Retail Media Advertising
Master sponsored product advertising on retail platforms — from Amazon Sponsored Products to in-store digital screens — and measure true closed-loop ROI with first-party data.
Earning Potential
Retail media is the fastest-growing segment of digital advertising, with Amazon Ads alone generating $50B+ annually. Brands that master sponsored product optimization typically achieve 3–8x ROAS on mature campaigns.
What you will learn
- Understand retail media networks and their first-party data advantage
- Run and optimize sponsored product ads on Amazon and Walmart
- Measure new-to-brand customers and closed-loop attribution
- Evaluate in-store retail media opportunities
Common mistakes
- Using the same ROAS benchmark for retail media and open-web display — retail media ROAS is typically much higher due to purchase-intent audiences
- Ignoring new-to-brand metrics and optimizing only for total ROAS, which rewards defensive spend on existing customers
- Starting with broad keyword targeting before proving performance on exact-match brand and category terms
Core concepts
Retail Media Network
A retail media network is a retailer's owned advertising platform where brands pay to reach shoppers at the point of purchase.
Sponsored Product Ads
Sponsored product ads are pay-per-click listings that appear alongside organic results on a retailer's search and category pages.
Closed-Loop Measurement
Closed-loop measurement connects ad exposure directly to verified purchase data within the same retailer environment.
Commerce Media
Commerce media is advertising that uses shopping intent and purchase data to target buyers throughout their path to purchase, spanning retailer networks, financial data, and marketplace inventory.
New-to-Brand (NTB)
New-to-brand (NTB) is a retail media metric that measures what share of purchases attributed to an ad were made by customers who had not bought from that brand in the past 12 months.
In-Store Retail Media
In-store retail media is advertising displayed inside physical store locations — on screens, shelf-edge displays, and audio systems — sold by retailers to brands as an extension of their media network.
Retail Media Advertising
Master sponsored product advertising on retail platforms — from Amazon Sponsored Products to in-store digital screens — and measure true closed-loop ROI with first-party data.
Retail media fundamentals
Understand how retail media networks work and why first-party purchase data changes the ROI calculation.
Amazon Ads
Amazon Ads is Amazon's advertising platform for reaching shoppers and audiences across its store, streaming properties, and the wider web. Its products include self-service sponsored ads, Brand Stores, display and video formats, measurement tools, and Amazon DSP, with reporting tied closely to shopping activity. It is most useful for marketplace sellers, retail brands, and agencies that need commerce-oriented campaigns from product discovery through purchase.
Walmart Connect
Walmart Connect is Walmart's retail media platform for reaching shoppers across its digital properties and broader advertising ecosystem. Advertisers can run sponsored search, display, video, connected television, and offsite campaigns using Walmart purchase signals, then measure outcomes such as sales, new buyers, and return on ad spend. It is most relevant to brands and marketplace sellers that distribute through Walmart and need media activity tied closely to commerce results.
Instacart Ads
Instacart Ads is Instacart's retail media platform for brands that want to influence grocery and convenience purchases near the point of sale. Its formats include sponsored products, display placements, promotions, and off-platform campaigns informed by shopping behavior across participating retailers, with reporting focused on product discovery and sales. It is especially useful for consumer packaged goods, food, beverage, household, and personal care marketers selling through the Instacart marketplace.
Target Roundel
Roundel is Target's retail media business, connecting advertisers with Target shoppers through onsite, offsite, social, search, video, and connected television placements. Campaign planning and measurement use Target's commerce relationships and purchase signals to build audiences, personalize messages, and evaluate sales impact across channels. It fits established consumer brands and agency teams that sell through Target and want coordinated media programs around launches, seasonal moments, category growth, or household acquisition.
Kroger Precision Marketing
Kroger Precision Marketing is Kroger's retail media organization, powered by shopper data from its grocery businesses and loyalty relationships. It supports sponsored product, display, video, social, connected television, and programmatic activation, with closed-loop measurement designed to connect exposure with household purchasing behavior. The platform is best suited to consumer packaged goods and grocery brands that sell through Kroger banners and need audience planning, campaign execution, and sales reporting within one retail ecosystem.
Sponsored product advertising
Launch and optimize on-site sponsored ads across major retail platforms.
Helium 10
Helium 10 is a commerce software suite for Amazon sellers, brands, and agencies, with additional workflows for marketplaces such as Walmart and TikTok Shop. Its tools cover product and keyword research, listing creation and optimization, rank tracking, operations, profitability analytics, inventory, and advertising management. It is best for teams that want a broad seller toolkit in one account rather than assembling separate applications for each Amazon workflow.
Jungle Scout
Jungle Scout is an Amazon seller intelligence platform for product research, keyword analysis, supplier discovery, listing optimization, and business performance monitoring. Its databases and browser tools help estimate demand, competition, sales, fees, and seasonal patterns, while additional features support review requests, inventory planning, advertising analysis, and market reporting. It is most useful for private-label sellers, agencies, and brands validating opportunities or improving an existing Amazon catalog, but estimates should still be checked against first-party account data.
Perpetua
Perpetua is a commerce advertising platform for automating and optimizing campaigns across marketplaces and retail media networks. Teams define goals and constraints while its software manages bids, budgets, keywords, targeting, and pacing across supported channels, with reporting and intelligence tools for measuring performance and competitive position. It fits brands, sellers, and agencies running meaningful retail media spend that want rule-based and algorithmic optimization without surrendering strategic control over profitability, growth targets, or product priorities.
Pacvue
Pacvue is an enterprise commerce acceleration platform for managing retail media, digital shelf performance, and sales operations across many marketplaces. It centralizes campaign creation, bidding, budgeting, rules, reporting, competitive intelligence, and retail data for networks such as Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart, with workflow features designed for large portfolios. It is best suited to brands and agencies that need cross-retailer governance, granular automation, and consolidated measurement rather than separate tools and spreadsheets for each commerce channel.
Teikametrics
Teikametrics is an ecommerce optimization platform focused on advertising and marketplace performance for Amazon and Walmart sellers. Its software uses product economics, conversion signals, and campaign data to automate keyword discovery, bidding, budgeting, and performance analysis, while managed services are available for teams needing additional operational support. It fits brands and sellers that want advertising decisions tied to margins and inventory rather than revenue alone, particularly when manually managing a growing catalog has become inefficient.
Closed-loop measurement
Track new-to-brand customers, true ROAS, and in-store lift using retail first-party data.
Skai
Skai is an enterprise advertising platform for planning, activating, optimizing, and measuring campaigns across commerce media, paid search, and social channels. It provides centralized workflows, automated bidding and budgeting, experimentation, reporting, forecasting, and governance across major publishers and retail networks, allowing teams to coordinate investment without losing channel-level controls. It is designed for large brands and agencies with complex portfolios, multiple markets, and enough media spend to benefit from cross-channel operations and advanced automation.
DataHawk
DataHawk is an ecommerce analytics platform for brands and agencies operating across marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart. It combines product, keyword, advertising, pricing, content, inventory, and financial data in dashboards and data pipelines, helping teams monitor digital shelf performance, diagnose changes, and automate recurring reporting. It fits organizations that need a shared analytical layer across many products or markets, especially when marketplace data must be connected with business intelligence systems and internal decision workflows.
SellerApp
SellerApp is an Amazon seller platform covering product research, keyword discovery, listing quality, advertising analysis, profitability, and account monitoring. Its tools help merchants identify opportunities, audit catalog content, inspect search visibility, analyze campaign performance, and receive recommendations, while service options support teams that want hands-on advertising management. It is aimed at marketplace sellers and agencies seeking one operational workspace, although critical decisions should be reconciled with Amazon reports, actual costs, and inventory constraints.
Cross-retailer expansion
Scale beyond Amazon to Walmart, Target, and emerging international platforms.
eBay Ads
eBay Ads is eBay's advertising platform for sellers and brands seeking additional visibility across its marketplace and partner inventory. Its portfolio includes promoted listing formats, display advertising, and offsite options, with campaign controls that vary by objective and may charge by click or attributed sale depending on the product selected. It is most useful for merchants with competitive eBay listings, reliable margins, and enough conversion data to evaluate incremental sales rather than visibility alone.
Etsy Ads
Etsy Ads is Etsy's onsite advertising product for sellers who want their listings shown more prominently in marketplace search and browsing placements. Sellers choose a daily budget while Etsy automatically selects eligible listings and placements, charging for clicks and reporting visits, orders, revenue, and return on advertising spend. It suits shops with strong photography, clear product positioning, competitive pricing, and proven organic conversion, because paid exposure cannot compensate for weak listings or limited buyer demand.
Mercado Ads
Mercado Ads is Mercado Libre's advertising business for reaching shoppers across its commerce, payments, and content ecosystem in Latin America. Brands and sellers can use product ads, display, video, programmatic, and audience solutions, then connect media exposure with marketplace behavior and sales where supported. It is particularly relevant to companies operating in major regional markets such as Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina that need local commerce audiences, marketplace visibility, and measurable retail outcomes.
Zalando Marketing Services
Zalando Marketing Services is Zalando's advertising business for fashion and lifestyle brands seeking access to European shoppers. It combines onsite sponsored products and display placements with offsite media, creative services, audience activation, and measurement informed by behavior across the Zalando ecosystem. The offering is best suited to brands already selling through Zalando or targeting its fashion-focused audience, especially when campaigns need coordinated product discovery, brand storytelling, and commerce performance across several European markets.
Rithum
Rithum is a commerce network and technology platform formed from CommerceHub, ChannelAdvisor, and related businesses, with ChannelAdvisor no longer operating as the standalone company name. It helps brands, retailers, and suppliers manage marketplace listings, product data, orders, fulfillment connections, retail media, and performance across a broad partner network. The platform fits established multichannel commerce organizations that need enterprise integrations and managed operations, while users following older ChannelAdvisor documentation should map those workflows to current Rithum products.
Quartile
Quartile is a retail media optimization platform that combines automated campaign management with human strategy across major marketplaces and advertising channels. Its technology applies granular bidding, budgeting, keyword, and placement decisions to large campaign structures, while dashboards and services help teams evaluate performance against sales and profitability goals. It is intended for brands and sellers with substantial advertising volume that want continuous optimization across Amazon, Walmart, Google, Meta, and other supported environments without building an equally large in-house operations team.
CommerceIQ
CommerceIQ is an enterprise retail ecommerce platform that unifies sales, inventory, content, pricing, share, and advertising signals across major retailers. Its applications use analytics and automation to identify performance gaps, prioritize actions, manage retail media, protect availability, and coordinate decisions between ecommerce, sales, supply chain, and marketing teams. It is best suited to large consumer brands with complex retailer relationships that need one operating view of digital shelf execution and profitable commerce growth.
Feedvisor
Feedvisor is an Amazon-focused optimization platform for pricing, advertising, inventory, and marketplace intelligence. Its algorithmic tools can adjust prices and advertising decisions using competition, demand, conversion, margins, and business objectives, while reporting and managed services help teams monitor outcomes and refine strategy. It is designed for larger sellers, private-label brands, and agencies managing enough catalog complexity and transaction volume to justify automated decisions, with safeguards still needed for minimum margins, stock levels, and brand positioning.