In the ever-complex world of retail media, success or failure is no longer solely focused on ad revenue—these days the name of the game is long-term impact.
That was the message shared by Art Sebastian, founder and CEO of NexChapter, at CSP's 2025 Retail Media Forum Tuesday in Dallas.
Sebastian’s breakout session, “Measuring What Matters: Proving the Value of Retail Media,” explored the incrementality, key performance indicators (KPIs) and the role of customer lifetime value when determining retail media’s return on investment, among other methods for sustainable growth.
Sebastian said return on ad spend numbers (ROAs) alone can be misleading, adding that “you can drive a spike in sales better when you’re driving long-term value.” Driving ROAs doesn’t necessarily change behavior over time, he said.
“I think media metrics, they're necessary, but they're not sufficient—it's easy to tell that story for that period of time. That's about it. We need a longer story. Incrementality is the gold standard,” he said.
Sebastian suggested piloting incrementality in small ways to get started.
“Take one of those versions and one of the campaigns you're doing, and put a little extra rigor into it, and pilot an incrementality study and see what you learn from it,” he said.
Sebastian called customer lifetime value (CLV) the “north star” of measurement, telling you if you’ve acquired “the right customers.”
“Are we studying retention rate? If we ran a retail media campaign that acquired new customers, did we retain? Do we see them come back time and time?” he asked
He closed the session with “five big takeaways” for retailers to consider:
Media metrics are necessary, but not sufficient. ROAS is easy to report, but it doesn’t tell the full story.
Incrementality is the gold standard. If you’re testing for true lift, you’re guessing at impact.
Cross-channel attribution is the future. Shoppers don’t live in silos, you’re measurement shouldn’t either.
Customer lifetime value is your north star. The most valuable metric in retail media is the one that reflects customer potential.
Retail media is only as strong as your measurement. What you can prove, you can scale.
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