Why you should be using shoppable media to boost your retail media performance...
In this 5 minute read, Adimo's VP of New Business Courtney Maggs-Jones discusses the merits and challenges of retail media, and how shoppable media might just be the thing that solves them.
Retail media has become one of the most hotly talked about topics on the event circuit this year - and when you look at how effective it is as a form of advertising, it’s easy to see why. But the truth is, retail media has actually been around for years - so why the sudden obsession?
In this 5-minute read, we explore why it’s become so popular, what’s still holding retail media back and how Adimo technology can be used to overcome some of those challenges.
So, why is retail media so effective?
It’s a 1st party data goldmine
When it comes to audience building on retail media networks, it’s pretty much all made up of 1st party data points. Crucial information like purchase histories, online browsing and demographic data are used for super precise targeting parameters that in turn lead to the creation of audiences with high purchase intent.
As we keep hearing time and time again, 3rd party cookies are dying, and so with it dies the use of 3rd party data for advertising. So, when you think about just how much first-party data retailers have at their fingertips, it’s very easy to see why there’s such an enormous buzz around retail media right now.
Native experiences at the point of purchase
Whether they’re on or offline, retail media placements are (for obvious reasons) usually very close to the point of purchase. This makes them the perfect format to capture customers’ attention when they’re in a buying mindset, and in turn drive very high conversion rates.
When you put this in the context of on-site specifically, retail media units are usually native, blending in seamlessly with the wider supermarket shopping experience. Not only does this reduce disruption to the customer journey without compromising engagement; the contextual nature of these ad placements helps build positive engagement between customers, advertisers and the retailer. Ads become helpful reminders.
Promoting brand x retailer collaboration
These days, most retailers have built or are building their own media networks - Amazon, Walmart, Tesco and Nectar are just some examples of big names already doing this - and the list of retailers leveraging their 1st party data as a media opportunity will only continue to grow. Whilst this creates some challenges (that we’ll come onto in a minute), it also creates enormous opportunities for more brand x retailer collaboration.
Retailers are investing heavily to build out whole media teams dedicated to getting the most out of campaigns advertising on their networks. By replicating an ad agency model in-house, closer relationships between brands and retailers are leading to more effective campaigns that are driven by shared data and insights.
What challenges does this create for the traditional marketing funnel?
In a lot of ways, the hype around retail media has shaken up the marketing funnel. With awareness, discovery and purchase all happening at the same time on a retailer site, the consumer journey has been streamlined and the funnel seemingly collapsed.
But this way of working has created gaps and challenges that brands need to be mindful of:
Walled gardens
With more and more retailers creating networks, that age-old digital advertising issue of navigating walled gardens is beginning to rear it’s head again. Getting your data out of one platform for use in another is challenging, and with so many new buying platforms emerging, how do you decide which ones to prioritise to extract ROI?
Policing off-site placements
Like with all other aspects of media, being diligent about your ad placements and brand safety is crucial. Many retailer networks provide the opportunity to purchase offsite space, but how do you keep a handle on the content your offsite retail media is sitting alongside?
How do you scale?
Like we’ve already touched upon, there are retail media networks popping up all over the place. Whilst the major players are all up and running, medium-sized local market retailers may not be - and this is causing the space to become very fragmented.
How Adimo shoppable media can plug gaps in the collapsed funnel
Even with the collapse of the traditional funnel, gaps in the consumer journey need addressing to ensure a seamless experience and to maximise conversions. Adimo’s shoppable media can effectively solve these challenges created by the current retail media ecosystem.
Addressing awareness and consideration gaps within rich media
Adimo uses rich, interactive media such as shoppable videos and images to provide engaging, informative content that offers a direct path to purchase. By integrating multiple retailers and live pricing and stock availability, users who engage with these rich media formats are given the power of choice - making it a retailer-agnostic solution.
Retailer data that lives outside walled gardens
Because Adimo’s solutions live on media formats outside of retailer networks, but drive traffic directly to purchase - we’re collecting invaluable data about a user’s product and retailer preferences, price sensitivity and shopping behaviour that can be accessed 24/7 outside of a retail media platform.
This mid-funnel data can be used to optimise and reallocate budget in the lower funnel, helping brands focus their spend on purely the retail media networks that will drive the highest conversion rates.
Enhancing off-site shopping experiences
Adimo’s shopping integrations don’t just work within media formats, but other forms of paid and owned advertising too - from social media through to CTV and OOH. By taking a commerce-driven, omnichannel approach throughout the mid-funnel, brands are able to use the data that’s gathered for better retargeting at a lower funnel level both on and off retailer networks.
Maximising Retail Media and Shoppable Media Strategies
To enhance retail media and shoppable media strategies:
1. Analyse and Optimise Performance
Track and analyse the performance of all shoppable media campaigns to refine strategies and optimise ROI.
Adimo’s platform and granular tracking capabilities give brands the power to report on and optimise their campaigns mid-flight. From breaking down campaign performance by retailer or even product SKU - our data insights can be used to hone your strategies further down the funnel - including how you allocate your retail media spend. For example, if we can report on high conversion for certain products at certain retailers in a multi-retailer touchpoint, but the outcome of sales performance is low, this is the perfect use case to recommend onsite spend with that retailer’s media offering.
2. Integrate with More ecommerce Retailers
Ensure seamless integration with ecommerce platforms to reduce cart abandonment and maintain a consistent customer experience.
One of the biggest causes of online dead-ends is a lack of up-to-date information - don’t you just hate finding out the product you wanted is out of stock? This is a common occurrence with commerce media solutions that build BuyNow touchpoints off the back of a product catalogue - because there’s nothing or no one in the background making sure your product pricing, stock and availability information for each retail partner is up to date.
That’s why Adimo does things differently - indexing a brand’s chosen retailers daily and surfacing that live information in shopping experiences. This means more informed customer decisions, and far fewer dead ends.
3. Leverage Retargeting
Use retargeting strategies to re-engage users who interacted with shoppable media but did not make a purchase.
Having shopper behaviour data at your fingertips opens up a world of retargeting possibilities that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. We’ve seen a lot of different retargeting strategies play out but our client favourites are the ones retargeting based on SKU & retailer engagement - re-engaging audiences with targeted cart abandonment messaging.
4. Experiment with Interactive Formats
Compare different interactive media formats to find the most effective for driving sales.
We have a suite of shoppable media formats designed with different KPIs in mind - from retailer-first solutions that collect more data points for retargeting, to price-focused solutions to deliver the quickest conversion possible. This can also extend into testing different creatives of static banners vs. GIFs and videos, or indeed different product order optimisations. It could also be testing native programmatic touchpoints vs clicking out to landing pages to split test data capture opportunities. With built-in A/B testing functionality, brand and agency teams have the tools to test which formats are most effective at driving sales and achieving other KPIs.
5. Foster User-Generated Content
Encourage user-generated content that includes direct shopping links to enhance credibility and drive organic engagement.
Tracked shoppable landing pages like ours can be used for far more than your paid media activity. By incorporating them into an always-on strategy, they can monetise your community management initiatives, and earned or organic engagement. Turn those ‘Hey, where can I buy this?’ comments on Instagram into a shopping opportunity that converts.
To conclude…
By combining your shoppable media and retail media strategies, brands can create a more engaging, seamless, and direct path to purchase for consumers, enhancing the shopping experience and maximising the efficiency of media spend. This will ultimately lead to higher conversions and better overall ROI.
Adimo’s solutions can be used to take this one step further - addressing gaps in awareness, consideration and user experience to ensure consumers are getting the most efficient journey possible whilst still having the power of choice.
If you’d like to see how our media solutions can fit in around your retail media plans and plug the gaps in your sales funnel, get in touch today.