Retail Media, the Funnel… and What We’ve Been Getting Wrong
Retail Media Is Not Just a Bottom‑Funnel Activity
It would be easy to think of retail media as solely a bottom funnel activity…
We imagine shoppers filling their online baskets and then seeing a sponsored product ad at checkout and adding an extra item or two… Or we imagine them filling their real-world shopping trolley in store, then walking past an in-aisle promotion and popping an extra item in.
Retail Media Now Extends Far Beyond the Store
These days, retail media activities and formats extend far beyond the store itself… to online ads, social posts and emails that a shopper can see at home, OOH that they pass on the way to the store, trolley bays, six sheets, sampling and pop-up activations in the store car park, to a dazzling myriad of formats in-store and online…
In fact, in 2024, globally, 34% of all paid brand experiences came from retail media (source: SMG).
So with all of these channels and formats in play, what does the data tell us about the work it does? Can retail media change minds and build brands… or does it just close the sale?
What We Need to Prove About Retail Media’s Influence
Before we get into the discussion, we should establish what we are looking for, and what we would accept as evidence that retail media influences top and mid funnel behaviours. In simple terms, what we would want to prove is, looking at retail media activity alone…
Top of Funnel: Awareness
Did people notice and remember the brand?
Mid Funnel: Consideration
Did people move closer to choosing the brand?
Lower Funnel: Conversion
Did it drive actual sales?
Post Purchase: Retention
Did it help build brand affinity and repeat purchases?
Most of us are clear, from many studies and from real-world experience involving test-and-control closed-loop reporting, that retail media activity, without question, drives lower funnel results. So we won’t revisit that here (contact us at ReAction if you’d like any examples of that).
But its effectiveness at top and mid funnel is less well documented.
New Evidence on Retail Media’s Full‑Funnel Impact
However, SMG, recognised as leading experts in retail media in the UK, working with the Path to Purchase Institute and marketing effectiveness consultancy MESH, recently produced a report on this very subject.
Their report highlighted an underlying fact that we all know instinctively, but which is a really important contextual point when quantified: 28% of all brand experiences happen in retail environments.
That positions retail as a dominant part of real-world brand exposure. More importantly, it helps explain why retail media can influence higher up the funnel.
Retail environments carry more ‘heft’.
They are environments that shoppers, on the whole, trust.
The report found that paid retail media performs broadly in line with mass media, and in some cases ahead, across ‘experience engagement’ metrics:
Positivity: 67% (Retail Media) vs 69% (Mass Media) - Slightly behind
Relevance: 60% vs 56% - Ahead
Persuasiveness: 68% vs 65% - Ahead
So, with all of this in mind, what does retail media’s influence look like in practice… Across the funnel?
Top of funnel
At the top of the funnel, the report found that shoppers are:
4.4x more likely to improve brand awareness after a retail experience, and…
3.6x more likely from exposure to paid retail media specifically
And in terms of sheer volume and ubiquity:
52% of people report a retail experience in an average week
Retail media adds +1.9 additional brand experiences per person per week
This matters because it demonstrates both the scale and frequency of exposure driven by retail media. It indicates that retail media isn’t just closing an existing demand, it’s creating and reinforcing demand at scale.
Mid funnel
At mid funnel, the report found that shoppers are:
2.6x more likely to increase brand consideration after a retail experience
And that paid retail media outperforms paid mass media, with an index score of:
2.5 vs 2.0 in driving brand consideration
This is a genuinely significant finding. Consideration is the bridge between brand and performance, and these findings indicate that paid retail media is outperforming traditional channels in this space. Few channels can demonstrably shift consideration at this level… particularly so close to the point of purchase.
For brands, this changes how retail media should be planned… not just as activation, but as part of the brand-building mix.
Post purchase and brand equity
And how does retail media hold up post purchase?
As a benchmark, the study found that retail experiences generally drive:
2.5x improvement in brand affinity
3.0x improvement in NPS
But once again, retail media stands out. The study found that retail media outperforms mass media across key brand lift metrics:
NPS: 2.4 (Retail Media) vs 1.7 (Mass Media)
Consideration: 2.8 vs 2.0
Affinity: 2.2 vs 2.0
Beyond the point of sale
Finally, there is another study that paints a powerful picture of the through-funnel strength of retail media.
Research carried out by Circana on behalf of Co-op Media Network (UK) explored whether retail media activity can drive conversion beyond the point of activation… an indicator of influence beyond triggering the shopper’s ‘buy now’ impulse in the moment.
That study found:
A brand sales uplift in surrounding, non-Co-op, grocery stores of 3%
Incremental brand sales monetary value in those surrounding stores 4x higher than the uplift recorded in Co-op.
Another clear indicator of retail media’s broader, through-funnel impact.
So, what can we take from this?
Retail media is an “experience multiplier”
Retail media doesn’t just increase reach or drive conversion… it increases both the frequency and quality of brand exposure. A brand’s share of ‘experience’ can be argued to be a leading indicator of market share.
The combination of context and trust gives retail media upper funnel power
Retail media works because it appears in trusted retailer environments and is closer to decision-making moments. It compresses the funnel by combining context, trust and proximity.
Measurement is catching up with reality
When it comes to retail media, there has been a lack of upper-funnel measurement and an over-reliance on conversion metrics. Retail media hasn’t changed… our ability… and the onus… to measure it properly has.
Retail media vs mass media is no longer a hierarchy
The findings suggest that retail media isn’t simply a complementary activity or a conversion channel. In some cases, it is more effective than mass media. They may still have different roles, but there are increasingly overlapping outcomes.
Final Thought
What the data tells us is this… retail media isn’t just a bottom-of-funnel channel, nor is it “moving up the funnel”… it’s been full-funnel all along.