• DE&I Commitment
  • Careers
  • SIGN IN
  • Book a Meeting
    Book a Meeting
  • Company
    Learn a little more about us, our values, and our team
    Our Values
    We don't just talk the talk; we live by our core values
    About Us
    Empowering brands to realize their potential with data, insights, and technology
    Leadership
    Meet our leadership team
    Secure Data Architecture
    Our promise of data security and privacy. We keep your data safe from publishers, competitors and bad actors
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    We are committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet
  • Platform
    Plan, manage, optimize, and measure your campaigns with our omnichannel platform
    Omnichannel Advertising
    A platform that connects all walled garden media for more effective campaigns
    Data Connectivity
    Make data-driven decisions as you plan and strategize
    Product Capabilities
    Take your campaigns to the next level by enhancing your platform capabilities
    See the industries we serve
    Learn how our customizable solutions can help with your unique needs
    Explore our partner integrations
    See the media, retailer, and data partners we work with
  • Case Studies
  • News and Events
    Check out recent announcements and see what we’re up to
    Newsroom
    Check out our recent media mentions and announcements
    Events
    Join us for our next conference or webinar
    Omnichannel platform launch
    Read the press release to see how we're helping marketers win the walled gardens
    Cannes Lions 2023
    Don't miss your chance to meet with Skai leadership in Cannes
  • Resources
    From new releases, to industry trends and best practices, Skai has you covered
    Marketer Insights
    Read the latest blog posts and thought leadership from Skai and other industry experts
    Skai Research
    Explore our studies, reports and whitepapers so you can keep up on the latest industry trends
    The State of Retail Media 2023
    Learn how industry experts are approaching retail media
    The Breakthrough
    The only resource hub built for marketers in the new era of omnichannel
Back to Blog

August 2022 Retail Media Roundtable: How to Best Plan for Q4?

Joshua Dreller, Sr. Director, Content Marketing @ Skai™

August  23, 2022

The end of the summer in the advertising industry generally means two things: The final round of vacations before the second half push and agencies are putting the finishing touches on 2022’s Q4 media plans to submit to their brand counterparts. And football, both American and European.

Okay, three things.

Q4 is also shorthand for the end of the year holiday shopping season when retail brands and marketers want to make sure they put their best foot forward to reap the benefit of heightened consumer purchase intent. This is why marketers often plan many more months ahead than other quarters. Given the headwinds for retail and commerce across the middle of the year, brands will be counting on a big Q4 to define if 2022 was a success or failure. 

Retail media continues to ascend as a marketing channel, and so it will undoubtedly play a bigger role in Q4 media plans than ever before. Spending on retail media increased by 23% in Q4 2021 over 2020, and the continued addition of new retail media networks means we could very well see bigger growth when we review the results of the quarter in January. 

Those additional options are just one more variable media planners are dealing with right now to figure out exactly how much to invest in retail media next quarter. Ad prices are another variable to consider, as retail media CPCs were up 13% year-over-year in 2021. 

 – Chris “Coz” Costello (Senior Director of Marketing Research @ Skai)

Do you have any burning questions you’d like to ask our expert panel? Would you like to contribute to this series? If so, please reach out to our content director, Josh Dreller, at joshua.dreller@skai.io. 


August 2022’s Retail Media Roundtable question

The end of the year holiday season is hands-down the most important retail time of the year. Right now, brands and agencies are in Q4 planning mode. 

Question: What are some of the extra details retail media marketers need to consider when planning ahead for Q4 versus the rest of the year?


Danielle Benson (Performance Marketing Manager, Retail @ Harry’s)

Planning ahead for Q4 vs the rest of the year is quite different because you’re spending most of your efforts on holidays. Retail marketing will play a huge role in ensuring products perform well online. The three areas to focus on are launching on time, figuring out how the products look online, and planning ahead of the digital marketing efforts. 

Launching products on time is essential and partnering with distribution and logistic teams makes meeting deadlines for delivery possible at the beginning of the holiday season. Every retailer’s holiday shopping starts at different times, some will start in early November while others closer to Thanksgiving. Regardless, you’ll want to leave plenty of lead time to ensure the launch is set up and ready to go to hit the shopper demands.

Next, focusing on the PDP strategy is figuring out how the products show up online. A great starting point is understanding each retailer’s specific website requirements. In this case, you’ll want the PDPs to spotlight all things holiday. Even if you only have evergreen products during this time, you’ll still want to emphasize holidays using relevant keywords and updating assets that fit the theme.

Last, is the marketing strategy. Work back from the last ship date for the products as that’ll determine the flight time for your campaigns. Start with where the customers will be looking for the products in each phase of the marketing funnel. Determine what keywords and categories shoppers will be going after to help build your campaigns around them. Don’t fix what’s not broken, especially if you’re crunching on time. Automatic campaigns may be your friend and can repeat success.

Miguel Reyes (Sr Advertising Manager @ media.monks)

With Q4 being highly competitive for marketing and advertising, navigating through the quarter can surface many challenges with high search volumes, increased cost to win, and competitive pricing. To best prepare, ensure that you have clear goals in mind that you can use to back into a strategy that will help you achieve your target. Consider testing new ideas, mixing tactics, and formulating a strategy based on past performance.

Map out your strategy to help better facilitate the idea. Ensure all teams are on the same page and establish goals to set expectations. Understand your budget needs and move forward with the content and tactics that work best. Plan ahead of the quarter and tap into historical performance to identify what’s worked and what hasn’t, and allow the business to improve YoY results.

Think about how your product can apply to the various events during Q4 (e.g. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and New Year’s Eve). Focus on the most important events for your business and develop a strategy to effectively engage with the shopper and close the sale.

Identify additional mediums to create demand and to help better connect with your customers. Leverage off-site media and synchronize your approach with on-site strategies, to amplify awareness and brand messaging. (e.g. “social media”, “Amazon Post”, “DSP”).

Q4 is a period with the potential to capture the largest volume of sales, while customers also search for the best-valued deals. Ensure that not only your media efforts align, but also your promotional planning. Additionally, with automation tools from Skai, you have the ability to set guardrails to drive efficient results. This gives advertisers more capacity to focus on higher-level marketing strategies, with room to fine-tune and reiterate the approach.

Matt Strietelmeier (Director, Marketplace Advertising @ Stella Rising)

For many advertisers, Q4 can make or break their entire year, which is why it’s critical to start planning early.  My approach to Q4 planning can be broken down into 4 parts; Historic Performance Analysis, Strategy Development, Creative Updates, and Strategy Execution. 

Analyze last year’s performance to identify what worked well and what didn’t work so great.  Answer the following questions and use your analysis to inform this year’s Q4 strategy.

  • What promos did you run?  What was the response?
  • Which products were top sellers?
  • What strategies were in place last year?
  • What was last year’s budget, was it enough?
  • On what dates did you begin to see traffic increase, peak, and decline?

Craft a strategy that will take advantage of the increased traffic and purchase intent throughout Q4. Include upper-funnel tactics that build brand awareness and help to drive new-to-brand traffic, as well as lower-funnel & remarketing tactics that move that traffic down the path to conversion. 

Offer competitive promotions that will maximize your conversion rate and drive sales.  Finally, fund your campaigns with sufficient budget that accounts for the spike in demand and more competitive CPCs. 

Regarding creative assets for Amazon Sponsored Brand, DSP, or other display tactics, update creative with festive images and videos that speak to the season.  Ensure that ad text calls out your promotion where possible, but be cognizant of ad text guidelines that could get your ad disapproved.

Upload any new creatives and campaigns at least 2 weeks (or earlier if possible) before significant promotional dates to account for any disapprovals that may occur.  This will give you time to adjust your assets if needed, to get them approved and ready to go.

Finally, have a strategy execution plan in place before Q4 begins.  Boost your bids in the lead-up to Turkey 5 and monitor throughout, while being ready to adjust as needed.  Pace your daily spending to align with the increased demand around Turkey 5 and other significant dates.

Have a plan in place for how the campaign manager should handle higher-than-expected demand.  For example, if campaigns have reached their daily budget at 11 AM on Black Friday, but performance is awesome, can budget be pulled from upcoming months to support the demand, or are you ok with going dark?

Max Schneider (Vice President of Advertising @ beBOLD Digital)

Remember finals week in college? There was always that kid that went around asking everyone if they were ready for finals. There were two responses to that question. Some people, still scrambling through their books, would respond that they were getting there. Others, walking confident between classes, would respond, “Yeah, I’m ready. That’s what the whole semester has been for.”

What do we need to be successful during peak periods like Prime Day, Cyber Monday, and general Q4 shopping? We want to have well-optimized ads. This means that we want our ads to be stable and have historical relevance. We don’t want to launch a bunch of new ads during peak seasons because they will be crushed by competitors that are prepared. We want to have high organic rankings already. You aren’t going to build a brand overnight and certainly aren’t doing it during the busiest time of the year. This means you should already have content updated, have your ads supporting ranking strategies, doing everything you can do to push yourself higher on page one. 

What do we do differently for peak seasons? We budget higher ad spend. We make sure there is extra inventory. We may plan some couponing. Otherwise, everything we do ALL YEAR should work toward a strategy supporting Q4 or other peak search volume periods. 

Be the brand that’s getting ready for finals all year.

Jillian Cleland (Client Success Director, Commerce @ Skai™)

There are a few factors to consider when going into Q4 planning, and having these nailed down can hopefully provide some peace of mind once the holiday season is in full swing. I’d break this down into forecasting and predicting prior to the holidays, being able to quickly pivot during, and feeling confident in reporting after the holidays.

From a platform perspective, Skai can help you achieve each of these things but having these 3 phases planned for will hold steady across any channel or brand you are prepping in the retail space.

When we talk about pre-holiday planning, understanding each brand’s seasonality and comparing prior year’s holiday sales is a great place to start. Being able to use past performance to inform and strategize your practices during the holidays is crucial. However, as many brands begin to diversify their shelf space, you may not have the opportunity to utilize past holiday performance. In this case, it is particularly important to be closely leaned in with your retailer partners by attending holiday webinars, reaching out to specific retail reps, and connecting with your Skai CS team.

Diving into Skai specifically, I’d recommend having a few things in order prior to the holiday, namely: 1) creating saved views or favorites to quickly navigate to during the holiday season, 2) utilizing dimensions and categories to identify products and campaigns of priority 3) explore Skai’s Forecasting tool that can be utilized to make predictions cross retailers 4) setting up automated actions or ad bid scheduling ahead of the holiday season.

As we dive into the holidays, being comfortable with all of the above best practices and having a relationship with your retailer reps will shape your comfort and confidence. If you do for any reason and need to act quickly, having the comfort and support team will enable your strategy.

Overall, taking into account these planning phases, adopting a proactive mindset, and developing strong partnerships with your retail team will help you achieve success during the holiday season.

If you really want to make the most of this year’s Q4, put your new retail media tech foundation in now

As part of Skai’s intelligent marketing platform, our Retail Media solution empowers brands to plan, execute, and measure digital campaigns that meet consumers when and where they shop. Built with best-in-class automation and optimization capabilities, our unified platform allows you to manage campaigns on 30+ retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Instacart all in one place.

Client results include:

  • 461% increase in Amazon Ads ROAS and 57% increase in page traffic for Bondi Sands
  • 92% increase in share of voice on Amazon for a Fortune 500 CPG brand
  • 72% increase in revenue for VTech
  • 1,390% year-over-year sales growth for Kamado Joe

To learn more about how Skai surfaces Amazon Marketing Cloud insights—or to see our full Retail Media solution in action—please schedule a quick demo today!

Request a Demo of Skai

Related Posts

  • skai black friday amazon ads checklist fb
    The Skai Black Friday Amazon Ads Checklist 2021
    Read More
  • Kroger Precision Marketing Announces Its Retail Media Partnership with Skai
    Read More
  • May 2022 Retail Media Roundtable: Which Team Should Manage Amazon DSP?
    Read More
  • June 2022 Retail Media Roundtable: What is the Value of Amazon Marketing Cloud?
    Read More
  • amazon ads advanced partner
    Skai Achieves Amazon Ads Advanced Partner Status 
    Read More
  • March 2022 Retail Media Roundtable: How to Allocate Budgets Across Retailers
    Read More
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email
  • Copy Link
    Copied!
Tags: Amazon, Buy, Instacart, Measure, Optimize, Plan, Research, Retail Media, Retail Media Roundtable, Target, Walmart, xTLx

    Subscribe to Updates

    Media that matters.
    Marketing that works.
    © 2023 Kenshoo, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
    Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Recruitment Privacy Policy.
    • Connected Strategy
      • Dynamic Marketing Mix
      • Budget Forecasting
      • Strategic Consulting
    • Connected Media
      • Overview
      • Retail Media
      • Paid Search
      • Paid Social
      • App Marketing
      • Auditing
      • Expert Services
    • Measurement
      • Incrementality
      • Experiments
      • Cross-Channel Attribution
    • Resources
      • Blog
      • Glossary
      • Case Studies
      • Training & Enablement
      • Developer Hub
      • The Breakthrough
    Privacy Preference

    We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience.

    Privacy Preference

    Save All

    Save

    Accept Only Essential Cookies

    Manage Cookie Preferences

    Cookie Details Privacy Policy Imprint

    Privacy Preference

    Here you will find an overview of all cookies used. You can give your consent to whole categories or display further information and select certain cookies.

    Save All Save Accept Only Essential Cookies

    Back

    Privacy Preference

    Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website, Imprint
    PurposeSaves the visitors preferences selected in the Cookie Box of Borlabs Cookie.
    Host(s).skai.io, skai.io
    Cookie Nameborlabs-cookie
    Cookie Expiry1 Year
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    PurposeThis cookie stores selections made by the user in the Accessibe tool in order to maintain those settings on future visits. These cookies help us make our website compliant with our obligations under US law.
    Privacy Policy https://accessibe.com/privacy-policy
    Cookie NameacsbState, acsbReset
    Cookie Expiryn/a
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s)skai.io
    Cookie Namewordpress_sec_,wordpress_test_cookie,wp-postpass_*, wordpresspass_*, wordpressuser_*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year

    We use these cookies to enhance functionality and allow for personalisation, such as live chats, videos and the use of social media.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s).chilipiper.com, skai.chilipiper.com
    Cookie Namefs_uid, CHILI_PIPER_CLUSTER, guest-session, _sp_ses*, _sp_id*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s).comeet.co, www.comeet.co
    Cookie Namevisid_incap_, nlbi_#######, incap_ses_, referrer22_00a, incap_ses_1364_2167377
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Host(s)skai.io
    Cookie NamemoduleFormPardotDownload
    Cookie Expiry30 days

    Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Google used for website analytics. Generates statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
    Cookie Name_ga, _ga_*, _gat,_gat_*,_gid, GOOGLE_ABUSE_EXEMPTION, AEC, __Secure-ENID, SOCS, CONSENT
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderHotjar Ltd., Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta
    PurposeHotjar is an user behavior analytic tool by Hotjar Ltd.. We use Hotjar to understand how users interact with our website.
    Privacy Policy https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy/
    Host(s)*.hotjar.com
    Cookie Name_hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid, _hjRecordingLastActivity, hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjptid, _hjSessionUser_2229986, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjIncludedInSessionSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjFirstSeen
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year

    Marketing cookies are used by third-party advertisers or publishers to display personalized ads. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderLinkedin
    Cookie Namelidc, li_gc, lang, AnalyticsSyncHistory, UserMatchHistory, li_sugr, bcookie, TDCPM, TDID, bscookie, ln_or
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderSkai
    Cookie Nameken_gclid
    Accept
    Name
    Provider6sense
    Cookie Name_gd_session, _an_uid, _gd_visitor, _gd_svisitor, 6suuid
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderPardot
    PurposeCookie name associated with services from marketing automation and lead generation platform Pardot. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code.
    Host(s).pardot.com, pi.pardot.com, skai.io
    Cookie Namepardot, visitor_id*, lpv*
    Cookie ExpirySession / 10 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Google used for conversion tracking of Google Ads.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
    Cookie NameIDE, 1P_JAR, NID, _gcl_au, OTZ, test_cookie
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOwner of this website
    Cookie NamePHPSESSID, sid, okto-autoposter-XXX, oktgid, oktsid, oktlogid-XXX, oktolead-XXX-Email, oktolead-XXX-Company, oktolead-XXX-FirstName, oktolead-XXX-LastName, oktolead-XXX-Phone, oktolead-XXX-Country, oktolead-XXX-Url, oktolead-XXX-State, oktolead-XXX-Comment, optout
    Cookie ExpirySession / 2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderMeta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
    PurposeCookie by Facebook used for website analytics, ad targeting, and ad measurement.
    Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
    Cookie Name_fbp,act,c_user,datr,fr,tr,m_pixel_ration,pl,presence,sb,spin,wd,xs
    Cookie ExpirySession / 1 Year

    Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If External Media cookies are accepted, access to those contents no longer requires manual consent.

    Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

    Accept
    Name
    ProviderWistia
    Host(s).wistia.com
    Cookie Namecb_anonymous_id, _sp_ses.2b40, _li_dcdm_c, __hssrc, _gcl_au, _clsk, hubspotutk, _sp_id.2b40, __hssc, __hstc, _uetsid, _uetvid, _gid, _ga, _ga_GQR109DZ3Y, _lc2, fpi, _ex-pricing-cta, _fbp, cb_group_id, cb_user_id, _clck
    Cookie ExpirySession / 400 Days
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderMeta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock Instagram content.
    Privacy Policy https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/
    Host(s).instagram.com
    Cookie Namepigeon_state
    Cookie ExpirySession
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderOpenstreetmap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom
    PurposeUsed to unblock OpenStreetMap content.
    Privacy Policy https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
    Host(s).openstreetmap.org
    Cookie Name_osm_location, _osm_session, _osm_totp_token, _osm_welcome, _pk_id., _pk_ref., _pk_ses., qos_token
    Cookie Expiry1-10 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderTwitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock Twitter content.
    Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/privacy
    Host(s).twimg.com, .twitter.com
    Cookie Name__widgetsettings, local_storage_support_test
    Cookie ExpiryUnlimited
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderVimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA
    PurposeUsed to unblock Vimeo content.
    Privacy Policy https://vimeo.com/privacy
    Host(s)player.vimeo.com
    Cookie Namevuid
    Cookie Expiry2 Years
    Accept
    Name
    ProviderGoogle Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
    PurposeUsed to unblock YouTube content.
    Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en
    Host(s)google.com
    Cookie NameCONSENT
    Cookie Expiry6 Month

    Borlabs Cookie powered by Borlabs Cookie

    Privacy Policy Imprint