Sponsored Listings Webinar - Timestamp Guide + Key Takeaways

Key Takeaways

• Retail Media = on-site digital advertising (not related to in-store retail marketing).
• Sponsored Listings placements appear on category/search pages (up to 12) and product pages (up to 6); “up to” depends on auction competition.
• Campaign success is driven by bidding strategy + data volume; avoid judging performance on short windows.
• ROAS is the north star metric; evaluate over 30 days / 3 months, not 7 days (plus 14-day attribution window).
• If you’re hitting daily budget caps, that’s usually a good sign and often means you should raise budget (especially if Auction Win Rate is low).

Timestamped Chapters:

02:20 – 04:10 | Retail Media definition + clarification

• Retail Media = Wolf and Badger on-site ads (not store presence)
• Formats: Sponsored Listings and Banners

04:10 – 06:40 | Sponsored Listings placements- Where do they appear on Wolf & Badger?

• “Featured” label on category and product landing pages = sponsored listing 
• Category/search top placements (up to 12)
• Product pages (up to 6)
• Organic fills in when auction for placements is less competitive

06:40 – 12:10 | Bidding strategies + Campaign setup best practices

• Aggressive: more visibility/traffic; lower ROAS
• Moderate: balanced baseline (recommended default)
• Conservative: prioritizes profitability/ROAS; more selective
• Keep your “catch-all” all-products campaign live (safety net)
• Campaign sizing: aim for 10–50 products minimum, ideally 50+ products
• Use daily budgets to keep campaigns serving consistently, enable low-balance alerts, and let the algorithm optimize spend by demand.

12:10 – 20:25 | How are placements decided? 

• Eligibility: products must match the shopper’s search/category and fall within the allowed organic ranking range.

• Category/search: products must rank within first 8 pages to jump onto page 1 auctions
• Product pages: only the 60 most relevant products are eligible to enter the auction.
• Every page load/filter/page change from a customer triggers a new auction
• Bids are algorithm-set based on strategy + likelihood to convert

20:25 – 24:10 | Budgets, packages, charging, attribution

• Q1 spend packages: $100 / $300 / $500 monthly (local currencies; dashboard may show USD equivalents)
• Sponsored Listings: CPC (charged per click)
• Banners: CPM (charged per impressions)
• Attribution window: 14 days (sales attributed if purchase occurs within 14 days of ad interaction)

24:10 – 27:30 | “Good performance” ROAS benchmarks

• ROAS > 6: excellent
• ROAS 4–6: healthy
• ROAS 2–4: okay / optimize
• ROAS < 1: underperforming (avoid judging on short date ranges)

27:30 – 36:10 | Optimization framework

• Low spend can still mean strong performance if ROAS is high
• Hitting daily caps = demand exists → often increase budget
• Auction Win Rate (AWR): percent of auctions won out of auctions entered
  • Low: under ~30–40%
  • High: 70%+ (100% unrealistic)

• Matrix actions:

• Hitting daily budget caps + low AWR → increase budget more
• Hitting daily budget caps + high AWR → increase budget slightly
• Not hitting daily budget caps + low AWR → try more aggressive strategy
• Not hitting daily budget caps + high AWR → category saturated / budget too high; reduce or reallocate

36:10 – 42:30 | Data + learning period

• Algorithms need volume; many brands improve after ~month 3
• High AOV brands convert slower → look at longer windows
• Review 30 days / 3 months + remember 14-day attribution
• Avoid pausing/restarting campaigns (resets learning); keep live with small conservative budgets if needed

42:30 – 50:10 | When to split campaigns

• Splitting is not required, but gives more control
• Example: best sellers campaign + catch-all campaign
• Multi-category example: strategy/budget by margin + demand
• Avoid overlapping products across campaigns where possible (can cause higher bids than necessary)

50:10 – 53:15 | Dashboard nuance: “budget expiry” metric

• “Days remaining” = balance / target spend (not actual spend)
• Use spend graph + campaign-level views to see real burn + cap-hitting

53:15 – 56:10 | Returns + difference between paid ads vs Sponsored Listings

• Returns: TopSort uses returns data; high-return items may be deprioritized or require higher bids
• Paid ads (Google/Meta) bring traffic to site
• Sponsored Listings convert users already on site (capture demand)

56:10 – End | Q&A + wrap-up

Q&A 

Q: Can we choose placements (only category vs search vs product pages) for Sponsored Listings?
A: No, not for Sponsored Listings. Placement control is available for Banners, not Sponsored Listings.

Q: Can we retarget page viewers?
A: Not directly as a feature right now. The algorithm does use user history to influence bids. This was noted as a good feature request for TopSort’s roadmap.

Q: Difference between Moderate and Conservative?
A: Moderate targets a balanced outcome (roughly around 4–5 ROAS). Conservative prioritizes profitability (aims higher, often 6+ ROAS) and is more selective in auctions.

Q: Does the remaining balance carry forward?
A: Yes! Any unspent balance stays in the account.

Q: Is there any flat charge to be in Retail Media?
A: No. For Sponsored Listings, brands are charged only per click. 100% of invoiced retail media spend goes into TopSort balance (no flat fee deducted).

Post-webinar checklist

• Check ROAS on 30-day and 3-month windows (don’t judge off 7 days).
• Confirm campaigns use daily budgets (not weekly/monthly totals).
• Identify which campaigns are hitting daily caps → consider budget increases.
• Check Auction Win Rate:
  • Low AWR + hitting caps → increase budgets more
  • Low AWR + not hitting caps → test more aggressive strategy
• Avoid pausing/restarting campaigns; keep a small conservative “always-on” baseline if the budget is tight.
• If splitting campaigns: create best-seller / category campaigns and reduce product overlap.