Hitting Your “Target” Audience with Roundel Retail Media Network

As for the name “Roundel” itself? According to officials, that name – meaning circular disc – “provides a “wink” at the Target bulls-eye.”
There are a number of words and phrases that quickly became part of our everyday vocabulary throughout 2020, from “social distancing” and “flattening the curve,” to “TikTok” and “Tiger King.” But a phrase those outside the digital marketing world might not be as familiar with played a major role in 2020’s vast number of online purchases – retail media. And its impact is only slated to grow.

What is Retail Media?

Image Source: Target.com

What are Retail Media Networks?

Available Targeting: First party, browser audience, content channel, geo-targeting

Search results for hand soap on Target website

The next best thing to an eye-catching physical endcap in a store, Target’s custom brand experience arms brands with the ability to create a custom brand page highlighting their products and how to best use them, their benefits, and more. Target’s design team helps to craft this brand page working with your assets. Please note that brand page activation requires investment in a brand search sponsorship as well.

Maximized exposure for your brand on and off Target that harnesses Target’s invaluable first-party data to help reach audiences that are more likely to convert

What is Target Roundel?

What is the cornerstone of their value?
Display Banner Available Placements (Purchasable through Roundel™ Managed Service or programmatically through your own DSP)
Want to reach shoppers in the consideration stage who are searching at the category level to see what’s available? Roundel gives brands the opportunity to capture 100% share of voice for non-branded category term searches (ie. headphones).

Standard Display
High Impact
Homepage
Native
Audio
In-Stream & Out-Stream Video

Target.com Display Available Placements

1st Party
Browser Audience
Content Channel
Geo-targeting

In this article we explore the expansive retail media advertising opportunities available through Target, with native sponsored listings powered by Criteo, and display placements powered by Roundel™. But first, let’s dive into a high level overview of what retail media is, and how it works.

Target Sponsored Ad Types

Programmatic by Roundel™

Roundel provides these brands with an impressive array of managed and self-service advertising options on Target.com and “150 brand-safe channels, like Pinterest, PopSugar, NBCU, and others.” They refer to this curated network as the Bullseye Network. These display, audio, and video opportunities help you reach the eyes and ears of potential customers through a variety of placement and targeting opportunities:

Audience-First Private Marketplace: Display and video inventory in your choice of standard or high-impact sizes is shown on Target.com, as well as across Target’s premium publisher marketplace

Contextual Private Marketplace: Shoppers can be reached at all stages of the buyer journey, including within specific categories, such as electronics, beauty, and more

Display by Roundel™

Retail media is a type of advertising where the ads themselves are showcased within a partnering retail site or app. These native and display ads are served to customers that have progressed to the point of purchase, are near the point of purchase, or are in the comparison and consideration stage for the brand or product they’ve searched. Available Placements
Circle Programmatic Audiences

Product Listing Pages (PLPs)
Product Detail Pages (PDPs)
Category Pages
Registry
Empty Cart
Store Locator
Thank You Page
Home Page Takeover
Home Page Megaboard
Home Page Leaderboard

Target Product Ads by Roundel™ In these mobile search results for “laundry detergent” on Target.com we see a sponsored listing for Persil in the third position.

Standard Display
High-Impact Home Page
Native

Pinterest

Social by Roundel™

Utilizing first party targeting or geo-targeting, there are two Facebook News Feed ad options available for desktop, mobile, app, and omnichannel placement – Facebook Image and Carousel Ads, and Facebook Video

Reach relevant, interested shoppers across Target.com through on-site display placements, as well as Target’s carefully curated marketplace of 150+ publishers through display banners, programmatically.
Image Source: https://www.target.com/b/lego/-/N-56h5n?lnk=snav_rd_legos

Pinterest Promoted Pins
Pinterest Carousel Pins
Pinterest Video Pins
Pinterest Performance – Promoted Pins (Keyword)
Pinterest Performance – Shopping Pins

Launched in October 2019 in place of Target’s previous Cartwheel savings tool, Target Circle is a loyalty program with benefits that include personalized offers and savings crafted to meet the known interests of individual shoppers. By November 2020, Target Circle boasted “nearly 80 million members,” which translated to “nearly billion in savings” for members.
Available Targeting: First party, browser audience, contextual category, geo-targeting

Target Circle

Snapchat
What are they?

Circle Mass Offer – Available to all shoppers
Circle Personalized – Offers for relevant shoppers based on their purchase history and buyer behavior
Digital Manufacturer Coupon (DMC) & Digital Manufacturer Rebates (Adult Beverages)

Target Circle gives advertisers the flexibility to create 3 distinct offer types:

Demographic (age, gender, household income, and more)
Location-Based (state, DMA, zip code)
Behavioral (search and browsing history)
Re-Targeting (pixel-based)
Spend-Alike

Retail media networks enable brands to increase visibility by advertising their goods or services to shoppers that have met the criteria outlined above. These ads can be thought of as the digital version of the physical endcaps and prominently placed displays you’d find when meandering around stores like Target. With so many shoppers across the globe minimizing – or eliminating – in-person shopping, many brands looking to boost their digital presence to stand out in the now-busier online space turned to retail media, or amplified their existing retail media marketing efforts.

Purchase Based Targeting: Reach all Target shoppers who have made a purchase within a set time frame from myriad categories and sub-categories, such as any piece of women’s apparel, any home décor item, or any pet food or pet care product

Seasonal Targeting: Reach shoppers who shopped at Target during ‘seasons’ that are related to your product lineup, which might include Back to School, the winter holiday season, or those who purchased candy or Halloween costumes last October, to provide just a few examples

Demographic Targeting: Reach female shoppers, male shoppers, or shoppers who have identified that there are children in their household

Category Search Sponsorship

Want to see what your retail media placements would look like on Target.com? Let’s explore a few examples…

Brand Search Sponsorship

For targeting guests that are actively seeking out your brand specifically, brand search sponsorships provide exceptional visibility with native, top-of-page ad placements. These placements enable you to own 100% share of voice for branded terms, driving high engagement at a monthly spend.

Custom Brand Experience

Retail media itself is not a new marketing channel, but was already top-of-mind for many brands hungry for the first party data insights and impressive attribution capabilities it offers even before the pandemic took hold last winter, accelerating its growth even further. Add to that interest the rapidly expanding options available in retail media, and you have a channel that many brands can’t afford to ignore.

Target offers two products to support brands looking for additional exposure through search ads across Target.com, Target properties, and Google – Target Product Ads by Roundel™ and Search Ads by Roundel™.

Target Sponsored Ad Examples

The location-specific value add that Search Ads by Roundel™ offers is highlighted in the Target listing above, noting that the item is available for pick up today at the searcher’s neighborhood Target store.

Facebook

target laundy detergent mobile search results

A search for “men’s ankle socks” on Target.com returns the following top 3 results, with the third result from Pair of Thieves being a sponsored product listing, as noted in the bottom right hand corner of the listing.

featured products carousel on pdp for cerave face wash on target website

Formerly known as “Target Media Network,” Roundel is Target’s rebranded internal retail media agency, currently boasting “nearly 1,000 partners,” including household names like Coca-Cola, Disney, and Unilever. Audience targeting strategies enable partners to reach shoppers based on purchase-based, behavioral, demographic, or spend-alike and predictive models.

Honest Company Display Banner Above the Products within the Disposable Diapers Category

Tinuiti & Target: Experience and Execution

When exploring any new advertising opportunity, the best results are typically realized when partnering with experts who understand the unique landscape. Our team boasts years of hands-on experience advertising in new and established marketplaces, including Amazon, Walmart, and Target. Working directly with Roundel and Criteo, we ensure our clients’ ads harness the full functionality and features Target has to offer, with results-oriented scalability baked in.
Shopping result ads designed to capture high-intent Google.com searchers looking for products like yours, directing them to Target.com, the Target App, or a Target store to purchase. These are products that Target sends via product feed, and manages internally. As a value add, when Target includes your product in their feed, their local product feed also factors into the equation—this includes local store information, and inventory, so shoppers have immediate insight into whether a given product is available at their nearest Target.

Hitting Your “Target” Audience with Roundel Retail Media Network

What is Retail Media?

What are Retail Media Networks?

What is Target Roundel?

Target Sponsored Ad Types