Creators are driving full-funnel success for brands and retail media networks (RMNs). The good news: LTK is both a strategy and ad format retailers may already be using and brands want. From relevant influencer content to data that connects the dots for consumer segments, we help craft winning strategies.

Where are we headed now? Our retail media forecast webinar, The Creator 360 for Retail Media, shows how the retail media network marketing landscape is evolving and how LTK Creators contribute to full-funnel success. Take a closer look at LTK’s boldest predictions, backed by data from our Shopper Study, Back-to-School Study, and Northwestern Retail Analytics Council Brand Study. 

The Growth of Retail Media and Creator Marketing

Retail media network marketing is taking the world by storm. It’s set to account for one-fifth of all digital ad spend, an upward trajectory helping it reach $140 billion in ad spend by the end of the year. 

Parallel to this rise in retail media, Creator Marketing has drastically increased alongside a changing consumer journey. As a result, multi-channel strategies that incorporate new formats such as Creator Marketing and connected TV (CTV) are key. Brands need full-funnel solutions to understand and reach consumers across their journeys. LTK is laser-focused on helping you efficiently reach audiences. 

The value of working with Creators 

Audiences want to answer their specific needs when consuming content, so they skip traditional ad forms in favor of Creator content. In fact, Creators are now the most trusted content sources across all generations, not just Gen Z and millennials (up 21 percent year-over-year). Storytelling through content is more important to consumers than before, and Creators establish those vital connections.

Investing time and trust in Creators has become the norm in the consumer landscape. With 56 percent of the general population making online purchases based on Creator recommendations, retailers and brands can take advantage of captive audiences and Creator influence.

Why retailers and brands are leaning into LTK 

LTK’s audience is loyal to both Creators and brands. Through our deep partnership, you get more than just LTK—you also get the LTK audience, which prioritizes quality and brand over all else. 

LTK is the Creator leader for Retail Media Networks, powering top RMN partners as the only Creator-guided shopping community that is home to an audience of 40 million consumers. Our streamlined and scalable solution for RMNs is informed by 13 years of data to solve full-funnel challenges. We ran thousands of Creator partnerships via Retail Media Networks in 2023, with 48 percent year-over-year growth in RMN campaign spend.

What brands want from RMNs

Influencer marketing via RMNs is just one of many tactics for brands to grow their marketing, but it’s a tremendously impactful one. It connects with audiences in ways no other strategy can and enables you to claim ownership of your brand. 

Support the consumer journey, increase awareness, stand out in the retailer ecosystem, and go all the way to full-funnel reporting with an influencer marketing strategy. LTK’s retail media forecast for 2024 showcases the value of Creators and how they can support growing consumer trends.

Creators Who Live Across the Consumer Journey

With Creators ready to shape hearts and minds at every turn, brands and their retail media network marketing must optimize the entire consumer journey, from awareness to advocacy. This means far more than growing sales. It means driving full-funnel impact across the biggest brand goals—whether that’s building brand awareness, increasing customer lifetime value, increasing lead generation, or something else.

Creator spending is up

Given its proven effectiveness, influencer marketing is rightfully securing a larger portion of marketing budgets. During LTK’s Brand Decision-Maker Study with Northwestern University’s Retail Analytics Council, we discovered that a substantial 95 percent of brands planned to spend the same or more this year on Creator Marketing. 

The variety of available formats encourages this spending because retail media can combine Creator content with programmatic, in-store, search, display, video, and social media.

Brands are using customer lifetime value (CLV) to evaluate RMNs

Increasingly, more brands look to CLV to accurately assess RMNs—so much so that 40 percent of brands take the measurement into account. Still, it’s up to individual networks and their retail media network marketing offerings to drive brand love and deliver higher CLV.

Creators drive cross-category shopping

Every generation—young and old alike—turns to Creators for product recommendations today. LTK’s research shows that beauty/personal care and fashion are the top-shopped categories, followed closely by home, food, and electronics. But what’s interesting is that the most engaging and effective Creators across LTK link to multiple categories daily, making them lifestyle Creators who influence purchases across all categories. 

Creators lean into trends

What’s happening in your communities or in society at any given time? LTK can see where both macro and micro consumer moments are happening, helping you plan marketing strategies to become part of the conversation. For instance, in the springtime, searches about graduation are up 105 percent. You can leverage micro-moments like this with content and entertainment. It just means reading your audience and using Creators to support your retail media network marketing.

Building full-funnel strategies at LTK

Get personal and scale faster through Creator strategies. LTK is the community where Creators can leverage technology and strategy to capture both early-adopting Creators and early majority consumers. With LTK, you can reach up to 40 million motivated consumers and scale awareness, sales, and adoption faster than anywhere else.

Of course, you need a foundation of influencer campaigns and consumer moments to build from, including consumer and Creator ad moments and in-person touchpoints. A few ideas to inspire you:

• LTK Campaigns: Scale reach and engagement faster from LTK-curated Creators across social channels.

• LTK Boost: Amplify reach across TikTok and Instagram by boosting campaign content from the Creator’s handle.

• LTK Ads: Grow Creator and consumer awareness with banner ads and newsletters on Shop LTK to increase organic posts and amplify Creator collabs.
  
  
• LTK Soirée: Participate in exclusive events like LTK Beautiful and LTK Con, and build relationships with Creators.

Growth of Loyalty Programs

Loyalty ensures long-term success, so RMNs will focus on driving customer loyalty for vendor brands and retailers. Consumers can’t get enough loyalty programs. LTK data shows that 73 percent of consumers in general and 91 percent of LTK shoppers belong to at least one loyalty program, and those numbers are poised to increase.

Most people value loyalty programs 

Designed to enhance personalization and offer exclusive perks such as discounts, loyalty programs are top-of-mind for consumers. Brands understand, aiming to drive loyalty through relevant content as part of Creator campaigns.

Creators are experts at connecting audiences from the awareness stage to brand loyalty and advocacy. Loyalty program data supports retail media network marketing and adds brand value. 

Prioritizing consumer loyalty can drive in-store performance

Shoppers continue to return to brick-and-mortar stores post-pandemic, but their habits have changed. Today’s retail landscape is a hybrid of in-store and online, making omni-channel experiences important. 

Specifically, LTK has seen that Gen Z (59 percent), millennials (62 percent), and Gen X (52 percent) base their in-store purchases on Creator recommendations (up 68 percent year-over-year). To win their hearts and open their wallets, you have to marry loyalty, Creator, and in-store strategies for consumers to interact with your brand and its content. 

Need proof of this in practice? LTK Creator content gets 3.5 times conversion compared to social—driving loyalty you’ll see reflected in your bottom line.

Demonstrated Full-Funnel Measurement

Creators infiltrate the consumer journey, so followers spend time on platforms they like and trust. As brands continue to support that journey, RMNs will take advantage of advanced reporting tools to demonstrate full-funnel success. 

This should take several forms as you analyze your retail media network marketing. For instance, you can track brand awareness growth from Creator Marketing with data supporting earned media value, impressions, and reach. You can also track engagement with your campaigns in the mid-funnel, as well as look deeper into how campaigns drive conversions and overall return on ad spend (ROAS). 

Brands want performance metrics from RMNs

It used to be difficult to get diverse metrics in one place. You needed different tools to see the full picture, between measuring audience growth, awareness, engagement, and conversion. Too many platforms are confusing, time-consuming, and ineffective for evaluating performance. Why not bring it all under one roof?

LTK 360 enables full-funnel reporting

LTK solves the biggest pain points for retail media network marketing by bringing in performance measurement and diverse ad formats. Instead of spending hours across platforms, track everything from upper-funnel awareness tactics to lower-funnel sales drivers in minutes with LTK 360.

With LTK 360, retail media networks can access full-funnel reporting in one place, empowering retailers and brands to track and report on Creators like never before. Analyze upper funnel metrics such as impressions, reach, and EMV to report back to brands, and see the full audience lifecycle from consideration to sale. LTK 360’s reporting tools help retail media networks compare campaigns to identify top performers, enhance client relationships, and establish benchmarks.

Make Creator Collabs and Retail Media Network Marketing Work for You

Retail media network marketing is booming, opening up new opportunities for brands to drive consumer purchases. The RMN landscape will continue to boom with Creators in tow. LTK empowers full-funnel success with trusted voices to elevate brands, data to scale Creator reach, and full-funnel reporting to support your every move.

Dive deeper into the future of influencer marketing. Watch the on-demand webinar for additional insights to inspire your own strategy, and get started with LTK to put your plans in motion.