How brand research analysts can turn fragmented retail media into actionable insights for CMOs

Analysts face a difficult challenge because every retail media network (RMN) speaks a different language. Amazon, Walmart, Target, social and CTV all report performance differently. Which leaves you buried in fragmented metrics and delayed decisions.

This makes for a time-consuming business risk that costs you time, lost opportunities and millions in misallocated spend. 

TL;DR

• Retail media fragmentation cripples analyst speed and clarity.

• Siloed metrics delay recommendations and increase business risk.

• Creative effectiveness drives ~50% of incremental sales — five times more than targeting, and yet, most goes untested.

• Zappi delivers 60% more predictive accuracy, giving analysts confidence their recommendations will hold up when spend scales.

• AI Quick Reports surface decision-ready insights in minutes, not weeks.

• Unified diagnostics across retail, social and CTV cut through cross-platform noise.

• Zappi uses benchmarks rooted in today’s shopper behavior to keep recommendations relevant and defensible. 

Each RMN has its own metrics, attribution models and reporting frameworks. That makes it challenging to compare performance and manage campaigns efficiently. As an analyst, you’re trying to reconcile inconsistent data so you can make data-backed recommendations. 

This fragmentation isn’t just inconvenient. It hamstrings your strategic agility. With siloed data spread across platforms, decisions get delayed and analysts struggle to make timely recommendations. 

In addition, with budgets pouring into RMNs — $62 billion in 2025, just in the U.S. — and the media ecosystem expanding to social and CTV, it’s more important than ever to have an easy-to-use system for accurate insights. 

That’s why precision targeting alone isn’t enough. Analysts must also validate the creative will drive returns.

An RMN like Target’s Roundel is growing fast, powered by first-party shopper data. All that transaction data, loyalty signals and real-time context is a goldmine for precise targeting.

But there’s a risk. Sharp targeting is not enough; the creative needs to be on point, too. 

• Data shows creative delivers nearly half (49%) of incremental sales while targeting only contributes around 11%. 

• The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) shared that 80% of marketers found creative effectiveness drives business results. 

• Research found ads that rank in the top 25% of overall emotion are “on average, twice as likely to drive immediate sales.”

Bottom line: Retail media excels at targeting, but proven creative delivers lift. 

Analysts need sharper, faster and defensible insights that build confidence. 

That’s what Zappi offers: 

• Accuracy - 60% more predictive accuracy than traditional pre-testing.

• Speed -  Zappi’s Quick Reports can get you the insights you need in minutes. No more manual interpretation.

• Clarity - No more silos. Unified diagnostics across retail, social and CTV helps you connect the dots.

• Relevance - Benchmarks rooted in today’s retail shopper behaviors and not last year’s trends. 

Legacy testing methods can’t keep up with the pace of retail media today. Zappi’s validated predictive models raise the signal-to-noise ratio, giving analysts confidence that creative validation will hold up as spend scales.

Fragmented metrics and siloed reporting make campaigns feel like a guessing game. Zappi turns these industry pain points into a clear path. 

Zappi merges all the channels – retail media, social, digital and CTV into one analytics ecosystem. With one dashboard instead of multiple, you can see at a glance what’s working and what’s not. 

This creates a living dataset, building your own performance norms while benchmarking against the market. Every test makes the next one smarter, and insights compound with every test you run. 

Now, you don’t need to spend weeks reconciling fragmented reports. With Zappi, analysts get 60% more predictive accuracy, instant insights and benchmarks that reflect today’s shopper.