CitrusAd connecting CPG brands to shoppers across multiple grocers

A new digital platform provides a single source for first-party data from grocery retailers nationwide.

Retail media network provider CitrusAd is unveiling GroceryOne, designed to enable CPG brands and advertising agencies to manage retail media campaigns with national coverage from a single source. Users can engage with grocery shoppers across multiple retailers online and at more than 2,500 store locations across the country.

Currently, CitrusAd says GroceryOne represents online and in-store retail sales of $60 billion, with that figure on track to double by the end of 2023. Brands and advertisers can engage with grocery shoppers throughout the path to purchase with targeted promotions including sponsored search/product ads, banners, and brand pages.

All GroceryOne media is linked directly to consumer purchases, reported by each retailer in real-time for transparent, closed-loop measurement. Analytics are provided on each brand’s campaign dashboard and can be viewed for any of the retail accounts on GroceryOne, for any SKU.

CitrusAd offers GroceryOne as a managed service or in a self-serve platform format, with a relevancy algorithm designed to target customers with a higher likelihood to purchase a particular product at a particular time. A built-in out-of-stock feature prohibits an ad from appearing if a product is not available for purchase at the store where the customer is shopping.

Grocery retailers open customers to targeted ads
Several major grocery players are directly partnering with CPG advertisers to deliver targeted ads to consumers as they make purchase decisions. For example, Albertsons launched its Albertsons Media Collective platform, which delivers digitally native, shopper-centric, branded content to its shoppers, in November 2021 with CitrusAd and Merkle.

Meanwhile, Kroger’s media advertising business, Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM), collaborates with multi-platform media company Meredith Corp. to offer an integrated media service that provides brand advertisers with closed-loop sales data from Kroger to leverage in campaigns across Meredith’s portfolio of food and lifestyle properties, including Allrecipes, Real Simple, EatingWell, People, Better Homes & Gardens, and Southern Living.

And Walmart recently rolled out a demand-side platform for suppliers and their media and ad agencies in time for the 2021 holiday season. Initially announced during the introduction of the Walmart Connect media platform in January 2021, the Walmart demand-side platform (DSP) is a collaborative effort with independent demand-side platform The Trade Desk.

Target launched its Roundel ad network in 2019 as a tool for CPG brands to create personalized digital ad campaigns aimed at Target customers. Roundel helps advertisers connect directly with Target's customers through personalized, relevant marketing messages across Target's owned platforms and hundreds of select off-platform channels.

“CPG advertisers now have a platform designed around the grocery industry,” said Lauren Malaguti, VP, GroceryOne media sales at CitrusAd. “An easy execution to reach millions of shoppers generating higher visibility in the shopper mindset with closed-loop analytics that measure ROI in real-time by retailer. Relevant, retail media is working. Short-term it is helping brands impact regional online and in-store sales. Longer term it is helping grow lifetime customer value in a vast omnichannel manner.”