Retail media or a creator campaign: where should I put my performance budget?

Germany’s digital industry association BVDW maps the market in its Market Landscape Retail Media from July 2026. Ad placements on a retailer’s own pages are called “onsite retail media” there. Retail media networks, the retailers’ own ad sales units, offer ad space in online shops, in apps and in physical stores. According to BVDW, the offers are also available directly from the retailer or through network marketers that pool the space of several retailers. Offsite, ads run on space the retailer does not own, for example on social networks, in online video or on connected TV, targeted with the retailer’s data. For campaigns featuring products the retailer stocks (BVDW calls them endemic), retail media networks offer reporting on business KPIs.

Two examples from Germany: in Amazon’s store, according to Amazon Ads, Sponsored Products appear at the top of, next to or within search results and on product pages, and a click leads to the product detail page. Amazon says it also shows them on selected websites and apps outside Amazon, including third-party websites. At OTTO, according to a press release from 4 August 2025, marketplace partners can also book their Sponsored Product Ads on specific search terms, in addition to contextual targeting; anyone who searches for those terms in the OTTO app or on otto.de sees the matching ads placed prominently in the results.

For product ads, that means your product has to be on sale in that shop. According to Amazon, Sponsored Products are available to sellers on the Professional plan and to vendors who sell their goods to Amazon through Vendor Central, among others; Amazon also lists book vendors, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) authors and agencies. The ad only runs while the product is in stock and shown as the featured offer. If you do not sell in Amazon’s store, Amazon says you can run display, video and audio campaigns on Amazon and across the open web.

Amazon describes Sponsored Products as ads based on cost per click (CPC). Impressions are free; you are charged per click, and how often your ad shows for a matching search also depends on your bid. According to Amazon there are no monthly or upfront fees, you set a daily budget, and the ads go live straight away. What you get for it is delivery: through bid and budget you steer how visible your ad is in the shop.

With creators you pick the model: through an affiliate programme per click (CPC, cost per click), per sale (CPA, cost per acquisition) or both, as a fixed fee per post, or as a campaign budget paid out against agreed goals. With a commission on sales you only pay once something has sold; your programme’s terms say whether returns are deducted. But commission only pays for results, it does not create posts. Many partners in a programme never become active, and the creators you most want rarely post without a reason. The real work is getting creators active, many at once, and then seeing who sells.

Disclosure sits in different places too. Under Art. 26(1) of the Digital Services Act (DSA), online platforms must make sure every ad is clearly recognisable as an ad and shows on whose behalf it is presented. The creator labels their own post: under § 5a(4) of the German Unfair Competition Act (UWG), the commercial purpose has to be made clear, and payment or a similar benefit is presumed. Under Art. 26(2) DSA, online platforms must offer a feature for declaring content as commercial communication. If a creator counts as acting on your behalf (Beauftragter), claims for an injunction and removal under § 8(2) UWG can also be brought against you as the owner of the business. Disclosure therefore belongs in the brief.

Onsite ads work when someone is searching or browsing in the shop. According to Amazon, the more competitive your bid, the more likely your ad appears for a matching search. That way, people searching only for the category can discover a brand they did not know. Anyone who is not looking for anything like it in the shop will hardly see the ad there. The feed works the other way round: Bitkom describes people discovering suitable products in passing while they talk about hobbies and interests. That is where a creator campaign comes in, with a person the community follows. The figures above do not separate ads from creator posts: Bitkom asks about purchases through social networks as a whole.

As a rule of thumb for planning: shop ads need someone searching there for something like your product, whether your brand name, the category or the product itself. You can promote a launch this way too. Amazon explicitly recommends Sponsored Products for new listings as well, and OTTO’s press release names launches as an occasion. Creators are a particularly good fit when hardly anyone is searching yet, for example for a new kind of product, and for anything people need to see in use, such as fashion, beauty or interiors.

Ad reports and affiliate programmes count in different ways. Amazon calls its metric ACOS (advertising cost of sales): ad spend divided by sales, as a percentage. Amazon’s own example: $5 spent on $25 of sales gives 20%. An ACOS of 20% and a commission of 20% are not automatically the same, though, because the percentages can refer to different amounts. According to Amazon, vendors sell their products to Amazon, which then sells them to customers, so as a vendor what you earn per unit is your supply price, not the shop price. For commissions, your programme’s terms say whether they are calculated with or without VAT and before or after returns. Euros per sale make the two comparable.

Say your product costs €50 in the shop and a sale may cost you no more than €10. You derive that maximum from your margin. That gives you these upper limits:

• Sponsored Products: if one in 25 clicks leads to a sale, a click may cost no more than €0.40 (€10 divided by 25). With €50 in sales per purchase, that is an ACOS of 20%.
• Creators on a commission per sale: no more than €10 per sale. If your programme calculates on the order value excluding VAT, that is around 23.8% of €42.02 at 19% VAT, not 20%. The commission is only due when something sells, but it does not guarantee any posts.
• Creators paid per click: at the same purchase rate, also no more than €0.40 per click.
• Creators on a fixed fee: no more than €10 times the sales you expect from the post, so €300 if you expect 30 sales. What you agree on is the post, not the sales.
• If you supply Amazon as a vendor and Amazon pays you, say, €30 per unit, derive your maximum from those €30, not from the €50 shop price. €10 would then be a third of your revenue.

1. Check where you can book product ads. On Amazon that includes sellers on the Professional plan and vendors, on OTTO marketplace partners. If you only sell in your own shop, creator links can still point there.
2. Look at what people already search for. For Sponsored Products, Amazon says the ad reports show which keywords lead to clicks and sales; OTTO’s keyword report shows which search terms people used to find your products. Those terms are where product ads work. If hardly anyone searches for a product, shop ads will reach few people.
3. Plan how creators will actually post. An affiliate programme alone rarely does it. A launch date, a fee or a campaign budget paid out against agreed KPIs gives creators a reason. Focus on products people need to see in use. The brief covers the product, time frame, link target and disclosure.
4. Decide on the link target. If creator links go to the same online shop where your ads run, both channels meet on the same product page. If they go to your own shop, the customer relationship stays with you.
5. Count each sale once. Amazon credits purchases to its ads on a last-touch model. Affiliate programmes usually credit the link the purchase came through, so the same sale can show up in both reports. Amazon recommends running a first campaign for 2 to 3 weeks. Then compare both channels on cost per sale, and look at creators one by one.

With wyrld Boost you put your budget behind creators who feature your products, and plan it much like an ad campaign: you set the campaign budget, products, time frame and KPIs up front, for example sales, clicks, watch time or reach. The campaign goes out to many creators at once, and the pool is paid out according to the KPIs they reach. There is no booked delivery as with an ad: each creator decides whether to take part. You also decide where people buy: only in your shop, on Amazon, or with price comparison across the shops that stock your product. If you advertise on Amazon, a Boost campaign can lead there too. Creators label campaign videos as advertising.

In your affiliate programme, wyrld shows up as a single partner. With the brand and shop subscription you see every day which creators behind it feature your products, who drives clicks and, where the shop reports purchases, who sells. That gives you per-creator figures for comparing cost per sale, and with the creators who sell, wyrld sets up individual terms.

Shops can also add Priority: your shop sits at the top of the price comparison in one category, visibly labelled as Priority for the community. wyrld has hundreds of creators, mostly in fashion, beauty and interiors with a young audience. Your products come in through your existing affiliate programme or a direct connection. Prices for the subscription and Boost are on request, and we are happy to talk through which route fits your budget.