Commerce Media is Booming: Top Platforms and Placements You Need To Know

Times change, and savvy marketers change their strategies to adapt. On that note, let us tell you about how commerce media is going to reshape the way you think about strategies and engagement.

Commerce media is basically the convergence of consumer needs with content and advertising through the use of digital technology.

What Can a Commerce Media Platform Do for You?

Commerce media creates shopping experiences without friction. It uses data insights to optimise consumer journeys. A commerce media platform creates bonds between the shopper and the brand.

Sounds good? Let’s get going with the best e-commerce advertising platforms and the types of ads marketers choose while using commerce media.

Start by Considering these Commerce Media Platforms

A commerce media platform can be one of the following two categories.

#1 Retail Media Networks

Retail Media Networks offer you ways to reach online shoppers from the time they are researching till the time they are ready to buy.

Amazon Advertising

If you’re an e-tailer whose products are on Amazon, their commerce media platform is a great way to reach prospective shoppers looking for products like yours or other solutions that you can fulfil.

Sponsored ads can grow your Amazon business by making your products more discoverable. Amazon’s keywords also create a hook for new shoppers.

Walmart Connect

Walmart Connect promises to garner eyeballs on one of the largest omnichannel retail platforms. You can correlate online and in-store activity at scale. They offer a holistic view of Walmart’s customer behaviour for measurable results. Your ads can appear online in high-traffic spots in search results and browsing pages.

Instacart

Instacart offers a digital advertising platform, enabling brands and retailers to promote their products directly to Instacart’s extensive user base through targeted digital ads. 

These ads are displayed to users while they shop for groceries on the Instacart platform, allowing advertisers to reach a highly relevant audience and drive sales. 

The network leverages shopper data and insights to optimize ad campaigns, making it a valuable tool for businesses looking to boost their visibility and sales on the platform.

Criteo

Criteo is a platform that helps to reach and monetise prospective consumers whenever they face shoppable moments. It is a unified platform that drives commerce on the open internet. 

With Criteo, you can connect with consumers at different stages of the marketing funnel, from awareness to conversion. Their video and retail media solutions promise to acquire and re-engage consumers to unlock the potential of your marketing efforts.

#2 Online Media Ad Platforms

These are online platforms that help you connect with your target audiences when they spend time online.

Google Marketing Platform

Google Marketing Platform offers you advertising and analytics options across their wide reach, which includes search and email. You get integrated solutions to understand your consumers and how to communicate with them.

It works equally well for a single project or long-term campaigns. Get ready to plan, buy, measure, and optimise customer experiences from one location.

It must be noted that Google’s Standard Shopping Ad Campaigns are being rolled into Performance Max and the benefits here include: 

1. Enhanced Machine Learning: Advertisements are automatically created using assets supplied by the advertiser, including those organised into asset groups such as text, images, and videos, as well as assets from the Merchant Center feed.

2. More Placements: Gain automatic access to the following ad placements as they become accessible, all without the need to establish new campaigns. 

• Shopping Tab
• Google Search (next to search results, separate from text ads)
• Google Search Text Ads
• Google Images
• Google Display Network
• YouTube Ads
• Gmail Ads
• Google Discovery Ads
• Google Maps (via Local Inventory Ads)

3. Improved Conversion Optimisation: You now get the choice to set up optional ROAS & CPA targets.

Meta Ads Manager

As you may already be aware, this was formerly known as Facebook Ads Manager. It lets you create and test ads for your audience on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, etc.. You can then track their performance and manage budgets and schedules. Ads can run across multiple apps, and you can combine images, videos, and text.  

Advantage+ shopping ads are a crucial component of the Advantage+ product lineup launched by Meta in 2022. Compared to the manual creation of shopping ads, Advantage+ shopping campaigns demand fewer inputs during their creation, simplifying audience choices and streamlining the creative management process.

For instance, instead of juggling numerous campaigns with varying targeting and creative configurations, you can establish up to 8 Advantage+ shopping campaigns for each country. This provides Meta’s algorithm with more opportunities to engage potential customers likely to make a purchase. Meta’s Advantage+ shopping campaigns enable advertisers to:

1. Fine-tune performance objectives to attain peak performance.

2. Unify prospecting and existing customer audiences within a single campaign.

3. Identify and target your most valuable customers across Meta’s family of apps and services with minimal effort.

4. Simplify campaign setup and management by reducing the number of campaigns you need to create, sparing you from constant adjustments and refreshes.

5. Deliver the most effective ad variant to your most valuable shoppers by testing up to 150 different creative combinations.

What Sort of Ads Will Stand Out on a Commerce Media Platform?

Remember the times when the only choice for an online ad was a banner with a visual and headline? Those days are gone. Now, there are so many more ways for you to engage consumers.

Take a look at these types of ads for commerce media, using text, images, animations and videos.

Display Ads

Display advertising typically uses images and text. Such ads can appear on landing pages and can also appear as pop-ups. They attract attention, raise awareness, and clicking on the ad can lead to a product page.

Promoted Social Media Posts

Promoted social media posts allow you to deliver messages to a wider audience. It could be those who have interacted with your brand earlier or others interested in similar topics. They can drive traffic, promote products or services, or be used for contests or giveaways.

Native Ads

Native ads blend in with surrounding content. They are less intrusive and more likely to get attention. They could appear along with news articles and product recommendations, for example. They could also be in the form of long-form posts promoting a product in a relevant way.

Shoppable Ads

Shoppable ads allow users to purchase products directly from the ad with the use of links or tags. They can appear on apps or social media sites. They are a great way to provide a seamless shopping experience, especially combined with influencer marketing. 

Key Takeaways

Here is what you should know in a nutshell.

• Commerce media uses digital technology to link consumer needs with your advertising. It can create shopping experiences without friction.
• With commerce media data insights, you can precisely target consumers and then measure which campaigns are working.
• There are two types of commerce media platforms. Retail media networks give you opportunities to reach consumers on online retail sites. And online media ad platforms help you connect with audiences online.
• Some examples of retail media networks are: Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect, Criteo, Instacart
• Examples of other media ad platforms are: Google Marketing Platform, Meta Ads Manager.
• Commerce media advertising allows you to experiment with a variety of ad formats.
• Some of those you should keep in mind are: native ads, shoppable ads, and promoted social media posts.

Working With M&C Saatchi Performance

At M&C Saatchi Performance, we connect brands with audiences at the point of consideration or purchase. 

Our services include market insights, paid search and social, and data analytics. You can be sure of end-to-end solutions, whatever your marketing objectives.

Get in touch with our expert team today to discover how you could leverage commerce media for successful business outcomes.