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Retail media

Retail media is advertising that a marketplace or retailer sells to its sellers and brands, targeted with its own shopper data, on its own site and beyond it.

How it works

A seller on an online marketplace pays the platform to show its listings higher: in search results, in the catalogue and on product pages. The typical format is sponsored products: ordinary listings marked as ads. Depending on the platform, the seller pays per click, per thousand views for banners, or a higher commission on each completed order. The higher commission buys a better place in search.

The difference from Google Shopping is where the shopper and the data are. On a marketplace the shopper browses and orders inside the platform, which targets and measures the ads with its own data. A Shopping ad sends the shopper to your site, where your own tracking records the sale. Marketplace advertising or Google Shopping compares where your next budget should go.

Where you see it

  • Rozetka Advertising: pay-per-click ads on the home page, in search, in the catalogue and on product cards; results appear in the seller’s account.
  • Allegro Ads: sponsored offers in search results and on product pages, paid per click; display ads, paid per 1,000 views.
  • Prom ProSale: the “Більше продажів” (more sales) and “Турбо” (turbo) modes charge a higher commission per completed order and promote products in search.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop runs a pay-per-click campaign on a marketplace. In a month it gets 1,500 clicks at 4 each and 45 orders. Spend is 1,500 × 4 = 6,000, or 6,000 ÷ 45 = 133 per order.

The marketplace also takes a 15% commission: 90 on an order of 600. So a marketplace order costs 133 + 90 = 223. In Google Ads the same shop pays 40,000 ÷ 300 = 133.

Not to be confused with

  • Offsite ads — ads the marketplace itself buys outside its site, on Google or social media, for its sellers’ products. IAB Europe counts ads delivered outside the platform with its data as off-site retail media.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Both dashboards show 133 per order, so the channels cost the same.” Right: a marketplace order also carries the commission, which in the example turns 133 into 223.

Sources