As retail media continues to evolve, the decisions brands need to make about where and how to allocate budgets can feel increasingly complex. Advertising your products on a retailer’s website (known as “onsite”) is a strategy with a proven return on investment (ROI)—but advertising only onsite can limit your reach.
Retailer websites are a closed ecosystem, run by the publisher (the retailer). Onsite advertising has genuine advantages:
- You can increase awareness of your products with a retailer’s loyal shoppers, as they’re already shopping (with high intent to make a purchase) on the retailer’s website.
- You can access valuable first-party data that not only provides insight into shopper behaviour, but also shows you how your advertising investment converts to a purchase.
- You can tap into clear buying signals for shoppers—reaching shoppers at the moment they intend to buy is the most valuable investment you can make.
However, reaching only shoppers that are already searching for your products on a retailer’s site limits your reach. Contributing factors to this can include low inventory in specific categories, a limited number of SKUs, and supply constraints caused by low traffic and fierce competition. This challenge applies to all advertisers, whether you have a significant share already and need to defend it or are working to break through as a small- to mid-sized brand. If your products are in a particularly competitive category, you need a broader strategy to reach shoppers within your market.
Introducing PLA Extension
PLA Extension is the first fully integrated retail media solution that allows you to serve product ads both onsite and offsite with a single budget, whilst automatically optimising for the best balance of performance and reach. Whilst previously limited by ad supply constraints onsite, you can now reach significantly more in-market shoppers offsite. By showing shoppers highly relevant product ads and bringing them back to the retailer’s site to purchase, you can take a more unified approach to your retail media investments. With PLA Extension, you’ll have unified reporting and attribution without any heavy lifting. This feature unlocks omnichannel attribution in an automated and scalable way, enabling you to measure the impact of your onsite and offsite ads and see a more complete view of the shopper’s journey.
With this feature, you don’t just have access to more ad supply offsite. You will also be able to activate the retailer’s first-party data as well as Microsoft’s audience intelligence to strategically target highly relevant shoppers via your access to more ad supply through offsite channels—including new buyers.
When you opt to use PLA Extension—if an onsite campaign is underspending—the feature will automatically extend your product listing ad to offsite product placements powered by the Microsoft Search Network and the Microsoft Audience Network, optimising performance and reach across on and offsite product ad placements.
For example, suppose John is searching for a new pair of boots on his favourite retailer’s website. He sees your ad for a particular brand of boots but becomes distracted before adding them to his cart and leaves the website without making a purchase. Later that evening, he’s browsing online and sees your ad again on Bing. He clicks through the ad on Bing and is taken to your product page on the retailer’s website, and this time, makes a purchase. Meanwhile, Sandra, another shopper in need of new boots who isn’t familiar with your brand, has also seen your ad on DuckDuckGo and clicks through to make a purchase as well. Thanks to the PLA Extension feature, you’ve reached in-market shoppers both on and off the retailer’s site with a single PLA campaign.
PLA Extension drives awareness of your brand and points prospective customers back to your product landing page, growing your audience, and increasing the likelihood of sales.
The introduction of this feature is just one of the ways we’re solidifying Microsoft’s vision to build the most complete omnichannel retail media stack. If you’re currently working with one or more retailers powered by Microsoft PromoteIQ and would like to take advantage of this new feature, contact your PromoteIQ account representatives to let them know—be sure to let your retailer(s) know, as well.
And if you’re interested in learning more about working with Microsoft PromoteIQ, contact us.
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