network (RMN). Let’s take a moment to link marketing funnel stages to their respective channels and the key performance indicators (KPIs) that are prioritized for each. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is often the most emphasized KPI in retail media (and digital marketing in general). However, it’s important to remember that ROAS can vary significantly. It depends on the ad unit and is not easily comparable across all channels.
Retail media: Onsite top to mid funnel
Sponsored video placements
Video ad units allow consumers to engage with brands and products, allowing advertisers to tell their story directly to shoppers.
- While impressions may seem like a “soft” metric in online data, it plays a critical role in this ad unit.
- Another metric to prioritize is play thru rate. For example, did the consumer watch the entire video, or did they click elsewhere?
- Click thru rate (CTR) is a consideration here, but not the primary KPI.
Display banners
Display banners, similar to video, can be a great way for advertisers to educate shoppers. It allows them to provide key value proposition of a product to the shopper. While ROAS may be lower than sponsored search, these units are valuable to the overall strategy for brand engagement.
- Again, impressions are a metric to prioritize. It gives a sense of the breadth of the retailer traffic to the particular page the banner is being served on.
- CTR plays a larger role in this ad unit than video.
- We begin to consider ROAS for display banners. But know that in general display has a higher CPM than search and therefore typically a lower ROAS.
Onsite lower funnel
Catapults and sponsored carousels
These units are introductory lower funnel. They can often integrate behavioral segmentation, while also allowing the shopper to see several key SKUs together. This helps demonstrate depth and breadth of a brand’s portfolio.
- CTR helps determine which of the products (when shown together) stood out to the consumer.
- The conversion rate is introduced here as we narrow our focus on lower funnel transactional behavior.
- Cost per click (CPC) is a priority for evaluating the efficiency of your ad unit and whether you prioritized the right SKUs in this instance.
Sponsored product (search) ads (SPAs)
Keyword relevancy coupled with sophisticated automated or manual bidding will allow SPAs to stand out amongst other paid or organic search listings. The relevancy of the keyword search match the ad unit and product is critical for success, along with managing your bidding budget to be competitive amongst your product category,
- Ad position is a metric that is correlated to the bidding budget as you outbid the competition and therefore have a better ad serving location (i.e. top of page)
- CPC is crucial for assessing the efficiency of the ad unit and determining if the advertiser selected the most effective SKUs for the campaign.
- Sales revenue is the total revenue attributed to your ad campaign.
While it’s essential to highlight specific key metrics in retail media, the metrics prioritized will differ based on the campaign and the advertiser’s objectives. Marketers can leverage their understanding of marketing funnel channels and tactics, aligning these expectations with key data, as this approach is also relevant to retail media strategies. Ultimately, the most effective indicator of successful spending in any retail media network is an increase in sales, both from campaigns and overall sales growth. Schedule a demo today.
Meghan Barden is director of global retail media at Rithum.
