How a US-based grocery retailer grew its ad revenue share 4x in 4 months

Background:

The Opportunity: Ready to Outgrow the Old Platform

A US grocery retail cooperative runs multiple regional retail banners under one umbrella. Its retail media program had been live for three years on a legacy ad-serving platform. Growth had become slow: well short of what the business could support.

Challenge:

The Wall: Four Limits, One Legacy Platform

The legacy platform created multiple challenges for the retailer. 

• Reporting stopped at basic metrics: neither side had share-of-voice or brand-halo visibility.
• Keyword targeting was exact-match only, so response rates and budget utilization both stayed low.
• Furthermore, advertisers lacked the ability to choose which retail banner their ads ran on.

The retailer lacked a platform that could keep up with its advertisers. 

Solution:

The Osmos Approach: Control, Simplicity, Visibility

The retailer migrated off its incumbent ad server onto Osmos, built around three moves: network control, self-serve management, and full-funnel reporting.

• Custom network targeting. Advertisers can now choose exactly which retail banner their ads run on. The retailer keeps control over who advertises where.
• Self-serve campaign management. One-click launch and pre-launch media forecasting gave the advertisers the ability to take campaigns live by themselves
• Full-funnel reporting. Self-serve dashboards give advertisers brand halo and share-of-voice visibility, and give the retailer its own view into budget utilization, engagement funnel health, and demand-supply gaps.

Response rates and budget utilization improved too, once ads could match on more than exact keywords. The migration led to - 7+ custom integrations, zero revenue leakage, revenue recognition in eight weeks.

Impact:

• M%G grew 4X in four months, climbing from 0.3% to 1.1% after three years of slower growth on the legacy platform (0.1% to 0.3%).
• Brand adoption: up 66% in six months.
• Migration: zero revenue leakage, contract-to-revenue in eight weeks, across 7+ integrations.
• Overall Growth: up 5X in two years.

The retailer now runs a media program built to scale: direct control over where ads run, direct advertiser relationships, and full visibility into performance.