Retail Media Network

Your Amazon search share is eroding. A competitor is appearing in sponsored placements on your branded keyword. Those placements are bought against the retailer’s own checkout data.

How it shows up in the wild

BODi on Amazon Ads (protein supplements challenger brand, 2025): Protein blend category share grew 8x from 0.1% to 0.9%, per the Amazon Ads case study with agency Acadia. New-to-brand share jumped from 25% to 78%. Online video ads maintained an 80% new-to-brand contribution rate throughout.

The campaign layered formats by funnel stage: online video and display for awareness, Sponsored Brands for consideration, Amazon DSP for remarketing. Each format ran on Amazon’s first-party purchase data. The signals came from shoppers who had already demonstrated category intent on the platform.

Chobani on Walmart Connect (yogurt brand, integrated retail media campaign, 2025): An integrated Walmart Connect campaign delivered a $12.72 ROAS, with 44% of purchasers new to Chobani. A parallel Meta pilot using retailer grocery behavior signals as targeting inputs generated nearly $6 ROAS. Attribution on both came from Walmart’s own transaction data.

Following positive results from an initial brand term targeting test, Chobani expanded to additional product categories and Sponsored Videos campaigns.

Why it matters

Retail media attribution closes directly to a verified purchase. The same retailer running the ads also sees the checkout.

My hunch is this makes retail media ROAS figures more reliable than Meta’s self-reported numbers. Meta’s ROAS relies on modeled conversion events after iOS 14 degraded pixel tracking.

Competitors can bid on your branded search terms on Amazon regardless of whether you’re advertising there. The channel matters defensively as much as it does for growth.

Related terms

• Retargeting — re-engaging shoppers who visited but didn’t purchase; retail media networks offer this using retailer transaction data
• First-Party Data — the underlying asset a retail media network monetizes; retailer purchase history is first-party data unavailable to Meta or Google
• Demand-Side Platform — DSPs can access retail media network inventory off-site; an RMN extends reach beyond the retailer’s owned properties through DSP integrations

Frequently asked questions

Is retail media just Amazon? Amazon holds roughly 80% of US retail media spend. But Walmart Connect, Instacart Ads, Target’s Roundel, and 40+ additional networks operate at meaningful scale. For D2C brands in food, personal care, or household goods, non-Amazon networks offer different audience segments and lower auction competition.

Should a D2C brand that sells direct-only use retail media? I think this depends on whether retail distribution exists at all. If your products are sold on Amazon or at Walmart, retail media is a defensive consideration regardless of direct channel performance. If you’re fully DTC with no wholesale presence, the addressable inventory is limited and the targeting signal won’t reflect your actual buyer base.

How does retail media ROAS compare to Meta or Google ROAS? The attribution methods differ. Retail media ROAS typically measures sales from users who engaged with an ad and completed a purchase inside the retailer’s own checkout. Meta uses a 7-day click / 1-day view window with modeled events. Direct cross-channel comparisons overstate confidence in both numbers.