Retail media networks have a measurement issue—why standardization is a marketing challenge

While retail media networks (RMNs) have been around for well over a decade, they have really come into their own over the past few years. Retail media ad spend is growing steadily and EMarketer estimates that retail media will make up more than one-fifth of U.S. media spend by 2027. That deserves attention. Marketers have embraced RMNs, particularly CPG companies, first as a cost of doing business with their established retail partners, then as an effective and proven driver of sales and more recently as potential “full funnel” partners, to drive awareness and consideration as well as conversion. The value of their rich first-party data cannot be understated. But retail media networks have a measurement issue that is holding them back as well as the advertisers who invest with them. Per the new ANA report “Retail Media Networks: Optimism Tempered with Caution,” a substantial segment of marketers have concerns about measurement attribution with RMNs and the lack of standardization across platforms is noted as the top challenge for marketers working with RMNs. A report we released last year also identified the lack of standardization across platforms as the top challenge. So not much has changed since then. But the time for change is now and better measurement of RMNs is clearly required. Media measurement blog Tracking TV, social and digital updates Click here Retail media networks are walled gardens—they are ad ecosystems that don’t share data—making it difficult to compare RMNs. To optimize investment, marketers need to be able to make apples-to-apples comparisons between RMNs. That could potentially lead to greater spending for the overall category, with a rising tide lifting all boats if RMN spending drives business outcomes – be that conversation, consideration, awareness, or some other desired outcome. The ANA Measurement for Marketers practice, with significant input from our Media & Measurement Leadership Council, is now collaborating with the Media Rating Council (MRC) to advance measurement of RMNs. The MRC, of course, is the not-for-profit, industry self-regulatory body that audits and accredits media measurement products and data sources across various cross-media products. The ANA and MRC support the reporting of common baseline metrics by RMNs, in accordance with MRC measurement standards. Such metrics include impressions, viewable impressions, clicks and click-through rate (CTR), each filtered for invalid traffic, including sophisticated invalid traffic. All marketers should require the reporting of such baseline metrics from their RMN partners to facilitate apples-to-apples comparisons between the various networks. Such common baseline metrics would also address the challenge of the timeliness of data and analytics. Currently, agencies are often asked to take on the job of comparing disparate metrics from RMNs—and that takes time. The ANA is also working with the MRC to identify and define common performance/evaluative metrics for RMNs. Those could include Incremental ROAS, where a brand spends $X and gets incremental sales of $Y, as well as halo sales that capture related sales boosts, such as shaving cream sales benefiting from razor blade ads. Such performance/evaluative metrics would provide the basis for campaign evaluation and optimization. Once these metrics are identified, marketers should require their RMN partners to provide reporting on these metrics. All RMNs should work to be accredited by the MRC. Such accreditation provides a trusted third-party validation that measurement practices align with industry standards and are valid, effective, and reliable. Currently, too few RMNs have MRC accreditation. Let’s supercharge retail media measurement, inspired by Lord Kelvin, the brilliant 19th-century British scientist who declared, “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it." Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here

Retail media networks have a measurement issue—why standardization is a marketing challenge

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