Updates on noteworthy initiatives across the retail media marketplace from Mars United’s Commerce Media team.

To keep the industry updated between the quarterly editions of our Retail Media Report Card, Mars United Commerce is monitoring the efforts at leading retailers and platforms to improve and expand their capabilities and services.

We’re focusing on the initiatives that are expected to impact the way advertisers effectively plan, execute, and measure their marketing programs on these networks, either directly through new behind-the-scenes tools and capabilities, or indirectly through shopper engagement activity that will enhance (or at least alter) the way brands interact with shoppers.

The information covered in these updates will be used by our Commerce Media analysts to inform the network assessments presented in future editions of the Report Card.

The next Retail Media Report Card
will be released on September 25.

Amazon Ads

Amazon has expanded its offsite media opportunities by teaming with TikTok and Pinterest to let their users purchase products through Amazon.com via shoppable ads while remaining in the respective social media platform.

TikTok users who link to their Amazon account will find product recommendations in their “For You” feeds, and can then make purchases through the ads without leaving the social media app. U.S. users will get access to real-time pricing, the item’s Amazon Prime eligibility, delivery time estimates, and product details. 

The program on Pinterest works in a similar manner, expanding a partnership that began integrating shoppable Amazon Ads promotions into the social platform in spring 2023.

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Best Buy Ads

Best Buy is also expanding its retail media offerings to offsite venues such as Meta, Google, Bing, and TikTok through a partnership with third-party self-service platform operator Symbiosys. The retailer is testing the tech company’s advanced targeting and engagement tools, allowing brand partners to leverage Best Buy’s shopper reach and customer affinity across offsite opportunities. Symbiosis’ capabilities also include “bid-stacking” technology that lets brands and retailers co-bid on premium ad placements.

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Dollar General Media Network

“Stories” is a popular feature on many social media platforms that lets users share short-form narratives — aka “Stories — that are only viewable for 24 hours. The feature has gained widespread reach and appeal across a number of platforms.

DGMN is now leveraging the format for “DG Stories,” a new media opportunity in which advertisers can create and present compelling videos, animated GIFs, or static images within Dollar General’s mobile app. The goal is to help brands craft their own messaging to reach target audiences in a more entertaining, engaging way.  

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DoorDash Advertising

DoorDash is also partnering with Symbiosis to activate offsite media and drive incremental traffic back to its on-demand delivery platform. The goal is to gain new users, orders, and lifetime shoppers while increasing engagement opportunities for brand partners. Like Best Buy,  DoorDash will look to leverage Symbiosis technology to co-fund campaigns with brand partners and multiply the impact of their marketing spend.  

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Gopuff Ads

Gopuff has rolled out an in-house ad platform that’s designed to improve ad relevance, targeting, and engagement for brands. The platform now boasts intelligent, predictive tools for objective-based buying, personalized audience targeting, bid optimization, and other advanced capabilities.

The new Gopuff Ads platform considers each customer’s shopping behavior and previous purchases, along with time of day, localized product popularity, and numerous other data points to surface the most relevant ad and product for each targeted shopper. 

Gopuff previously worked with third-party platform operator CitrusAd.

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Instacart Ads

Instacart formed a strategic partnership that makes Ibotta Performance Network the on-demand delivery platform’s preferred third-party coupon provider across all eligible product categories. Instacart shoppers now have access to Ibotta’s industry-leading coupon catalog, which the partners say will deliver more timely, relevant offers. For CPG brands, the partnership presents enhanced opportunities to reach shoppers across the Instacart platform’s 1,500+ retailer partners. 

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John Lewis 

UK department store retailer John Lewis has introduced a self-service platform that lets brands create and manage their own display ads and sponsored product campaigns. The platform’s dashboard lets advertisers view campaign performance down to the product-specific  and search term-specific levels. The increased visibility will help advertisers quickly adapt to seasonal trends and sales peaks, according to the retailer.

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​​Kroger Precision Marketing

KPM is making forays into paid search bidding by giving advertisers the opportunity to boost bids on top keywords to inform the retailer’s search algorithm. The boosted dollar amount is added to the product’s base bid to help brands win where it will matter most. The capability is only available on search & browse placements through the Kroger Ad Platform (KAP). The objective is to improve click-through and conversion rates by increasing product visibility.

Unlike most retail media platforms, KPM does not allow keyword-level bidding on paid search. Instead, KAP chooses 100 relevant exact-match keywords based on various factors; advertisers then choose which keywords they want to bid on — and now how much to boost.

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Sam’s Club Member Access Platform

Sam’s Club MAP is now offering display ad opportunities on the warehouse club retailer’s Scan & Go mobile app. Members who opt in will be exposed to ads on their cart page that dynamically refresh whenever a product is scanned during the trip. 

Scan & Go lets in-club shoppers scan items as they walk the store and complete payment without waiting in a checkout line. Over the past three years, adoption has increased 50%, driven largely by Gen Z and other younger members. 

The new capability makes Sam’s Club MAP the first retail media platform to integrate ads into a self-checkout app experience. In addition to the convenience and discovery opportunities it offers shoppers, the new offering enables advertisers to reach members in-store and potentially drive incremental sales. 

It also provides a new way to measure shopper behavior as well as ad performance; using MAP’s closed-loop attribution, advertisers will be able to track metrics including return on ad spend, click-through rate, incremental sales and conversion rate. 

With the move, Sam’s Club is putting smartphones at the center of in-store retail media advertising — a direction more retailers are likely to take to improve audience targeting and measurement capabilities in the brick-and-mortar environment.

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Mars United Commerce is an independently owned global commerce marketing practice that aligns people, technology, and intelligence to make the business of our clients better today than it was yesterday. Our worldwide capabilities coalesce into four key disciplines — Strategy & Analytics, Content & Experiences, Digital Commerce, and Retail Consultancy — that individually deliver unmatched results for clients and collectively give them an unparalleled network of seamlessly integrated functions across the entire commerce marketing ecosystem. These disciplines are powered by our industry-leading technology platform, Marilyn®, which helps marketers understand the total business impact of their commerce marketing activation, enabling them to make better decisions, create connected experiences, and drive stronger, measurable results. Learn more at https://www.marsunited.com