In this article…
Digital advertising experienced a transformative shift in 2023, with retail media networks emerging as a focal point for advertisers seeking precision and efficacy. These networks defined how brands connect with consumers, utilizing the unique environment of digital storefronts to deliver targeted and personalized advertisements. Below, we’ll discuss the diverse landscape of retail media networks, examples of these platforms, and how Experian is at the forefront of empowering advertisers within this evolving marketing ecosystem.
What are retail media networks?
A retail media network (RMN) is an advertising platform retailers use in their digital storefronts or online platforms. It lets brands and advertisers promote their products or services directly within the retail environment where consumers make purchasing decisions. Unlike traditional advertising channels, RMNs use the retailer’s first-party data to offer targeted and personalized advertising experiences.
How important is it to advertise with RMNs?
RMNs offer advertisers a unique advantage — a rich set of first-party data on consumers, both on and off the platform. On-platform data includes user engagement insights, demographic information, and behavioral patterns. RMNs offer off-platform first-party data, such as cross-channel integration and CRM data integration. This data is especially important as the industry sees a shift away from the reliance on third-party cookies.
One of the key challenges brands face is the lack of tracking abilities through the customer journey. However, the closed-loop measurement and attribution capabilities within RMNs help advertisers track the entire consumer journey, linking campaign spend directly to final sales and in-store purchases. The precision and accountability offered by RMNs make them a crucial strategy in the ever-evolving world of digital advertising.
Trends with big RMNs
Here is a list of retail media networks and their performance in 2023. The information below offers insights into their reach and effectiveness in driving sales and brand visibility.
Amazon
According to Pacvue’s Q4 guide, Amazon Media Network experienced a year-over-year decline in its daily spend. However, a notable quarterly increase of 3.2% suggests a recent expansion in this ad type. The current average CPC for Amazon-sponsored products is $1.21, marking a substantial 7.1% year-over-year increase. Return on ad spend (ROAS) showed a 1.5% year-over-year decrease but increased by 6.1% quarter-over-quarter, potentially caused by more efficient campaigns. The beauty category showed a particularly strong performance with a remarkable 69.4% year-over-year increase.
Walmart
Walmart’s advertising revenues are surging at a rate twice that of Amazon, according to the Pacvue Q4 report. This quarter, the Walmart Media Network experienced a substantial 40% boost in ROAS, now at $6.93. This advancement can be attributed to strategic adjustments in the algorithm and bid rules and the incorporation of new bid features. Walmart’s CPC also witnessed a noteworthy 18.3% year-over-year decrease and a 14.5% year-over-year surge in average ad spend. Walmart’s growth trajectory emphasizes the shift in consumer behavior toward product discovery, as many consumers research products on the website before purchasing.
Kroger
Kroger developed an advanced retail media network that launched in October 2023. Their platform offers advertisers a more streamlined way to activate, measure, and optimize their campaigns, leading to improved advertising performance. The self-serve advertising platform lets advertisers promote products across the Kroger family of brands. Kroger is the biggest grocery chain in the country with a strong first-party shopper data set, providing more advanced audience targeting than many other grocery RMNs.
Target
Target launched its retail media network, Roundel, in 2016 to enhance the connection between brands and guests through curated media experiences. Roundel uses Target’s rich insights to create personalized advertising campaigns, reaching guests across several platforms and premium publishers. Over the past two years, Roundel has experienced over 60% growth, delivering over one billion in value for Target in 2021 and 2022. With a team of over 500 members, the platform differentiates itself by offering easy-to-use advertising solutions to brands of all sizes. Target plans to launch Roundel Media Studio, a self-service buying tool, in early 2024.
Marriott
In partnership with Yahoo, Marriott has created a travel media network that lets advertisers target consumers based on the hotel chain’s guest data. This collaboration allows ads to be strategically placed on various platforms, including the hotel’s websites. Marriott Media Network’s rollout will start on mobile platforms similar to traditional RMNs. Over time, it will extend to include ad placements on TV screens in guest rooms, Wi-Fi portals, and various digital screens in other areas, like lobbies and bars. This innovative approach in the hotel industry offers marketers diverse opportunities to reach their target audience.
Nordstrom
Nordstrom Media Network has shown considerable success, generating over $40 million in revenue and collaborating with several brand partners. Introduced in 2019, this network initially experimented with off-site campaigns and later expanded to on-site sponsored ads in 2021. Nordstrom Media Network offers data from 32 million customers and digital properties with nearly two billion annual visits. The network’s focus on personalizing the customer experience helps it stand out in the competitive retail media space and makes it a valuable player in the evolving digital advertising landscape.
CVS
With CVS Media Exchange, advertisers have access to a data set of 74+ million customers. This platform creates tailored campaigns for companies, helping their ads reach customers at the most critical points in their shopping journey. With options like display, video, audio, social, and in-store ad options, advertisers are seeing increases in product purchases and brand awareness.
Instacart
Instacart has a retail media network through its own platform and a tool called Carrot Ads, which helps grocery store chains develop RMNs through Instacart. It has a network of over 1,400 retail brands, helping advertisers reach their target audience. Advertisers have access to insights and automation to create relevant ads and track their progress.
Companies like Sprouts are using Carrot Ads to create and grow their own RMNs. Together, Instacart and Sprouts offer brands a unique opportunity by facilitating targeted online campaigns on Sprouts’ website. This collaboration provides access to metrics like sales and ROAS, offering a comprehensive view of campaign performance.
DoorDash
DoorDash offers a comprehensive suite of advertising tools for restaurants and brands to expand their reach on the DoorDash marketplace. This flexible advertising platform extends across diverse categories, like restaurants, grocery, convenience, alcohol, and more. The platform has demonstrated success with an average return on ad spend of 4.1x from sponsored product campaigns and an average of 70% new-to-brand customers.
Reasons behind these trends
The surge in advertising trends within RMNs can be attributed to several critical factors, including the following:
Rising retail media competition
The competitive landscape within the retail world has intensified, with major players competing for a larger share of the advertising pie within their respective RMNs. This surge in competition among retailers like Lowe’s One Roof, Sprouts, 84.51, and Albertson’s Media Collective has led to a continual evolution of features and capabilities. Advertisers benefit from this competitive spirit because it drives innovation and offers enhanced tools and opportunities to refine their advertising strategies. The competitive edge creates an environment where RMNs continually improve and adapt to meet the needs of both advertisers and consumers.
Third-party cookie deprecation
Major web browsers are getting rid of third-party cookies, so advertisers must reevaluate their targeting and tracking strategies. Because of this, the first-party stronghold of RMNs is particularly valuable. Advertisers can rely on their reservoir of first-party data with RMNs to maintain effective audience targeting and measurement capabilities. The emphasis on first-party data aligns with advertisers’ needs in the post-cookie era, making RMNs crucial partners in the pursuit of effective and privacy-conscious advertising solutions.
Crafting your RMN ad strategy
Crafting an effective RMN ad strategy is a multifaceted process that involves careful planning. You start with clean, scaled, and scoped data, then everything waterfalls from there. When done correctly, you reach the right audience, your ROAS/ROI results improve, your marketing spend is more effective, and your advertisers want to spend more with your RMN. Here are steps to consider when developing your RMN ad strategy.
Choose the best RMN partner for your needs
Selecting the right partner is a critical first step. Ensure your partner seamlessly integrates with your existing MarTech stack, avoiding any additional workload for your existing team. A symbiotic relationship with your RMN partner enhances collaboration and streamlines your advertising initiatives.
Experian’s comprehensive data and identity solutions can help RMNs maximize their opportunity, with our new solution tailored to enhance RMNs’ strength in first-party shopper data. Experian’s solution helps RMNs unlock expanded customer insights, enriched audiences for activation, identity resolution for cross-channel audience targeting, and real-time measurement and attribution. This comprehensive solution is designed to help RMNs capture more advertising revenue. Our goal is to ensure you capture the most advertising dollars and make your RMN operate at its peak performance.
Utilize third-party data
One of the cornerstones of an effective RMN strategy is the integration of third-party data. This is where Experian steps in as a critical ally. Experian’s robust third-party data solutions can enhance an RMN’s first-party data to create more scale and scope for RMN audiences. This, in turn, will open up more opportunities for advertiser investment.
Utilize first-party data
The main advantage of RMNs is the access to first-party data. Advertisers can use this data to create personalized and targeted campaigns. By tailoring your messages based on consumer expectations, preferences, behaviors, and purchase history, you create a more engaging and relevant ad experience. This not only boosts the effectiveness of your campaigns but also fosters a deeper connection between your brand and the audience.
Promote relevant products
Personalized ads are crucial for capturing audience attention and driving conversions. With retail media platforms, advertisers can personalize their campaigns to individual shoppers. Promoting products that align with your audience’s specific needs and preferences increases the likelihood of conversions.
Consider the consumer journey
Strategic ad placement within the consumer journey is pivotal. Consider targeting consumers late in the decision-making process when they’re in a shopping mindset. Placing ads at this point in the customer journey increases the chance of converting prospects into customers. Understanding the customer journey within an RMN system allows for a more targeted and impactful advertising strategy.
Measure data and adapt
The final step in the process is continuous measurement and adaptation. Retail media platforms include powerful analytics tools that let advertisers track and analyze ad performance in real time. Use these insights to adapt your strategy. A data-driven approach ensures your campaign remains responsive to the changing marketing dynamics.
Elevate your advertising strategy with Experian
Transform your advertising strategy with Experian’s cutting-edge Consumer View solutions. These advanced tools excel in audience segmentation and easily integrate your first-party data with our comprehensive third-party insights. This ensures the seamless activation of your data across online and offline channels. Experian also has custom audiences and audiences that are available on-the-shelf of most major platforms. This and our onboarding capabilities make Experian the perfect partner for your RMN strategy.
Connect with a member of our team today to take the next step in elevating your advertising campaigns.
Latest posts
African Americans represent 11% of the U.S. adult population and, as a group, constitute the nation’s largest racial minority market. African Americans are also more optimistic about their financial situation than the general population, and with good reason. According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, African American buying power reached $913 billion in 2008, up from $590 billion in 2000. By 2013, African American buying power will reach an astonishing $1.2 trillion, meaning that almost nine cents out of every dollar spent in the United States will come from African American consumers. In celebration of Black History Month, Experian Simmons examines the attitudes, behaviors and media consumption of our country’s African American consumers using data from Simmons DataStreamSM, the Simmons National Consumer Study, New Media Study, Multi-Media Engagement Study and Experian MicromarketerG3 as well as findings from our friends at Experian Hitwise. When it comes to attitudes towards personal financial outlook, African Americans are more likely than the average American adult to say that in the next 12 months they will be better off financially. As of December 28th, 2009, 36% of African Americans said they would be better off financially in the next 12 months, compared with 31% of all adults who felt the same. African Americans are trend setters. Below are the top indexing statements on apparel, auto, food and social interaction among African American adults compared to the total adult population. Index relative to total adult population in parentheses. House Beautiful magazine is a great publication for reaching African Americans who respond to print ads. Readers of House Beautiful, for instance, are 37% more likely to be African American and House Beautiful scores 83% higher than the average magazine among African American readers who say they are likely to buy product or services advertised in the magazine. Where in the United States is the best place to find African American consumers with household incomes of $100,000 or more? Hinesville-Fort Stewart, Georgia is tops followed by Fresno and Stockton, California. African American consumers are more likely than the average online adult to use a wide range of emerging technologies and media. For instance, online African American consumers are 20% more likely than average to watch movies online, 19% more likely to listen to Internet radio and 18% more likely to use social tags or bookmarks. Below are the top sites ranked by the percentage of visits coming from the top African American Mosaic lifestyle segments. The list is dominated by social networking sites.
Coffee drinkers in America Coffee plays such an integral part of every day life in America that it may be safe to say that coffee helps the United States go round. In fact, fully 60% of all U.S. households use either whole or ground coffee beans at home. Experian Simmons extensively reviewed the American coffee drinker for this report which features detailed insights into the coffee-drinking American. In addition, we compare the patrons of Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, the leading players in the battle for brew. Coffee in the Home The average U.S. household that uses whole or ground coffee consumes 4.2 cups per day. In total that’s about 280.5 million cups of coffee consumed at home by Americans each day or about 102 billion cups per year. Among households that use coffee, 89% stock regular coffee and 46% stock decaf.* Among households that use coffee, 84% use pre-ground coffee and 26% use whole bean coffee at least some of the time.* Instant Flavored Coffee Over a quarter of households (27%) stock instant coffee. Sixteen percent of households use instant flavored coffee. The most commonly used flavors among instant flavored coffee drinkers are: Older Americans More Likely to Drink Coffee Fifty-seven percent of adults ages 18-24 live in households that use coffee, but 25 to 34 year olds are the least likely to stock coffee in their cupboards with only 54% reporting they use whole or ground bean coffee at home. Coffee Use Increases with Household Income Seventy percent of Americans who report annual household incomes of $150,000+ drink coffee compared with 54% of those with household income less than $25,000. Dunkin' Donuts Vs. Starbucks Dunkin' Donuts 11% of American adults go to DD Between 9.15.08 and 9.15.09 the share of DD customers who go there 6+ times a month is up 11%* DD consumers are 41% more likely than the average adult to be registered Independents and 9% less likely to be registered Republicans Starbucks 13% of American adults go to Starbucks Between 9.15.08 and 9.15.09 the share of Starbucks customers who go there 6+ times a month is down 22% Starbucks consumers are 11% more likely to be registered Independents and 11% more likely to be registered Republicans Coffee Drinkers Are Coffee Drinkers A majority of coffee-drinking Americans are loyal to their franchise. However, there are a considerable number of Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks consumers who jump between coffee houses. How Often Americans Order Their Coffee The majority of both Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks customers visit each chain between one and five times in a typical month. Learn more about Simmons consumer research and studies.
Two-thirds of U.S. Households Use Coupons Two-thirds of American households (67%) use coupons. And while the vast majority of households using coupons (87%) say they use them to save money, 30% also say that coupons are a way for them to try out new products. Newspapers are still the number one coupon source with 70% of coupon households still getting their coupons from a newspaper. The Internet is growing as a coupon source. A quarter of coupon households get coupons online today, up 46% in the last three years. What Americans Buy With Their coupons Nearly half of all American households use coupons to buy food/grocery products making them the most common items purchased with coupons followed by cleaning products and beauty/grooming products. Seven percent of households buy tobacco using coupons. Where Are Coupons Redeemed? Given that half of U.S. households use coupons for food/grocery products, it’s no surprise that 60% of all households redeem coupons in supermarket, grocery or convenient stores. While only a quarter of all households use coupons at restaurants/fast food chains, that number has risen by 9% since 2006, when 23% of households redeemed coupons at restaurants. Coupons Attract New Consumers With the start of the holiday shopping season around the corner retailers want to make sure consumers visit their store and/or website. One way to drive consumer traffic is with coupons. Close to 50 percent of American adults say they are likely to be drawn to a store they don’t normally shop at by a coupon. The Experian Simmons retail shopping segment known as Mall Maniacs make up just 12% of all shoppers, but that group is 82% more likely to be drawn to a new store by a coupon. Percentage of U.S. Adult Population by Shopping Segment Mall Maniacs and Status Strivers are 66% and 26% more likely, respectively, to appreciate getting emails that announce new products and services. Identifying these consumers is key to maximize online marketing dollars. Additionally, with more and more consumers shopping online, companies should ensure that coupons are redeemable both online and in-stores.