In recent years, brands have had to narrowly balance how they spend their shopper marketing, brand marketing, and trade advertising dollars.
As online shopping developed, platforms like Amazon, one of the leading figures in retail media, surged. Unlike traditional advertising, which rarely connects with shoppers at the point of purchase and can lack the precision necessary to maximize sales, retail media networks allow advertisers to place targeted ads and product placements in front of millions of shoppers actively looking to buy then and there.
U.S. retail media ad spending is predicted to surge in the next three years, passing $109 billion by 2027. While on-site placements still account for 85.5% of all advertising spending, that number is starting to diminish.
While on-site advertising has benefits, the dollars invested can only get you so far. These on-site adverts can be hugely beneficial if shoppers are already browsing on that site, but how do you win customers from other off-site channels?
Here’s how many brands are adjusting their marketing strategy and budget, and leveraging off-site marketing:
Only a certain number of customers are actively on a marketplace, about to add a product to the cart. However, the untapped opportunity is that the shopping journey doesn’t just happen on the marketplace; it happens all over the web, from search to social. It’s not a linear path, either. Customers actively search for products with an intent to buy on Google, and they are influenced in real time by product recommendations on social media. You can meet them wherever they’re at online, already engaging with products, then guide them directly to the marketplace where they want to buy.
To consistently grow their audiences, brands are dedicating more time and resources to off-site channels like Google and social media. Nearly 60% of shoppers surveyed in a recent study said they use Google to research a potential purchase before they make the final buying decision, and more than half said they use the search engine to discover new products and brands.
Historically, traffic acquisition to retail lied in the remit of the retailer and was not well measured from a brand’s perspective. As such, budgets dedicated to off-site spend, such as social media and search marketing channels, were largely separate from the retail performance conversation
Things have changed since then, and brands now have new opportunities to drive – and measure – qualified traffic to online retailers and marketplaces.This allows more significant attribution, and, more importantly, you can directly drive sales often times while simultaneously building brand equities.
Budgets can still be used to reach new customers and build an audience, primarily through channels like Google, but your web traffic’s destination is what makes the biggest difference. Instead of sending people to your website’s homepage, you can funnel them to more impactful destinations like Product Detail Pages (PDPs) or branded marketplace pages.
That means shoppers can buy from you immediately, or you can target a new audience with ads on the marketplace itself.
We bridge the gap between off-site ads and retail media networks like Amazon. With Ampd, you can maximize return on ad spend and grow your market share by attracting new-to-brand customers through mid-funnel targeting.
Book a demo to discover how to leverage off-site channels and your marketing budget for maximum impact.