Report: Marketers More Enthusiastic About Retail Media

LiveIntent, an email-based marketing and advertising technology company, in August unveiled the third set of findings from its four-part research project on retailer media network (RMN) adoption in digital advertising. The report, titled “The 2023 Retail Media Playbook: Unlocking Adoption, Mastering Best Practices, Overcoming Challenges & Driving Performance,” surveyed more than 200 U.S. marketers to examine their experiences and views on the evolving retail media landscape.

As U.S. retail media spending is on the rise — with projections to increase from $31 billion in 2021 to $61 billion by 2024, according to eMarketer — LiveIntent’s research project surveyed marketers on four key pillars:

1) retail media adoption and performance;

2) potential value of retail media networks;

3) first-party data and retail media; and

4) the opportunity to utilize logged-in media channels, such as social and email, to enhance retail media value. 

Coinciding with the three-month mark since Google's announcement of disabling third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users in Q1 2024, the third set of LiveIntent’s findings particularly focuses on first-party data and its significance in the retail media landscape. Notable insights include:

First-party data is still the crux of nearly every advertiser, and most advertisers build it themselves instead of outsourcing it, according to a media release from LiveIntent. The company discovered that nearly all marketers surveyed (96%) consider first-party data crucial to their overall advertising strategies as the prominence of third-party cookies wanes. Only 4% regarded it as unimportant.

Advertisers get first-party data from their websites, email programs and mobile apps more than from third-party providers. LiveIntent said it surveyed advertisers on how they acquire and use first-party data for advertising today. About 65% collected data directly from their own websites, email alerts, newsletters and/or apps, while just 25% obtained first-party data through third-party data providers, including publishers. Notably, 10% of advertisers do not currently use first-party data.

Retail media’s access to first-party data means advertisers want it more as cookie deprecation becomes a reality. Considering Google's recent announcement, 84% of advertisers are more enthusiastic about retail media advertising because deprecation of third-party cookies means their existing data for targeting is becoming less reliable, per the release.

LiveIntent determined the overwhelming catalyst for interest in retail media from advertisers is the anxiety around the loss of cookies and other forms of personalized ad targeting on the open web and mobile. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of advertisers said that the coming deprecation of third-party cookies was the biggest driver of interest in retail media networks. 

“The next chapter of retail media will be a shift of dollars towards retail media that advertisers can know to be incremental,” Mike Pisula, vice president of product development at LiveIntent, said in the release. “The dirty secret of last-click is that it was the best option of all the worst options for determining attribution on owned and operated inventory. We all know that often the product would be purchased whether or not the customer saw the paid advertising. LiveIntent’s incrementality offering let’s brands and agencies understand which media is delivering performance, and what’s delivering true incrementality.”