And last but not least, you have to set the goal for why you’re doing this campaign—hopefully not just return on ad spend. We’re moving up the funnel after all. Consider new-to-brand, new-to-retailer halo sales (for example, buying from the same brand but a different category) and holistic sales lift overall during the campaign duration. 

Step 3: Activation

Now the fun part. You’ve done your research, you’ve chosen the platform, picked audiences, loaded first-party data (either the retailer’s, yours or both) and have created the campaign, set to launch. Before you hit that “Go!” button, be sure to check a few things.

Billing is tricky. There are fees to be mindful of: tech fees, media fees, agency fees and so forth. Your total budget will need to be inclusive of those fees. Your working media dollars will therefore likely be less than you thought. Also, you’ll want to be clear on what invoices are going where and to who. 

If supporting in-store products, be sure that there is product in stock and with strong distribution. You’d think this would go without saying, but remember, in-store inventory levels are not tied to DSPs.

Double- and triple-check those settings: Make sure pixels, tags, access and everything else you need to track performance is good to go.

Step 4: Measurement 

Based on your goal and audiences selected, you should have a good idea of what KPIs to track. With the use of more mature platforms like Xandr and The Trade Desk, reporting and inputs are solidly available in-platform for you to track and pivot if needed. You’ll also be able to parse performance by creative to inform future campaigns as well as iterate on the current one. Again, depending on your campaign goals, you’ll be looking at different reports to determine whether success is happening … or not.

If your focus is online exposure to end with an in-store purchase, you’ll also want to look at your own internal reporting from the retailer to see if there was any detectable lift. With some retailers you’ll get that in-store reporting lift, but it’s also important to gut check that with your own numbers and, no matter how hard everyone tries, accept that you won’t capture every sale.

If you happen to have had previous campaigns managed by the retailer, you’ve technically got a head start, so take advantage of it! Definitely re-review those wrap reports and aggregate learnings at the audience level. Also, review targeting types like contextual and propensity to inform your self-service efforts. 

Search will always be present as part of your media mix—it’s foundational to our finding what we need on any given site. But as we grow our capabilities in retail media, providing discovery of new products, services or styles at the point of purchase is a powerful new tool.