IAS: Driving ROI on Retail Media Networks

Advertisers are increasing their spending on retail media networks (RMNs), to the point where their spending on RMN advertising may soon surpass that on traditional TV ads. They are doing so “following consumer habits,” as an IAS survey found that 98% of U.S. Internet users have purchased something on an RMN in the past year.

Additionally, 91% of U.S. retail media consumers surveyed expect to increase or maintain their shopping on online retail platforms in the next year.

The survey results show that RMN advertising is effective in attracting consumers' attention and driving sales. 89% of RMN shoppers surveyed said they have paid attention to at least one retail media advertisement, and about half (48%) have clicked on a retail media advertisement in the past year. Nearly nine in ten (86%) said that RMN advertising led them to find products they purchased on retail platforms in the past year.

The type of RMN ad most likely to capture shoppers’ attention is one that promotes a product, with about half (51%) of RMN shoppers saying they pay attention to this type of ad and 44% making a purchase from this type of ad.

Next, about 44% of consumers will pay attention to ads for the best-selling products in the product category they are browsing, and 41% will pay attention to ads for products they “might like.”

There are privacy considerations here, as separate research has found that the deprecation of cookies will have a strong impact on retail media. Specifically, two-thirds of RMN shoppers are concerned or very concerned about the privacy of their data on retail media networks, and about half (49%) have already opted out of data tracking on RMN.

Despite advertisers’ strong demands for RMN to open up their inventory, about 39% of RMN shoppers do not want RMN to use any of their data outside of their platform. In addition, 1 in 5 do not want RMN to use any of their data on the platform.

Other highlights include:

• In the past year, 24% of RMN shoppers have visited a store to purchase a product advertised on a retail platform.
• 20% of RMN shoppers said they have purchased advertised products in-store.
• 38% of RMN shoppers are likely to purchase a product based on an ad shown in a relevant context on a retail platform.