2-min read
Last week I talked about how brands are shifting to the retail channel to grow their businesses instead of spending more on D2C.
Retail CPG, both physical and virtual, can be optimized for ads the way D2C used to be – before the limits to personal data tracking.
Let’s dig into how to run your retail business more effectively with digital tools.
Shoppable media
Shoppable media are ads that link to your products on retailer’s ecommerce sites. What this does is creates a path to purchase right there on the ad. Ads can be placed anywhere – Instagram, email, recipes – anything that is hyperlink-able. You’ll need a partner like Pear to run these types of campaigns.
Real-time store inventory
Converting buyers is not just about getting them to add to their cart, but having inventory available at the retailer location near them so they can complete the check-out process. Knowing whether products are in-stock at any given retailer location is a huge pain point for brands and a source of frustration for consumers. How many times have you received a complaint that your store locator says you sell at XYZ store but it’s not on shelf? Tools like Pear scan store inventory in real-time and integrate for ads and your website’s store locator.
Attribution
Attribution metrics (metrics that attribute user interactions to the ad) were lost with the iOS update. You want these metrics to know not only how well the ad is performing, but who is buying. Identifying consumers is valuable because it allows you to build custom lookalike audiences. Again, you’ll need a partner like Pear to get this data.
With attribution, you can now optimize your retailer campaigns just like you did with D2C. For example, you can run A/B tests on certain creative, or retarget abandoned carts. The point is, you’ll get the data you’ve been missing to effectively target audiences.
Rewards and loyalty programs
Running ads with offers to drive trial on retailer loyalty aps is a fantastic strategy, but most don’t return shopper data. In that case consider Ibotta. Ibotta is the leading retailer rewards platform for CPG, and if you sell at Walmart, Ibotta is the chosen loyalty partner for Walmart, so you’ll need them to promote on Walmart’s website. Ibotta has the ability to return valuable shopper data to brands. Here’s how: when a shopper puts things in their cart and checks out, those purchase records are captured and tied to individual IDs. Brands can purchase this data for better targeting.
Good targeting makes for good ROAS.
Search
If you have something people are searching for with good (difficulty score under 40) keywords, running search ads should be part of your strategy. But you’ll need content, SEO works when you consistently put out content. Before considering content marketing, you’ll need to have certain bases covered. Read more on this here.
Taking the D2C playbook and applying it to retail ecommerce is the winning strategy for next gen CPG. Which of these strategies will you implement for the retail channel?
All my best,
Jennifer