This section guides you on creating a product ad campaign for retailers. You can use product ads to position your products at the top on your retailer's site. Once your campaign goes live, you can track key metrics in the portal and optimize it during its run.

Product ads, also known as sponsored products, serve as tools for enhancing product discoverability and sales when deployed at the digital point of purchase. They enable advertisers to boost their products to the digital 'top shelf' and promote them in a prime position.

Retailer’s typically integrate Epsilon Retail Media’s product ads within organic listings before presenting them to customers. We provide retailers with the functionality to execute fixed tenancy campaigns. This feature allows retailers to manage campaigns that exclusively 'lock in' a specific placement for a single brand, over a predetermined time span.

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For Supplier teams creating campaigns themselves, it is recommended to utilize auction flow for creating campaigns.

Prerequisites

Make sure to sync your catalog with at least one product before you start creating campaigns. For more information on how to sync your catalog, see product catalog.

Step 1: Select Your Team

You must first select a team that will create the campaign.

1. Log into the sandbox account or platform where you plan to create your campaign. For example, https://sandbox.citrusad.com/.
2. In Campaigns, click New Campaign.
3. In Team, search your retailer team and click Next.

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The teams are created by your supplier.

Step 2: Define Your Campaign Settings

You can define your campaign settings in the Settings tab.

1. Select campaign type as Product Ad.

2. Select placement for your campaign. Placements define the specific locations where ads are presented. The success of a campaign is often closely linked to ad placement. Therefore, selecting placements that closely align with your campaign objectives and target demographic is important. Supported placement types for product ads are:

   • Category
   • Category Cross Sell
   • Search Cross-sell
   • Broad Display (Home)
   • PDP
   • Search
     
     
     For more information on each placement type, see Placements.

3. Enter the name for your campaign. The name of your campaign will be displayed on the Campaign Manager and Reports pages.
   
   
   It's recommended to name the campaign after the promoted product(s), specific time frame, or selected strategy, like Cadbury Chocolate June Clearance. This facilitates easy identification of your campaign on the Reports page.

4. Specify the time duration for which you want your ad to be active. You can choose to run your ad for a set time period, or have it run all the time.

   • If you set dates, your ad will start one minute after midnight on your start date and end at midnight on your end date.

     

   • If you select Always On, your ad starts immediately on the same date and continues running based on the strategy you establish later in the setup process.

     

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     You must have sufficient amount in your wallet to run the campaign. If your wallet reaches the specified budget, ad will stop running.

5. Select a wallet to pay for your ad. If you have just one wallet, it's automatically selected.
   If you wish to add another wallet, reach out to your Technical Account Manager.

6. Now add product catalogs. All the available catalogs are listed.

   • If your retailer provides multiple catalogs, select each one individually and click Add. You can add upto six catalogs.

     

   • If only one catalog is available, select it and click Add.

   • You can also search for a specific catalog by name.

   • Once you've added the catalogs, your added catalogs will appear under the Catalogs selected table.

     

     After making all the selections, click Next.

Step 3: Select the Products for Advertisement

1. Add the product(s) that you want to advertise in your campaign. You can simply search the products by name, barcode number, or associated keywords such as your brand name. Select either a single product or multiple products for your campaign. If several products align with the same search terms or share similar attributes, consider grouping them into one campaign.

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   Note

   • You need to enter minimum of two characters for the search result to start appearing.
   • In Epsilon Retail Media platform, some restrictions may prevent specific products from appearing in search results. For details, see Product Selection Restrictions.
   • Product ads will not be served for products that are out of stock.
   • If you've selected more than one catalog in the previous step, then both the catalogs must have products in it. A minimum of 1 product for each catalog is required.

   

2. Click Add. This will include all instances of matching product codes across your selected catalogs.

3. You also have the option to upload a CSV file containing the product details. To do this, click the upload button.

   Your CSV file can include product codes, or pairs of product codes and catalog IDs.

   
   • If you opt to upload by product codes, the system will select these product codes across all selected catalog IDs.
   • Uploading pairs of product codes and catalog IDs will allow you to select products on a catalog-by-catalog basis.
   • If you're unsure about the format for your CSV file, click on Download template. This will provide a sample template for your reference.
   • Once your file is uploaded, you will see the total number of products currently in stock.

4. Click Import to add your products.

5. Click Next.

6. If you're not prepared to select products, click the Skip this stage button. This action saves your campaign as a draft until you add products for the advertisement. You can revisit and update this step before launching your campaign.

Product Stock Indicator

The color-coded indicator shows the stock status of your product. You can hover over each indicator to see a tooltip explanation.

Here's what each color represents:

• Green: The product is available in all selected catalogs.
• Amber: The product is available in some, but not all, selected catalogs.
• Red: The product is out of stock in all selected catalogs.

Step 4: Configure Target Criteria

Targeting criteria refers to the specific characteristics or parameters used by businesses to identify and reach potential customers who are most likely to be interested in their products or services. These characteristics can include age, gender, location, income level, past purchasing behavior, interests, and more. For example:

• A bookstore might use targeting criteria to identify customers who have previously purchased mystery novels, and then send these customers information about new releases in the mystery genre. This approach allows businesses to focus their marketing efforts more effectively, potentially saving resources and increasing sales.
• A sports goods retailer might use targeting criteria to identify customers who have previously purchased hiking equipment, are aged between 20 and 35, and live in areas known for outdoor activities. They can then tailor their advertising to show these customers ads for new hiking boots or camping gear, thus increasing the likelihood of making a sale.

This step will vary depending on the placement type you've selected. Refer to the steps that are applicable for your placement type.

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If you've selected a broad display as the placement type then you will not see any targeting criteria.

• Category
• Search
• Category cross-sell
• Search cross-sell

(Optional) Step 4a: Configure Targeting for Categories

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Note

This step is applicable only for Category Placement Types on retailers that have enabled this capability. For retailers that have not enabled this capability, your products will automatically show on all relevant categories.

During this step, you choose the categories for your ad, which decide where your ads will appear on the retailer's website.

Epsilon's Retail Media system suggests categories for your products automatically. You can either accept these suggestions or remove categories according to your preferences. To do so,

1. In Targeting, filter the categories.

   

2. Click Remove.

3. Once you've made all the selection, click Next.

(Optional) Step 4b: Configure Search Terms

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This step is applicable only for Category & Search or Search Placement Types.

At this stage, you can include and exclude search terms for your campaign. You can specify exact match or phrase match for your terms. If you've selected a single catalog, it will also show search volume and winning bid for the previous 30 days for each search term that is entered. For more information, see Search Term Metrics.

• Exact match: This refers to the search terms that exactly match your keywords. If your keyword is "blue running shoes", your ad will only appear for users who type in "blue running shoes" in the exact order without any other words.
• Phrase match: Phrase match keywords are a string of words. Your ad can appear when users search for your exact keyword phrase, and potentially for searches that include additional words before or after the phrase. For example, if your keyword phrase is "running shoes", your ad might show for searches like "women's running shoes", "running shoes for men", or "buy running shoes online". For more information, see Phrase match search terms.

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  Phrase match can only be utilized if it has been enabled by your retailer.

Search Terms

1. Enter search terms relevant to your product's and/or your campaign goals and click Add. The more search terms you add, the more likely your campaign will get impressions.

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   You can add multiple keywords separated by a comma, up to a maximum of 500 search terms.

2. You also have the option to upload a CSV file containing the search terms.
   1. To do this, click the Upload a CSV file button.
   2. If you're unsure about the format for your CSV file, click on Download template. This will provide a sample template for your reference.
   3. Select phrase or exact match type for the upload.
   4. Click Import to add your search terms.
3. After adding all search terms, you have the option to add negative search terms or click Next.

Negative Search Terms

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This feature can only be utilized if it has been enabled by your retailer.

Negative search terms exclude specific words or phrases from your campaign, preventing your ads from appearing in unrelated searches. This strategy refines your audience, lowers costs, and boosts campaign efficiency. For example, adding "used" as a negative term for a new car ad avoids displaying it to those seeking used cars.

1. Click the down arrow in Negative Search Terms.
2. Enter negative search terms that you wish to target and click Add. Negative search terms enable you to exclude specific searches where you don't want your campaign to be shown.
3. You also have the option to upload a CSV file containing the search terms.
   1. To do this, click the Upload a CSV file button.
   2. If you're unsure about the format for your CSV file, click on Download template. This will provide a sample template for your reference.
   3. Select phrase or exact match type for the upload.
   4. Click Import to add your search terms.
4. Click Next.

Suggested Search Terms

When you're setting up search terms, our platform gives you suggestions based on the products you've picked. These are the best keywords for your products. For more information, see Suggested Search Terms.

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Get in touch with your Technical Account Manager to configure this feature.

Summary

This section provides the summary of all the terms you've added. Review the summary, then click Next.

Step 5: Define Ad Strategy

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For Supplier teams creating campaigns themselves, it is recommended to utilize auction flow for creating campaigns.

For the retailers only Fixed Tenancy is offered as the spend type. Fixed Tenancy is a spend type in which retailers provide advertisers the opportunity to reserve specific ad placements for a predetermined duration and cost. For instance, a clothing brand may choose to secure the top search result spot for the keyword "winter coats" on an online retail platform for a whole month. Regardless of how many users search for "winter coats" during this period, the brand's ad would consistently appear at the top, providing them with maximum visibility for a fixed cost.

• You can only book Fixed Tenancy Ad (FTA) campaigns for specific dates, which means they don't run indefinitely.
• When setting up a Fixed Tenancy Campaign, the platform conducts a check to ensure that no other campaigns share the same parameters. These parameters include:
  • Ad placement
  • Active period
  • Category or search term
  • Position (Search placement)
• Both Auction and FTA campaigns will run concurrently. However, FTA campaigns always take precedence over Auction campaigns. For instance, if a Search Page (SP) has five positions and an FTA campaign is booked for the first position, the Auction campaigns will occupy the second to fifth positions.

To define spend strategy, perform the following steps:

1. In the Strategy stage, the system selects the wallet you added during the Settings step. However, if you want to use a different wallet, simply click change in the Selected wallet section.
2. In this step set a spend limit. This ensures that your campaign spend does not exceed the specified amount. In the Select spend type section, Fixed tenancy is the default selection for the search placement type for the product ads.
3. Select the fixed position for your campaign to appear. Upon selecting a position, the system verifies the availability of the placement. If a "Placements" cloud appears, you must either remove any displayed placements or choose a different position. These are placements that have already been booked for the active period of the selected campaign.
4. After ensuring there are no conflicting placements, proceed to select a campaign cost. This cost represents the agreed price for the campaign between the supplier and the retailer. Upon launching a campaign, the system charges the user's wallet with the campaign's cost.
5. (Optional) If you've selected two catalogs in the Settings, you need to allocate a certain percentage of the total campaign cost to each catalog. This specified share, will be utilized for reporting calculations.
6. Click Next.

Step 6: Review

Now that you've defined all the settings and strategy for your campaign, it's time to review your campaign and submit it for approval.

1. If you wish to make any changes to the campaign, click Edit campaign and make the required changes.

2. Once you're confident in your changes, click Submit for approval. This action will place your campaign in a queue for approval. Once approved, your ads will begin to display and your wallet will be charged accordingly.

3. If you're still unsure about your campaign settings and strategy, you can click Save as Draft and return to submit it for approval at a later time.