Retail media · Personal care

A skincare launch at Target: from 1.5x to 2.6x in three months.

An imported skincare brand landed at Target with a short window to prove velocity. We layered Roundel, Instacart, a cashback offer and Meta to buy it on purpose.

2.6xRoundel ROAS by month three, up from 1.49x
2.3-2.7xRoundel ROAS held through the fall
93%+Instacart buyers new to the brand after the rebuild
1.97xRevenue per dollar of offer cost on the cashback program

The setup

A national mass retailer had just put the brand on shelf. Like most new items, it had a few months to show units per store per week before the next review. The brand had no retail media history, no in-store trial program, and social ads that sent people to a store locator with no way to prove a sale.

What we did

Ran the retailer’s own network like a performance channel

We launched Target’s Roundel on the hero SKUs, then cut what wasn’t paying back every week. Budget moved toward the products and placements that returned, and bids followed fresh per-SKU ROAS. The best performers ran above 3x at the line-item level.

Fixed the Instacart account that was eating its own budget

One broad category campaign was taking 71% of spend at 0.9x. We cut it to a fraction of its budget and moved the money into brand defense and competitor conquesting, which were running 1.9x to 2.5x.

Tied social spend to verified purchases

We ran Meta ads into a text-to-redeem cashback offer. Shoppers bought in store, texted a photo of the receipt and got paid. Every payout matched a real purchase, so for once social had a sales number attached to it.

Planned around the retailer’s calendar

Retailer sales events absorbed far more budget at a strong return. In one event, Roundel delivered 229 units at 2.87x on about $1,350 in spend.

The results

  • Roundel: 1.49x in April, 1.67x in May, 2.60x in June. A 74% lift in 90 days, then holding 2.3x to 2.7x into the fall.
  • Instacart: the remaining campaigns ran 1.9x to 2.5x, with 93% to 95% of buyers new to the brand.
  • Cashback trial: a 19.7% redemption rate over three months, at about $1.97 in shelf revenue per dollar of offer cost.

Retail media works when you treat it like performance: one return floor, weekly cuts, and budget that follows the retailer calendar. That is how a new item proves velocity before the review.

Results from an account our team runs, with the brand name removed. Revenue figures are retail sales value at shelf price.

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More: all case studies · Retail media for CPG · Meta-to-Aisle