How to Build a Performance Advertising and Retail Media Strategy that Drives Omnichannel Growth

The path from awareness to purchase is no longer linear. Today’s shoppers move between marketplaces, retailers, social platforms, and digital storefronts, expecting a consistent experience at every touchpoint. To succeed, brands must connect content, media, and operations with precision and speed.

A unified retail media strategy brings everything together. Performance advertising and retail media networks help bridge the gap between awareness and conversion. With paid search, DSP, programmatic advertising, retail media, and sponsored ads, you can target customers at each stage of their journey and make sure every dollar spent drives measurable growth.

In this article, we’ll explore the essential components of a performance-driven retail media and advertising strategy, including omnichannel media planning, campaign analysis, creative optimization, Amazon DSP, brand-building, and more.

Omnichannel Media Planning: Aligning Advertising Objectives for Maximum Impact

In the past, brands often focused on one or two advertising channels to drive results. But today the landscape is more complex. With a growing number of channels in play, it’s no longer enough to treat each one in isolation. You need to view your retail media strategy and advertising efforts holistically and understand how they work together.

As the industry evolves, the most successful brands are moving away from fragmented advertising efforts and adopting a more connected approach, where every touchpoint works in harmony. Integrating paid search, sponsored ads, retail media networks and programmatic advertising into your strategy allows for better insights, more precise targeting, and a unified customer experience to create a more powerful path to growth.

When crafting your media strategy, start by understanding your brand’s objectives and then determine how each channel can support those goals. Whether you’re focused on driving immediate conversions through paid search or building long-term brand awareness with programmatic ads and retail media, your media plan should connect the dots.

Why it matters:

• Maximizing Budget Efficiency: A unified media plan helps keep your advertising spend aligned with your goals. By selecting the right mix of channels and targeting strategies, you can optimize your budget and maximize ROI, making every dollar work harder for your brand.
  

• Creating a Seamless Experience: When your media efforts are integrated, customers have a consistent experience no matter where they encounter your brand. Whether they see your ad on a retailer, social media network, or a programmatic display, they should feel like they’re interacting with the same cohesive message across all touchpoints.
  

• Targeting the Right Audiences: With more channels comes more opportunity to reach the right customer at the right time. Paid search and Sponsored Ads can target consumers who are actively searching for products, while DSP and programmatic advertising can help you engage with potential customers who fit your target profile. A strong media plan helps you reach customers at every stage of the buying journey.

  
  

• Aligning with the Overall Ecommerce Strategy: Advertising isn’t just a standalone effort. It’s a core part of your broader omnichannel strategy. By integrating your media planning into your overall approach, you create a more effective strategy that drives long-term growth, maximizes performance, and adapts to shifting consumer behavior.

Pro Tip: At Channel Key, we specialize in building advertising strategies that work across multiple channels. Whether it's connecting DSP with retail media networks or integrating programmatic ads into your broader ecommerce strategy, we help you connect the dots and create a holistic, high-performing plan that drives measurable growth. Below are a few key omnichannel retail media strategies we leverage to maximize reach and performance across various touchpoints in the customer journey.

Performance Media and Retail Media Optimization: Full-Funnel Strategies to Maximize Conversions

Once your ads are live, performance analysis drives success. It’s not enough to track metrics in a silo. You need to understand how each campaign supports your broader strategy and contributes to growth.

Campaign performance reporting provides data on how well your ads are performing. Metrics like click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate (CVR), cost-per-click (CPC), and return on ad spend (ROAS) give you a snapshot of success.

However, it’s important not to focus too much on any one metric. The goal is to see how all these KPIs fit together and contribute to your overall objectives.

Why it matters:

• Seeing the Bigger Picture: With more channels, it’s easy to lose track of how each one plays a role in your overall strategy. Cross-channel reporting helps you view your campaigns as part of a larger ecosystem, not as isolated efforts. Each metric should be understood in context—how it impacts the others and how it contributes to your growth.
  

• Continuous Optimization: Performance analysis isn’t a one-time check-in. It’s an ongoing process. With granular insights, you can make quick adjustments to your strategy. Whether it's changing creative, adjusting budgets, or tweaking targeting, continuous optimization makes sure your campaigns are always evolving to meet your audience’s needs.
  

• Making Informed Decisions: Effective A/B testing, data visualization, and performance adjustments help you see what’s working and what’s not. By focusing on the bigger picture, you can refine your strategy to improve results over time. This keeps your campaigns aligned with your goals to drive the right kind of growth.
  

• Staying Ahead of Changes: Customer behavior and market conditions change fast. Performance reporting helps you adapt quickly to these shifts. By staying on top of performance across all platforms, you can respond to changes in seasonality or external factors without missing a beat.

Pro Tip: At Channel Key, we use a full-funnel approach to omnichannel growth, optimizing each stage of the customer journey. In our work with South Chicago Packing, we combined Amazon DSP with Sponsored Ads to drive awareness and convert new customers. As a result, over 75% of ad-attributed sales came from first-time buyers, highlighting the power of an integrated strategy.

Ad Creative Optimization: Boosting Engagement and Performance in Your Retail Media Strategy

Ad creative directly impacts campaign performance. Even when your targeting and budget are aligned, weak creative can still prevent engagement and conversions.

Ad creative optimization involves continuously testing and refining your ad assets to improve results. This includes tweaking ad copy, changing visuals, and running A/B tests to identify what resonates best with your audience. Whether you're updating a headline or swapping out an image, ongoing improvements keep your campaigns fresh and drive better outcomes over time.

• Designing for Impact: Visual and video content consistently outperform static images and text in paid search, programmatic, and retail media campaigns. For example, Amazon Sponsored Brands video ads deliver 32% more conversions than comparable static creatives, while video in DSP and programmatic display routinely lifts click-through and conversion rates across retail media networks.
  

• Video Engagement: Short, high-quality video performs well across retail media and social channels. Social media video ads consistently deliver higher conversion rates than static ads, with formats like YouTube Shorts (up to 60 seconds) proving especially effective at engaging audiences through quick, entertaining content.
  

• A/B Testing and Iteration: Creative optimization is an ongoing cycle. Running tests on elements like visuals, headlines, and calls-to-action gives you insights into what works. When you focus on these details, you can improve click-through, engagement, and conversion rates. According to Adobe, optimizing call-to-action features or ad headlines can save up to 40% of media budgets.

  
  

• Brand Consistency Across Touchpoints: Consistent creative and messaging across channels reinforce recognition and trust. Whether your ad appears on a marketplace, social platform, or retail media network, the customer should feel a unified brand experience. Research shows this pays off: customers trust brands in the top quartile for consistent journeys 30% more than those in the bottom quartile.

Pro Tip: At Channel Key, we deploy A/B tests across channels and creatives. We evaluate performance metrics in the context of the full campaign, allowing us to refine what works and stop what doesn’t. Our focus is on creative assets that drive impact across all media types and formats.

Display Advertising & Retargeting: Expanding Reach and Driving Return

Display advertising is one of the most effective ways to reach shoppers before they start searching. While paid search captures demand, display creates it. A strong display and retargeting strategy helps you expand reach, build awareness, and re-engage high-value shoppers across the entire web.

Modern display campaigns use programmatic tools to place ads on premium websites, apps, and streaming platforms. This gives you the ability to reach new audiences, serve personalized creative, and guide shoppers back to purchase. Brands today often use multiple DSP partners to reach shoppers across marketplaces, retailers, and the open web, creating a more holistic and flexible omnichannel strategy.

Amazon DSP plays a major role within this broader approach. While it’s only one of many DSP partners available, it brings a unique advantage through Amazon’s first-party shopping data. This makes it possible to target audiences built from real purchase behavior and browse activity, not assumptions. Amazon DSP reaches nearly 90% of U.S. shoppers across premium publishers, apps, and streaming environments. This level of scale helps you build awareness, introduce products to new audiences, and reach shoppers in places where competitors may not be present.

Display also plays a major role in retargeting. You can reconnect with shoppers who viewed your detail pages, added products to cart, visited your site, or made a previous purchase. This helps convert interest into revenue and strengthens long-term customer value.

Why It Matters:

• Expanded Reach Across Channels: Programmatic display gives you the ability to reach shoppers far beyond search-based advertising. Whether you activate through Amazon DSP, The Trade Desk, Google DV360, or a retailer’s offsite media network, programmatic tools help your brand reach audiences earlier in the journey and across a wider range of environments.
  

• High-Value Audience Targeting: Display platforms use demographic and behavioral signals to create precise audiences. Amazon DSP adds another advantage with its first-party shopping data, but unified display strategies across multiple partners help you reach shoppers who match your ideal customer across the open web.
  

• Stronger ROAS Through Retargeting: Retargeting campaigns consistently outperform upper-funnel tactics. Re-engaging warm shoppers with tailored creative can increase conversions by up to 60%. Brands that layer display retargeting with retail media and paid search often see major improvements in ROAS because they are capturing demand at every step.
  

• Full-Funnel Impact: Display is not only for awareness. Video, streaming, static, and dynamic creatives all influence the path to purchase. Display supports brand recall at the top of the funnel while also driving conversions at the bottom, especially when paired with retail media and paid search.

Pro Tip: At Channel Key, we build display strategies that support every stage of the customer journey. Our team works across multiple DSP partners, with Amazon DSP as a core component, to create full-funnel plans that expand reach and improve ROAS. This unified approach helps brands scale efficiently across retailers, marketplaces, and the open web.

Omnichannel Brand Building: Connecting Creative, Content, and Campaign

Brand-building through advertising means connecting your creative, content, and campaigns to the intent of your target audience. Whether you’re using paid search, DSP, or social media, your ad campaigns should reflect the values and personality of your brand while addressing the specific needs and desires of your audience.

Effective brand-building keeps your message consistent across all touchpoints and aligned with your overall marketing strategy. From visual identity to messaging and media alignment, every part of your campaign should work together to reinforce your brand equity.

Why it matters:

• Stronger Brand Equity: A magnetic, trusted brand is the bedrock of loyalty and legacy. By syncing advertising with brand-building imperatives, you fuel short-term lifts while stacking compounding gains. As seen in 2024, the world's top 100 brands surged 20% in aggregate value to $8.3 trillion, demonstrating how consistent, resonant campaigns can drive sustained market dominance and strengthen brand equity over time.
  

• Aligning Advertising with Brand Building: When your advertising efforts are aligned with your brand-building goals, you strengthen your overall strategy. Consistent branding helps build trust, creating lasting relationships with your audience that go beyond one-off conversions.
  

• Enhancing Customer Loyalty: Effective brand building encourages repeat customers who feel a stronger connection to your brand. By delivering consistent messaging and maintaining a clear brand identity, you create emotional resonance that turns one-time buyers into lifelong advocates.

  
  

• Driving Competitive Advantage: A strong brand helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace. Brands that align creatives and campaigns with their core values create lasting differentiation. As detailed in Adobe’s 2025 AI and Digital Trends report, market-leading retailers are 69% more likely to deliver connected, cross-channel experiences using unified tools, pulling far ahead of competitors.

Pro Tip: At Channel Key, we optimize every aspect of your campaigns, from creatives to targeting. For Jason Markk, we identified a content gap and delivered a strategic visual upgrade, boosting conversion rate by 8% and increasing CTR by 53%. We continuously fine-tune campaigns in real-time, ensuring they perform at their best across all platforms.

Final Thoughts: Creating a Seamless, Scalable Performance Advertising & Retail Media Strategy

The path to scalable advertising and retail media success is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it requires a flexible, integrated strategy that accounts for your specific goals, your audience, and the ever-changing digital landscape. As new advertising platforms and technologies emerge, brands must adapt quickly to stay ahead. By aligning your media plan, continuously optimizing performance, and utilizing advanced tools like Amazon DSP, you can drive growth while making sure each touchpoint delivers value to your customers.

Building a cohesive, cross-channel advertising strategy will help you stand out in today’s competitive market. Whether it’s reaching new customers, improving ad performance, or building long-term brand equity, every campaign must be part of a unified effort. Remember: the goal is to deliver a seamless experience that drives results at every stage of the customer journey.

Ready to elevate your advertising and retail media strategy? Contact us to learn more about how we can help you improve performance, fine-tune campaigns, and build a scalable strategy that fosters long-term growth in today’s fragmented omnichannel ecosystem.