Brands have long relied on return on ad spend [ROAS] as a key factor in measuring the efficacy of their campaigns, particularly on Amazon. But there are other metrics that brands should use, particularly when trying to reach different business objectives with Amazon’s demand-side platform for programmatic ads, suggests a new report from Acadia, the retail marketplace strategy agency.

Called “Fit for Purpose,” Acadia’s report is publicly available and offers suggestions on ways brands should measure Amazon campaigns using business objectives. Amazon already offers a host of shopper data, but few brands are using it, according to Kiri Masters, head of retail marketplace strategy at Acadia.

“There’s a lot of data in there, but for some reason, people are still holding onto metrics like impressions, views and ROAS,” she said, noting that such metrics help brands compare different retail platforms like Amazon and Walmart, “but they provide limited insight into how a campaign’s really performing.”

Read: Retail media's measurement problem

The report offers 23 key metrics, customizable for different brand objectives as a diagnostic tool that brands can use. There’s a quiz where brands can plug in their goals and receive the best metrics to reach them.

For example, advertisers should be looking at the time spent on product review pages as a valuable metric for the consumer “consideration” stage of buying. Other metrics include competitor audience acquisition—meaning how many unique users from a competitor's audience were reached during a given period—and growth of unique users over a period of time.

“There’s all this rich data that can be sliced and diced but brands are unaware of it or not using that data when it’s right there,” said Masters.

Amazon said it recently added performance-related metrics such as Amazon Brand Lift, which helps advertisers quantify how campaigns are driving awareness, purchase intent and ad recall.

“Advertiser campaign performance is top of mind for Amazon Ads and a fundamental reason why Amazon DSP provides a range of resources and metrics to help advertisers measure the impact of their campaignsboth on- and off-Amazon, optimize performance, and communicate the value of their efforts,” said an Amazon spokesman in a statement. “We have appreciated the positive response from many advertisers and will continue to invest in new ways to help them measure the performance of their Amazon DSP campaigns.” 

As more advertising dollars go to retail media—most recent estimates put the category at $85 billion by 2026 in the U.S.—brands will increasingly be looking for more effective measurement tools for their ad spend. Experts agree that ROAS alone is not the only indicator brands should be using.

“There are so many other factors that go into this thing—it’s not just about ROAS,” said Sarah Hofstetter, president at e-commerce analytics firm Profitero. “The ad spend is not the only lever to move, that’s the problem.” For instance, advertisers should pay attention to their standing in search results, also referred to as share of page 1, she said.

Profitero—which was acquired by Publicis Groupe last year—recently released a new Retailer Capability Matrix for brands navigating retailers’ e-commerce platforms, which includes a snapshot of large retailer ad offerings. In addition, Hofstetter said clients have been buying the firm’s new “Connected Search” offering to help improve search result rankings. She said that such a focus is changing the way consumer packaged goods brands are organizing themselves—including media teams, supply teams and sales teams.

“The future as I see it is actually getting organizational alignment within these disparate [CPG] company silos,” Hofsetter said.