Demonstrating the impact of retail media audiences

Consumer relationships matter more than ever. People want brands to engage them in ways that are meaningful and relevant. In the past, CPG brands have struggled to gain enough insights from consumers to deliver those relevant messages at scale. 

Today, retail media empowers brands to advertise more like first-party marketers—and it is making all the difference in performance and efficiency.  

To prove this point, we ran a series of A/B tests, highlighting the distinction between Kroger retail media audiences and third-party audiences that brands can buy elsewhere.  

We tested several offsite media campaigns head-to-head. Each campaign was split into two groups based on equivalized spend. One group used KPM audiences (based on past purchases) while the other used the standard third-party approach (demographics, inferred purchase intent, and interests). 

The results: KPM vs. third-party data

Our team of data scientists found that KPM’s audiences outperformed third-party interest-based audiences in three key areas. 

1. Reducing wasted impressions

The KPM campaigns reduced media waste by focusing impressions on the households that drive value. In our test, the KPM audiences achieved equivalent revenue to third-party audiences with just 51% of the impressions—a much more effective media activation. 

The impact of quality lasted well beyond one campaign, too. Brands built stronger connections with the households they reached through KPM campaigns. First-party households drove a 40% higher lifetime value than those reached in the third-party campaigns. Retail media helps advertisers deliver a more salient message offsite and reach the audiences that are going to be the future growth of your brand.  

2. Five-times higher sales per household

Retail media audiences drove real value for brands in the offsite space. The KPM campaigns produced positive incremental return on ad spend and uplift across key metrics: 

• Average sales per 1,000 households was 5.1x higher for KPM 

• Average household penetration rate was 3.9x higher for KPM 

• KPM audiences drove 22% more landing page views 

 Audiences based on actual purchase patterns make media dollars work harder for your brand. And we could reach those relevant households more times with fewer wasted impressions. 

3. Optimizing future campaigns

Retail media audiences like those available through Kroger Precision Marketing can inform a greater wealth of insights into campaign performance. 

In one of the offsite display campaigns we tested, we achieved uplift in two out of the three household segments. This learning doesn’t go to waste: with performance connected to in-store sales, media buyers can optimize against the better-performing segments to improve campaign outcomes. 

The bottom line

This series of tests demonstrated that brand dollars work harder with KPM retail media audiences than with standard third-party audiences. Brands can achieve authentic, meaningful connections with consumers, while reducing wasted impressions, driving more sales per household, and optimizing future campaigns.