Build a Future-Ready Off-Site Retail Advertising Strategy with AI, Omnichannel, and Inbound Approaches

In the post-pandemic era, the retail landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation, with consumers no longer confined to a single-channel shopping experience. Today's shoppers seamlessly transition between online and offline platforms, comparing prices, researching products, and completing purchases across multiple touchpoints. This fragmentation presents both a challenge and an opportunity for brands—those that fail to integrate an omnichannel strategy risk missing out on valuable conversion opportunities. According to Google research, over 94% of consumers now use Google Search or YouTube to compare products before purchasing, highlighting the critical role of off-site traffic in modern retail. With global retail media ad spend projected to reach $169 billion in 2025, brands must rethink their strategies to capitalize on this rapidly growing demand.

1. The Rise of Inbound Retail Media Traffic and an Integrated Consumer Journey

Inbound traffic has emerged as the cornerstone of modern retail, with off-site traffic expanding 2.7 times faster than on-site traffic. Unlike traditional in-store advertising, which targets consumers already engaged on a retailer’s platform, off-site strategies intercept shoppers earlier in their journey—during Google searches, YouTube review explorations, or social media browsing. Retail Media Networks (RMNs) now serve as a pivotal tool, allowing brands to harness retailers’ first-party data for precision targeting across the Google ecosystem. For instance, Haleon, a global wellness leader, leveraged Google Retail Connect to unify online discovery with in-store purchases, driving a 31% ROI boost. This underscores the imperative to meet consumers where they are, rather than waiting for them to reach a brand’s digital or physical touchpoints.

The consumer journey has also evolved into a non-linear experience, with shoppers interacting across an average of nine touchpoints before conversion. Google and YouTube dominate the pre-purchase phase, where users seek product comparisons, unboxing videos, and reviews. Brands confined to single platforms (e.g., relying solely on e-commerce product pages) risk losing demand to competitors capitalizing on off-site visibility. A health brand case study revealed that searches for “vitamin C” often diverted traffic to rivals with robust Google Ads and YouTube content, leaving brands lacking off-site strategies at a disadvantage.

To navigate this fragmentation, brands must adopt an integrated omnichannel approach, synchronizing messaging across search, video, and retail platforms to seamlessly guide consumers from discovery to purchase. For example, tools like Topkee’s TTO empower businesses to measure cross-channel performance—from ad creatives to product alignment—ensuring marketing investments align with business goals. Similarly, platforms such as WEBER simplify website creation, while YIS streamlines social content production and distribution, enabling brands to maintain cohesive engagement across touchpoints.

2. Google's Role, Retail Media Networks, and Strategies in Driving Inbound Traffic

Google Retail Connect has emerged as a transformative tool for brands aiming to unify on-site and off-site traffic. Leveraging AI, the platform analyzes consumer intent to direct users to the most relevant product pages or retail channels. For example, Nutritionist Light Meals utilized Google's audience targeting to reach health-conscious shoppers on momo shopping, generating 1.3 million visits and a 141% sales increase. Performance Max campaigns further strengthen this strategy by optimizing ad placements across Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail, ensuring brands appear at critical decision-making moments. The core advantage lies in Google's ability to combine its extensive user data with retailers’ purchase insights, creating a closed-loop system that seamlessly links traffic generation and conversion.

Retail Media Networks (RMNs) have also revolutionized how brands connect with consumers, offering access to retailers’ first-party data and media inventory. These networks enable precise targeting—such as a sports apparel brand serving ads to shoppers who recently browsed running shoes on an e-commerce site. The synergy between RMNs and Google's ecosystem amplifies this impact, as demonstrated by PChome 24 Shopping’s collaboration with 12 manufacturers, which tripled return on ad spend compared to traditional shopping ads. Success here, however, hinges on transparency: brands must ensure data-sharing agreements deliver actionable insights without compromising consumer privacy. As RMNs expand beyond retail giants like Carrefour and Walmart, even niche brands can leverage these tools to compete for attention in crowded markets.

The most effective Inbound traffic strategies adopt a “fish farming + fishing” approach: cultivating long-term audience relationships while capturing immediate demand. “Fish farming” involves building brand affinity through YouTube content and educational search campaigns, while “fishing” uses Performance Max to convert high-intent shoppers. Haleon exemplified this by aligning its campaigns with Carrefour’s Hungry Ghost Festival and momo’s Singles’ Day, maintaining consistent visibility across the consumer journey. AI-driven tools like Google's Smart Bidding further refine this balance, automatically adjusting bids to prioritize high-converting touchpoints. The ultimate goal is not merely to drive traffic but to create a self-reinforcing cycle where each interaction deepens consumer loyalty and fuels future sales.

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3. Case Studies and Real-World Applications

Real-world success stories underscore the transformative potential of off-site retail strategies when powered by AI and omnichannel integration. Haleon, a global health leader, exemplifies this through its collaboration with Google Retail Connect. By synchronizing online research (via Google Search and YouTube) with offline purchases at retailers like Carrefour and momo, Haleon achieved a 31% increase in ROI during key shopping festivals like the Hungry Ghost Festival and Singles’ Day. The campaign leveraged Google’s AI-driven audience segmentation—targeting consumers searching for tooth sensitivity or whitening products—and closed the loop with real-time performance tracking in Google’s secure data environment.

Similarly, Rough 99, a hair care brand, partnered with Shopee’s Retail Media Network (RMN) and Google Ads to drive a 254% revenue surge. The campaign combined Shopee’s first-party purchase data with Google’s Performance Max campaigns, optimizing ad placements across YouTube and Search. This not only reduced traffic costs by 35% but also boosted ROAS by 149%, demonstrating how RMNs amplify reach when integrated with Google’s ecosystem.

Early adoption of AI-powered tools has proven critical. PChome 24 Shopping’s beta test of Google’s Retail Collaborative Ads with 12 manufacturers delivered 3x higher ROAS than traditional shopping ads, with 50% greater efficiency in diverting off-site traffic. The campaign automated product catalog integration and used Smart Bidding to prioritize high-intent shoppers, showcasing how AI accelerates scalability. These cases highlight a universal truth: brands that rapidly test and scale off-site strategies—bridging platforms like YouTube, Google Search, and RMNs—gain a disproportionate advantage in capturing fragmented consumer journeys.

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4. AI, Data, and Off-Site Retail Advertising: Roles, Challenges, and Opportunities

AI has become a core pillar of modern Inbound retail advertising, enabling not only predictive analytics but also real-time optimization of advertising campaigns. For example, Google's AI Overview predicts consumer needs by analyzing search patterns, while platforms like Vertex AI help brands efficiently generate and scale highly personalized creative content. Transparent data analytics is also crucial—services like Haleon, which leverage Google’s security tools, can flexibly adjust campaigns based on actionable insights. Looking ahead, multimodal AI systems like Gemini will redefine the consumer discovery experience by integrating voice, image, and video queries, creating opportunities for brands to innovate engagement models.

While off-site advertising holds enormous potential, it also faces numerous challenges: budget fragmentation across platforms, measurement complexity resulting from fragmented metrics, and the difficulty for smaller brands to compete against larger brands with monopolized inventory in retail media networks (RMNs). Additionally, privacy regulations further limit the granularity of analytics, although solutions like Google’s Privacy Sandbox and first-party profile partnerships are gradually easing these barriers. At the same time, creativity remains key to differentiation—brands like 55688 Group are successfully standing out in the flood of information by combining AI-driven, contextually aware advertising with storytelling.

The future holds opportunities for brands that view challenges as catalysts for innovation in Inbound strategies. By adopting flexible tools and prioritizing first-party data strategies, retailers can transform measurement barriers and creative saturation into competitive advantages.

Topkee's TTO tools align with the trends of artificial intelligence and data-driven development, providing companies with omnichannel measurement capabilities covering advertising channels, creatives, and product effectiveness, ensuring that data-driven approaches are aligned with business goals. Topkee's marketing integration services help brands build future-proof data collection and conversion tracking tools, thereby alleviating the data challenges posed by privacy regulations. The YIS platform supports brands' creative work by streamlining the social content production process (from multi-channel publishing to performance analysis), enabling them to maintain cost-effectiveness and high-quality output. Furthermore, WEBER is a flexible tool that can be used for seamless website development or conversational business integration, helping retailers turn challenges into competitive advantages.

Conclusion

The future of retail belongs to brands that master Inbound traffic management. By integrating AI, RMN, and omnichannel strategies, companies can transform fragmented consumer journeys into integrated experiences. As Google's tools continue to evolve—from performance optimization to generative AI creatives—the gap between early adopters and laggards will only widen. Now is the time for marketers to examine their touchpoints, experiment with retail partners, and invest in combining the science of data analysis with the art of storytelling. Brands that do so will not only survive but also lead the next era of retail. For brands seeking guidance, partnering with experts like the Topkee teams can unlock customized solutions to help them navigate this complex but rewarding market.