Retail Media: from sales channel to advertising machine. Why are budgets fleeing Google and Facebook for Allegro Ads and Amazon Advertising?

1. What is currently happening with e-commerce marketing?

Until a few years ago, the set-up was simple: most of the budget went into Google Ads and Facebook, and marketplaces were treated as an additional source of sales. Ads on Allegro or Amazon functioned as a „cool add-on” that could be included if there were some funds left over after setting up a campaign in the classic channels. Today, this model is increasingly being reversed. The fastest growing segment of digital advertising is becoming Retail Media, i.e. advertising directly on sales platforms - where the customer actually buys. Global brands are starting their budget planning right there, with Google and social media becoming the support rather than the centre of the universe.

2 What is Retail Media really?

Retail Media is advertising broadcast exactly where the customer is already in purchase mode: in the Allegro search engine, in the Amazon results list, in the Kaufland app or in product recommendations on eMAG. You don't catch the user the moment he or she involuntarily scrolls through the feed, but rather when he or she types in a specific product phrase, compares offers and is about to decide what to put in the basket. Advertising doesn't have to build a need first - it's there to help win that one specific choice. It is the digital equivalent of the best shelf in the hypermarket, the stand at the end of the aisle or the display at the checkout. The difference is that everything happens in the search results and product cards, and you buy access to that „shelf” through the platform's advertising system.

3. why are budgets shifting away from Google and Facebook?

The key answer is data and intention. Facebook knows what a user likes and comments on. Google knows what it searches for. Marketplace knows what people actually buy, how often they return to a category, what they abandon in their basket, how they react to price and promotions. This is transactional data, not just interest. When you set up a campaign on Allegro Ads or Amazon Advertising, you are working on audiences who are one step away from buying - they are already looking for a particular product, already comparing parameters and prices. This makes it much easier to squeeze out a meaningful ROAS and count the real impact of advertising on sales. Google and Meta are still great for building traffic and recognition, but they are less and less the place where a deal is finally „closed”. More and more brands are therefore coming to the conclusion that this is not where the conversation about money should start.

4. Allegro Ads and Amazon Advertising as new „battlegrounds” for the customer

In the Polish market, the natural point of reference is Allegro Ads. The system, which used to be associated with simple bidding boosting, is now an elaborate advertising environment with various campaign types, automation options and the ability to go beyond the platform itself with advertising. The battle for visibility across multiple categories is no longer „will you display”, but „how high and how often”. Without a well-thought-out Allegro Ads strategy, it is difficult to maintain sales at a meaningful level, as organic traffic increasingly loses out to ad-supported offers.

Amazon Advertising goes one step further. In addition to ads in the search engine and on product cards, there is an entire ecosystem based on DSPs and video formats, including in the Prime Video environment. Everything is tied together by a common denominator: data on the user's real shopping behaviour. In practice, this means that you can both run very hard performance and count pure ROAS on product campaigns, and build a brand based on image-based formats, but still targeting shoppers with specific habits. For brands operating internationally, this is no longer a curiosity, but one of the main pillars of the marketing strategy.

5. how do you arrange budgets when Retail Media comes to the fore?

A strategy based on Retail Media requires a change in thinking about budgets. Instead of starting with the question „how much are we going to throw at Google and Facebook?”, it is worth starting with marketplace-related numbers: what revenue do we want to generate on Allegro, Amazon or Kaufland, what ROAS do we find satisfactory, what share of the cost of advertising in sales are we able to accept with our margins. Only from this does it become clear how much we can realistically spend on campaigns and how aggressively to bid up rates. Google and Meta don't disappear from the plan, but they stop „eating everything” as the main place where we make money from advertising becomes point-of-purchase campaigns. Retail Media stops being an add-on and becomes the starting point around which everything else is built.

6. What does this mean for the day-to-day work on campaigns?

In practice, the shift to a „Retail Media First” mindset forces a much tighter coupling between the campaign and the business. It is impossible to run successful Allegro Ads or Amazon Ads in isolation from margins, pricing policy, merchandise availability and listing quality. If you are promoting products that are under-margined at the start, even a seemingly great ROAS can actually mean that you are working „at zero”. On the other hand, well-crafted product sheets, a structured feed, sensible pricing and sensibly chosen campaigns can command a stable double-digit return on advertising. Then there is the increasing complexity: several marketplaces, separate advertising panels, different markets, different currencies, and alongside that Google, Meta and your own shop. Without someone looking at the big picture, it's easy to lose the picture and stop knowing which campaigns really deliver a result and which ones just „look nice in the stats”.

7. Summary: Retail Media as a new starting point - and how we can help

Retail Media, in practice, is becoming the place where it is decided whether e-commerce is making a financial splash. It's where you get closest to the basket, it's where you can most easily count the return on every penny spent and it's where you can see the effects of a good or bad strategy most quickly. If you feel that your Allegro Ads, Amazon Advertising or campaigns on other marketplaces have potential but lack a structured plan, if you want to switch from „we're putting something in ads because we have to” to an approach based on specific ROAS and profit, that's what we do on a daily basis. We help translate numbers into strategy, strategy into specific campaigns, and campaigns into sales. If you'd like to discuss how Retail Media can work for your business, get back to us via the contact form on the website - we'll get back to you with a proposal tailored to your marketplace and budget.

Author of the blog: Kacper Pawlak
Date of publication: 09.12.2025r.