From UK supermarkets to international beauty giants, to hospitality groups, Retail Media Networks (RMNs) have quickly become a key source of revenue for many retailers. And, with the market set to grow 25% year on year, it’s easy to see why.
In today’s blog, the retail media experts at Trigg Digital are exploring 5 of the key challenges that retailers and media providers must solve in order to stay ahead of the game in the hotly-contested RMN market.
- The Fragmented Advertiser Journey
For many advertisers, the experience of building and managing advertising campaigns is extremely fragmented. Managing ads across a variety of channels and platforms means multiple asset types and sizes, multiple ad technology platforms, and multiple reporting formats. This all makes for a somewhat stressed-out sales, ad ops and finance teams.
With a well-connected back office powered by process automation, retailers can provide a much smoother service for advertisers, keeping all information regarding their multiple advertising spaces in one consistent dashboard, rather than multiple browser tabs!
- The Need For First-Party Data
With third-party cookies due to be phased out next year, the demand for extensive and reliable first-party data is becoming more and more pertinent. Nowadays, many advertisers expect – nay, demand – access to first-party data with the ability to segment and target consumer personas.
Within a RMN, retailers offer advertisers a wide range of data points captured through loyalty programmes such as ClubCard, Nectar, Prime and Avios. When done well, RMNs provide a detailed persona of each individual customer, matching demographic information with purchasing habits, and channels, to establish a 360 view of the customer. Advertisers can then tap into this audience to acquire, retain and activate this customer data, often omni-channel and in real time, with the potential to reach new audiences through lookalike targeting. To find out more about how this works in practice, check out our previous blog on the role of CDPs in activating real-time data.
- Evolving Ad Technology
Ad technology is forever evolving, with the OG’s in Google Ad Manager (GAM fka DoubleClick for Publishers est. 1996) and Xandr (fka AppNexus) competing with the likes of Kevel and CitrusAd (est. 2016), new platforms are rapidly emerging and changing the landscape for advertisers, media providers and performance marketers alike. For example, despite only existing for around 25 years, social media is now the primary source of digital engagement for many people, with over 4.26 billion people saying they are active on at least one social media platform- does Meta Ads or LinkedIn Ads spring to mind?
With a RMN, retailers can deliver a coherent media selling and buying experience for advertisers, allowing advertisers access to multiple channels to build seamless omnichannel campaigns. Meanwhile, first-party data means advertisers will always have access to a consistent, reliable and attributable source of audience targeting, regardless of how much other channels move the goalposts when it comes to targeting and advertising costs.
- High Service Expectations
Most advertisers have one goal – they want to get their campaign live as soon as possible, reaching as much of their key target audience as possible that are likely to convert, for the least possible cost, resulting in the best possible return on ad spend. Sound simple? Advertisers expect media owners – including retailers – to help them achieve these goals. Unfortunately for many retailers, a lack of transparency, issues surrounding data quality and complex manual processes (that often result in human error) can slow down the go-live process, limit the potential reach of their campaigns, and lead to lost revenue for all parties involved. Far from meeting the high expectations of advertisers, this often results in advertisers that are dissatisfied and looking for alternative places to spend their ad budget.
If established or scaled with a single, connected platform (like Salesforce), retailers can keep everything their RMN needs in one place. With a simple dashboard, connected analytics and no need to transfer data from one platform to another, retailers and their advertisers can benefit from increased transparency and better data quality. Meanwhile, automation and a smooth advertiser journey improves customer service and eliminates the need for human intervention.
Plus, by enabling self-service capabilities, retailers can provide full transparency for their advertising customers with the ability to buy ad inventory without human intervention, reducing the potential for human error and eliminating time-consuming manual processes.
- Pressure To Maximise Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)
According to recent research from WARC, the overall ad market grew 24% from 2020 to 2021 – and it shows no sign of stopping! UK advertising alone has grown by around 25% in the first quarter of 2022, despite rising inflation being a consistent concern for advertisers at the time. The rise in advertising spend, alongside concerns for the UK, US and European economies, has created real pressure for advertisers to prove that their efforts are making returns for the business.
With a well-established RMN, retailers can empower advertisers with access to transparent, real-time data regarding their campaigns, allowing the advertiser to optimise campaigns on the fly to increase return on advertiser spend (ROAS). To find out more about how to improve data quality and simplify campaign, and revenue reporting, for your RMN, get in touch with the experts at Trigg Digital.
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With the ability to provide a whole new revenue stream for retailers, all whilst solving a wide variety of issues for advertisers, from a better user experience to a more detailed view of each customer and their purchasing behaviours, RMNs undoubtedly have huge potential.
To find out more about the retailers currently nailing their RMNs, check out our previous blog highlighting some of the best examples of retail media networks right now.
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Here at Trigg Digital, we’ve developed a killer retail-media team with all the skills and industry knowledge they need to help set up, scale up or drive efficiency for your retail media network.
Get in touch to find out more or get started…
+44 203 239 8492
hello@triggdigital.com
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