From Digital Shelf to CTV: A Full-Funnel Roadmap for Winning on Retail Marketplaces

The retail media industry has reached a tipping point. Once viewed primarily as a performance channel to capture late-stage conversions, retail media is now a core part of the marketing mix. Global spending on retail media networks is projected to reach nearly $180 billion this year, surpassing television advertising for the first time. For brands selling through marketplaces and retailers, retail media is no longer optional. It is an essential lever for growth.

What makes 2025 different is the scope of what retail media has become. Retailers are expanding far beyond sponsored product placements to offer full-funnel engagement opportunities. Brands can now run campaigns that build awareness, consideration, and loyalty across multiple platforms. This evolution has raised expectations for marketers, who must integrate on-site placements, off-site activations, and advanced measurement into a single strategy.

The Expansion of Retail Media

Recent industry surveys show that more than seven in ten marketers are increasing their investment in retail media this year. While search and sponsored products still represent the largest share of spend, the fastest growth is coming from channels like connected TV, social commerce, and programmatic display. Retailers are using their shopper data to extend campaigns off-platform, allowing brands to reach audiences long before they arrive at the digital shelf.

For mid-market brands, this expansion can feel daunting. Many lack the scale or resources to manage every channel at once. Yet the reality is that a full-funnel approach is becoming the cost of entry. The opportunity lies in creating a balanced roadmap that prioritizes the right mix of channels and uses data to guide investment.

CTV and Social Commerce Take Center Stage

Connected TV has quickly become one of the most compelling extensions of retail media. Consumers are willing to engage with shoppable video, and many will act immediately on product links within streaming platforms. Surveys show that a majority of consumer goods brands now see CTV as a critical component of their media strategy. For smaller brands, the ability to target precise audience segments and measure household-level impact makes CTV an efficient way to drive awareness.

Social commerce is also surging. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are increasingly integrated with retail media networks, giving brands the ability to connect social storytelling with commerce outcomes. The result is a tighter link between inspiration and transaction. When paired with digital shelf strategies, social placements can boost product visibility and reinforce brand presence at the point of purchase.

Measuring Real Impact

One of the most significant changes in retail media is the way success is measured. Clean room environments like Amazon Marketing Cloud and Walmart Scintilla provide more insights than ever before on who your customers are, which customer profiles have the most value to you, who is most likely to result in new & repeat customers, their paths to purchase, etc.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. By pairing these tools with true incrementality measurement & AI-based media forecasting, advertisers are more sophisticated than ever before on how to plan, build, execute, and optimize their retail media campaigns. Those who aren’t, are getting left in the dust.

A Full-Funnel Roadmap

To compete effectively, brands should think about retail media in six connected stages:

1. Strengthen Data Foundations
   Clean, governed first-party data is the cornerstone of targeting and measurement.
2. Optimize the Digital Shelf
   Use sponsored products, banners, and video formats to win shopper attention where intent is highest.
3. Maximize Demand Capture with On-Site Search
   Capturing demand from highly relevant customers searching in your category
4. Activate Off-Site Media
   Extend reach with display, CTV, and social campaigns fueled by retail audience insights.
5. Integrate Social Commerce
   Combine creative storytelling with transactional opportunities on social platforms.
6. Bridge In-Store and Digital
   Leverage retail screens, shoppable media, and synced CTV campaigns for continuity across touchpoints.
7. Measure and Refine
   Use advanced attribution and mix modeling to understand which investments truly drive incremental growth.

This roadmap ensures that brands are present at every stage of the journey, without stretching budgets too thin.

The Role of AI and Automation

The complexity of full-funnel retail media makes technology indispensable. AI-driven tools now support creative testing, audience segmentation, and campaign optimization at scale. For example, retail platforms like Walmart Connect have introduced dayparting and automated budget rules that help brands maximize efficiency. As third-party cookies disappear, first-party data and AI-powered personalization will only grow more important.

Mid-market brands often assume these capabilities are reserved for larger players. In reality, the democratization of data and technology means that smaller brands can access the same tools and insights—provided they work with partners who know how to unlock them.

Looking Ahead

The rise of full-funnel retail media represents both the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity for brands in 2025. Complexity will only increase as retailers continue to expand offerings and consumer expectations evolve. But with the right strategy, mid-market and SMB brands can level the playing field.

Winning in retail media is not about being everywhere at once. It is about building a roadmap that connects each stage of the funnel, aligns with measurable business outcomes, and uses technology to execute with precision. For brands willing to embrace this approach, the path forward is clear: strengthen the digital shelf, activate across new channels like CTV and social, and measure impact in terms of long-term growth.

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Jeff Coleman

Jeff Coleman is the Co-Founder and Chief Client Officer at Birddog, a full-funnel commerce media agency committed to helping mid-market and SMB brands enhance their presence across digital marketplaces.

With over 15 years of experience in e-commerce and retail media, Jeff is widely recognized as a marketplace expert with deep operational knowledge of platforms like Amazon and Walmart Connect.