Here is an overview of features focusing on sponsored products in Elevate when Retail Media is enabled.
Sponsored lists
Sponsored lists are created on category and landing pages. When retail media is enabled on your cluster, the option to create sponsored lists will be added to the Page editor.
To add a list:
- Click Add list.
- Select Sponsored list.
- Add a list ID.
Sponsored lists are similar to recommendation lists, but they don’t have a product selection. Instead, you assign a category for them to use. By default, Elevate automatically identifies the category that best matches the page’s primary list. If no primary list exists, the category must be assigned manually. This option is also available when a primary list is present. Read more under Settings below.
Settings
You can fine tune how products in a sponsored list are filtered and shown. Options include:
- Applying category filters automatically or manually
- Changing list size
- Setting image priorities for idle, hover, and thumbnail states
While optional, these tools can help align the presentation of sponsored products with your campaign goals and site design.
category/categories attribute supplied in the product feed, but also allows the selection of parent categories for more coverage. For example, if a product belongs to the category "Tops > T-shirts", you can find it in both "Tops" and "Tops > T-shirts". This lets you choose the level of granularity you want for the list. Additionally, when a supplier wants to sponsor their products, they pick one or more categories to compete in.Once published, a sponsored list is populated with products from active supplier campaigns. During page rendering, a real-time auction determines which products qualify, and Elevate selects the most relevant based on bid and context.
Sponsored slices
Sponsored slices function like regular (non-sponsored) slices on a product listing page. They allow you to override the organic ranking by displaying sponsored products within the product list.
The key difference is that, instead of pulling products from a predefined product set, a sponsored slice acts as a dynamic placeholder. Similar to a sponsored list, it is populated with sponsored products based on real-time bidding.
Adding a slice
When retail media is enabled for your cluster, the option to create sponsored slices becomes available in the Page Editor.
- Click Slices.
- Choose if the slice should apply to subpages of the current page
- Select how slices should be positioned, either:
- Sequential, or
- Positioned
Sequential slices are stacked from the top of the list. Organic and sponsored slices can be combined within the same list.
Positioned slices are pinned to specific positions in the product grid. In this case, you must choose how to handle organic slices.
You can read more about adding slices in general here
Sequential slices
If you are using Sequential slices, click Add sponsored slice and drag and drop it into the desired position.
By default, the slice contains four product placeholders. This can be changed via the kebab menu by selecting Edit slice size.
Positioned slices
When using Positioned slices, select Sponsored instead of Product sets.
Then, click the positions in the grid where you want sponsored products to appear.
Sponsored slice content
The products displayed in a sponsored slice are limited to those included in the primary list. All slices on a page are populated through a single auction, meaning the products with the highest bids and strongest relevance will appear at the top.
Learn more
For more guidance and practical tips, explore these related resources:
- Succeeding with ad inventory setup – Learn best practice for structuring and optimizing your ad inventory for maximum impact.
- Building a winning service model – Discover how to design a service model that drives efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Article last updated