Commerce Media’s Next Act: The Convergence of Brand and Commerce
Commerce media has sustained continued growth, but things are beginning to cool off for this fast-growing area of advertising. As the ecosystem matures, the question is no longer simply how much can commerce media grow? It is becoming a more important—and more complicated—question: How do we make commerce media work harder as part of the broader marketing ecosystem?
The next act for commerce media will be defined by three things: greater accountability, better measurement and, most importantly, the convergence of brand and commerce media.
Beyond ROAS: Proving Incremental Value
For brands, agencies, and retailers, iROAS remains one of the most important measures of commerce media effectiveness. And for good reason: marketers need to understand whether media is actually driving incremental sales rather than simply capturing demand that would have happened anyway.
But we are beginning to see a broader definition of performance. Metrics such as new-to-brand buyers, new households, household penetration, and incremental reach are becoming increasingly important indicators of whether a campaign is actually expanding a brand’s customer base.
That evolution matters. If the goal of marketing is ultimately to grow a business, the most valuable commerce media may not simply be the media that produces the highest immediate ROAS. It may be the media that creates incremental demand and brings new consumers into the brand franchise.
Measurement Needs to Catch Up
The opportunity, however, is ahead of the measurement infrastructure.
One of the biggest challenges facing commerce media is the lack of consistency across the ecosystem. Retailers, agencies, and publishers can define incrementality, attribution, and success differently, making it difficult for marketers to compare investments across platforms or understand how individual channels contribute to the consumer journey.
Increasingly, marketers will need to look at MMM, new-to-brand metrics, and incrementality together rather than relying on a single measurement approach. Each can answer a different question, but together they can provide a more complete picture of how media is contributing to business growth.
Retail media networks in particular have an opportunity to move beyond increasingly sophisticated—but often siloed—last-touch or single-channel attribution models. Multi-touch attribution should become a more important part of the retail media playbook.
Consumers don’t experience a brand through individual media channels, and measurement shouldn’t force marketers to evaluate them that way. A consumer might discover a brand through a podcast, see a video later that day, search for the product on a retailer’s site and ultimately purchase. Which touchpoint deserves the credit?
The answer shouldn’t be whichever channel happened to be closest to the transaction.
The Convergence of Brand and Commerce
Perhaps the biggest evolution happening in commerce media is the blurring of the line between brand marketing and commerce marketing.
Traditional commerce tactics—such as sponsored search and display within ecosystems like Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect—have matured significantly. They are increasingly sophisticated, measurable, and directly connected to purchase.
But the next opportunity is to connect those lower-funnel capabilities with media that historically lived higher in the funnel.
Streaming audio and podcasts are a compelling example. Audio can build awareness, consideration, and brand affinity while also reaching consumers outside of traditional retail environments and inspiring them all along the path to purchase. When connected to commerce signals and measurement, it can become part of a much more unified consumer journey—from discovery to consideration to purchase.
That also means planning around the purchase cycle, not simply the point of purchase. Understanding when consumers are likely to discover, consider, research, and ultimately buy a product can help marketers determine where each channel can add value along that journey using the right data signals.
This is where audio can play a unique role in the next chapter of commerce media. Rather than asking whether audio is a “commerce tactic” or a “brand tactic,” marketers should be asking how audio can connect the two.
The opportunity is to move beyond siloed media planning and create a full-funnel ecosystem where brand media creates demand, commerce media captures demand, and measurement connects the two.
What Comes Next
The next phase of commerce media innovation won’t simply be about adding more retailers, more inventory or more ad products. It will be about integration.
Commerce media has already proven that it can drive transactions. Its next challenge is proving that it can help build brands, acquire new customers, and create incremental growth across the entire marketing funnel.
The winners will be the brands, agencies, retailers, and media partners that stop treating commerce as a standalone channel and start treating it as an integrated marketing discipline.
Because ultimately, consumers don’t separate brands from commerce. They simply experience a journey. Our media strategies—and our measurement—need to catch up.
Author
Adam Ross
Director, Enterprise CPG & Commerce, SiriusXM Media
