Search Ads 360 Expands to Empower Retail Media Ecosystem

Retail media is booming, offering benefits for both retailers and brands. As third-party cookies fade away, brands selling through retailers are increasingly interested in leveraging retailer data for ad campaigns. Retailers are responding with dedicated retail media networks to connect brands with shoppers, boost product visibility, and drive sales.

To bridge the gap, Google introduced a closed beta for offsite retail media campaigns within Search Ads 360 (SA360). This allows brands to reach more consumers beyond retailer websites while capturing sales on those sites. The solution combines unique retailer audiences with Google's AI and scales campaigns across channels.

Privacy-conscious features let participating retailers offer their first-party data for brand use in AI-powered Performance Max campaigns within SA360. Additionally, self-service campaign management for brands and a wider beta rollout are planned for the coming months.

Home improvement giant Lowe's is an early beta partner. They're launching their first offsite retail media offering on Google Search and Shopping, initially using a managed service model. They'll partner with SA360 to transition towards self-service options for their brand partners in the future.

Shifting towards self-service boosts efficiency and scale for retail media. Traditionally, retail media networks provided managed services, with retailers handling everything from campaign setup to optimization and reporting. This limited scalability. Self-service in SA360 empowers brands and their agencies to manage campaigns independently, fostering better brand relationships and generating additional revenue for retailers while maintaining control over the shopper experience.

Protecting valuable shopper data is a priority for retailers. Self-service allows retailers to selectively share first-party audiences with brands in a privacy-focused manner, without exposing individual user data. This lets brands target high-intent shoppers with relevant ads, maximizing performance while respecting consumer privacy. Shoppers are seamlessly directed to product pages on the retailer's website for easy purchase.

Furthermore, retailers can share only relevant product inventory data with specific brands. This ensures brands never see competitor inventory details and consumers only see ads for in-stock products, preventing wasted ad spend. Retailers can also control sales and performance data shared with brands, safeguarding their overall performance data. They maintain complete visibility into their own campaigns and those of their brand partners.

Improved reporting and streamlined campaign management benefit brands. SA360's self-service model offers accurate, closed-loop reporting at brand, campaign, and even individual product (SKU) level. This allows brands to directly connect ad spend to sales and optimize campaigns for maximum profit. For example, they can create separate campaigns for specific SKUs or adjust return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) targets for different products. Demonstrating efficient media spend empowers brands to increase investments in high-performing channels.

With more retailers joining, brands working with multiple partners will benefit from standardized metrics, common campaign workflows, and managing all campaigns from a single location. Agency partners can also manage retail media campaigns for multiple brands from one central hub, leveraging SA360's enterprise-grade productivity tools.