Not Selling on Amazon? That Doesn’t Mean You Shouldn’t Advertise There

Why on earth would a brand whose product can’t be boxed up and shipped out advertise on a retail media network, you ask? Let me count the ways. But first, what is non-endemic advertising, and why is it effective?

Non-endemic advertising is precisely what it sounds like: brands that are not endemic to a retailer’s site and cannot be purchased on that site advertising on that site anyway.

As data privacy continues to become the norm across the open web, the data housed within retail media networks has become immensely valuable. Now that the cookie has crumbled, the walled gardens stand to gain. It’s not uncommon for retailers to have over a decade of shopping behavior data for a certain household or individual that reveals far more about their habits than what they search for. In short, the access your brand gets to tap into is the rich, anonymized retail customer data, which can be a game-changer when it comes to seeking out new, incremental audiences.

I’m not saying this can replace search. Don’t get me wrong: Showing results for a user-initiated query and harvesting that existing demand is a no-brainer. Do that and be there. But for that type of search to be effective, you need a catalyst—a broken down car, a mole-infested lawn or a clogged drain. Your brand can be way more proactive than that.

How does non-endemic advertising work?

Through their networks, retail media sites have the ability to package up their first-party data audiences based on a whole host of traits that are very attractive to non-endemic brands, such as the habits, attitudes, behaviors, hobbies and geography of these shoppers. The networks can then slice and dice these audiences and offer them up to advertisers in various formats like managed and self-service options. Advertisers can get in front of these specifically tailored audiences to drive them back to their own websites or personalized landing pages. 

Imagine targeting those viewers of The Great British Bake Off with food delivery, specialty ingredients or a cookbook based on what baking equipment they’ve recently purchased. Maybe they recently got married, bought a house or had a baby. Registries tell us a lot, not just what people need, but their geography, price sensitivity, predilections and potential service needs. The same can be said for tentpole events like Black Friday, back-to-school and retailer-specific sales like Amazon Prime Day, Target Deal Days or Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty.

For example, a specialty retailer like Home Depot will have a lot of detail and scale that can apply not only to usage (paint, plants, power tools) but also to unique seasonality—spring, Black Friday, Labor Day, Halloween (giant skeleton anyone?) and Christmas are all predictable touch points that gather audiences throughout the year and likely share key behaviors that your brand is looking for.

What kinds of companies should consider it?

Companies selling services such as insurance, financial planning, legal, real estate, tutoring, education, lawn care, cleaning or moving can consider non-endemic advertising. It might also make good sense for a cruise line, an automobile company or a streaming service. While no one is coming to Amazon or Walmart to search for those services, people who purchase those services are most certainly shopping on retailer sites. And the DTC brand that wants the eyeballs of a national retail network but doesn’t want to fork over a chunk of its profits to the platform may very well consider it as well to drive traffic to its site.

Not everyone can play, though. Sites like dating, adult and gambling are often excluded. And some retailers won’t allow competitive advertising for services or categories they are in, like health care, ecommerce and financial services.

But in my opinion, this emerging form of advertising is the best thing to happen to lead generation in the past five years since LinkedIn. If you’re tired of paying more than $300 a click for head keywords or broad audiences on display networks that are powered by an OK level of behavioral and audience data determining relevance, then you might want to read on.

How do I start?

You’ll need to do research on the retailers themselves and their shopper profiles. Do they match up to who you’re looking for as a customer? In parallel, if you have a relationship with Amazon Advertising or other DSPs like The Trade Desk, Yahoo or Xandr, your friendly sales team will put you in touch with the right team.

There will be a lot of questions to ask about minimums, goals and if your budget range warrants a managed experience with the DSP and retailer. If not, and you have access already, you can search, filter and experiment on your own with what is available already in the platform today for some of the retailers. Once you narrow down which retailer, how much, how long and which audiences, it’s the usual setup for creative needs, tagging and landing page selection.

The current state of non-endemic is somewhere between infancy and toddlerhood. Retail media heavy hitter Amazon is more mature today by far. Other networks in on the action today include Macy’s, Walgreens and Home Depot, with more to come. 

Are there risks? 

Brand safety, quality standards (when an impression counts) and competitive separation are all things you’ll want to check on a per-network basis. In most cases, retailers are using an established DSP that has already built the guardrails to cover the basics. Amazon’s DSP has a robust build-out that operates similarly but often stands alone; other retailers don’t use it for their first-party audiences as it’s considered competitive. So you’ll need to think of this endeavor as an Amazon + [insert DSP of your choice] for other retailers. 

Other risks are around deduping—making sure the impressions you’re buying are incremental and not doubling up if you are simultaneously buying through multiple retailers on the same or different DSPs. Each retailer has its own approach, so you’ll need to do your homework on this one. This will be yours to figure out, likely with the help of a third-party tool if it’s a concern. 

This is all to say, the risks are pretty minimal and definitely warrant the question: Are we ready for a quality, net new, incremental source of leads, traffic and sales? Once you go non-endemic, you might never go back.