Face the Future — Relevance vs Bid retail media case study | Particular Audience
When Face the Future swapped relevance for bid-led auction logic, ad scale rose 9× but CTR collapsed -87.3% and sitewide conversion fell. The relevance-first proof point.
Relevance-first retail media on a beauty retailer
Average 2.2% CTR on promoted-item campaigns. Switching from Relevance to Bid collapsed CTR to 0.28%.
- 2.2% Avg CTR with Relevance
- -87.3% CTR when Bid replaced Relevance
- -82.5% Overall desktop CTR drop
Face the Future enjoyed an average 2.2% CTR on promoted item campaigns (merchandise boost + retail media).
To chase scale they tested Bid strategy instead of Relevance. Ad scale jumped 9× — but retail-media CTR plummeted -87.3%, spend doubled, ROAS volatility spiked, and overall sitewide CTR fell -82.5% on desktop and -59.9% on mobile.
The cautionary tale: bid-based scaling without relevance is a tax on the entire site, not just the ad slots.
Turning off Relevance in favor of Bid increased ad scale 9× but collapsed CTR by -87.3%. — PA RMN Growth ReadME