Trade Media and Retail Media: Funding, Charges and Savings
See how supplier-funded savings differ from paid visibility. Compare charge events, budget ownership and measurement while keeping the shopper’s offer clear.
Give shoppers a reason to click. And a reason to buy.
Bring supplier-funded savings onto the product tiles shoppers already browse—in search, category listings and recommendations. The offer is visible before the product page, and follows through to purchase.
- Search results
- Category listings
- Recommendations
Select to save
Select an eligible offer on the product tile. Your saving follows through to checkout.
Automatic saving
Eligible shoppers see their saving already applied. No voucher selection needed.
Sponsored placement buys visibility. Supplier funding gives the shopper value. The two can work together without overriding relevance or guaranteeing placement.
CTR: Make the value visible before the click.
A relevant product tile can give the shopper an additional reason to explore it—including a sponsored tile.
CVR: Carry the saving through to purchase.
Consistent offer messaging and application can reduce uncertainty between browsing and buying.
Measure results by surface against a holdout, separating ordinary and sponsored tiles. These are opportunities, not guaranteed uplifts; existing price-beat and product-page results are not evidence of listing-tile performance.
Illustrative products, suppliers and prices. Was / now uses retailer-approved reference prices. Offers combine only where retailer stacking rules permit; otherwise the funded saving is excluded. Multi-buy requires two of the same item. Funding, eligibility, stock, budget and end-date rules apply. Experience integration is agreed before launch.
One shelf. Two ways to win the shopper.
Suppliers can compete for an eligible sponsored placement and fund an offer on the same tile. The shopper sees a relevant product, a clear price and a reason to choose—not the bidding behind it.
Compete for the click. Collaborate on the saving.
The click bid and expected redemption-fee income contribute to the illustrative ranking value. The discount adds something different: more value for the shopper.
Compete for attention. An eligible sponsored placement helps a product get seen.
Give shoppers a reason to choose. Meaningful savings help them compare before the click and carry value through to checkout.
Illustrative ranking, not the production auction formula. Two authorised sponsored positions; stock and relevance come first. Eligible candidates are ranked by (maximum CPC bid + eligible saving × 3.5% × assumed redemption probability per click) × relevance. Assumptions are not measured conversion rates. Offers cannot override retailer rules or guarantee placement.
Media budget pays for a click under the agreed CPC auction; maximum CPC is a bid ceiling, not an asserted clearing price.
Promotion budget funds the saving on an eligible purchase. It is separate from media spend and is not charged for every click.
The redemption fee is 3.5% of the total funded saving actually redeemed—not the product sale value or only the supplier contribution. Expected fee income is used for this demonstration’s ranking; the fee only arises on actual redemption.
Example: £0.65 maximum CPC + (£4.00 saving × 3.5% × 10% assumed redemption probability) = £0.664 expected value per click, before relevance weighting. The redemption fee is £0.14 only when redeemed; the shopper receives £4.00 off.
Illustrative co-funding concept—not available PA functionality. Supplier and retailer contributions combine into one shopper saving. Discount funding is a cost, not media income; fee payer and distribution are subject to agreement. No net-profit guarantee is implied.
All suppliers and campaign values here are fictional. This comparison explains competition; it is not a supplier-access screen exposing other suppliers’ private bids.
- Standard price
- Was / now discount
- Selectable funded saving
- Automatic funded saving
- Conditional multi-buy
- Approved discount + funded saving
Trade Media
Supplier-funded savings, governed like media.
Works with
- Price Match & Price Beat — Automate an approved price promise.
- Retail Media Suite — Launch, run and grow a retail media network.
Add next
- Personalised Promotions — Target eligible offers with retail media signals.
- Profit Rate Optimisation
Outcomes it moves
Trade Media and supplier-funded savings
Retail media pays for advertising visibility. PA uses Trade Media to describe supplier-funded savings delivered within the retail experience. The two can support the same campaign, but they have different funding and charge events. Keep those records separate and judge the shopper offer under the retailer’s eligibility rules.
How supplier-funded promotions fit your retail-media plan
Begin with an approved shopper offer and a clearly defined audience. Decide which eligible products and shopping surfaces are in scope, then agree the journey from seeing the saving to receiving it. The promotion brief should name the retailer's approval owner and describe what happens when stock, eligibility or timing changes.
Paid visibility and the shopper saving are separate decisions. A supplier can fund value for the shopper while a media campaign governs exposure. Treat them as separate commercial components in the brief so the supplier, merchant and finance teams can explain what each budget buys.
Separate the saving, the media charge and the fee
Use distinct ledger lines for the shopper discount, its funding source, advertising charges and any redemption-related fee. State when each amount becomes payable and who receives it. A click is not the same event as a redemption, and a funded saving is not automatically media income.
Show the reporting perspective. The retailer may receive reimbursement for a saving while the supplier records a funding expense. Combining those amounts without recognising the transfer can overstate value. Agree how refunds, cancellations and ineligible purchases affect reconciliation before the first campaign runs.
Agree the controls before launch
Write a short operating brief covering product scope, audience eligibility, offer dates, reference-price evidence, stock, budget and stacking rules. Map each requirement to the confirmed implementation and retain a named exception owner. Where the shopper experience depends on another system, test the complete journey rather than approving only the promotional tile.
Use personalised promotions as a related targeting discussion. Confirm the supported audience and activation scope in your own implementation instead of assuming every promotion format follows the same path.
Measure whether the promotion adds value
Choose a question before choosing a success metric. Are you testing the saving, the added visibility or their combination? Keep eligible exposure, purchase, redemption and attribution definitions distinct. Where a suitable comparison is feasible, assess the effect against the experience shoppers would otherwise have received.
Report category performance as well as the promoted products, and reconcile contribution alongside sales. The measurement overview is a starting point for scoping the evidence required. A one-category pilot should end with a decision to expand, revise or stop, supported by agreed definitions and an explainable ledger.
Read the examples within their stated scope
The interactive examples on this page illustrate commercial mechanics. Their suppliers, values and ranking assumptions are demonstrations, not production-auction specifications or forecasts. The co-funding concept shown is not currently available PA functionality. Confirm the live experience, responsibilities and commercial terms during implementation scoping.
Trade Media vs retail media: what is being funded?
Retail media purchases exposure or another agreed advertising service. Supplier-funded savings reduce the eligible shopper's purchase cost under a promotion agreement. A product can have either, both or neither.
Question — Paid visibility — Supplier-funded saving
What does the funding support? — An agreed advertising opportunity — An eligible saving for the shopper
What triggers a charge? — The contracted media event or reservation — The contracted redemption or funding event
What needs governance? — Campaign, placement and relevance — Product, shopper, price and offer eligibility
What must be measured? — Delivery, charges and attributed outcomes — Offer use, funding and purchase outcomes
The same product tile can communicate a sponsored placement and a saving. Make each meaning clear. Funding must not imply guaranteed placement or permit an unsuitable product to bypass retailer rules.
Keep the commercial ledger separate
Consider a synthetic campaign with 100 billable clicks at £0.50 and ten eligible redemptions with a £4 saving. Media charges are £50; funded shopper savings are £40. The example excludes fees and other costs.
The two lines describe different events. A click does not automatically redeem a saving, and the £40 of discount funding is not £40 of new media income. Document the payer, recipient, charge basis and adjustment policy for each line.
Do not add a maximum CPC bid to a redeemed saving and call the result actual revenue. Bids, charges, discounts and fees each have their own definitions.
Measure the effect you want to understand
Delivery shows whether the advertising ran. Redemption shows whether an eligible saving was used. Attribution credits purchases under the agreed rules. None of those alone establishes the additional effect of the combined campaign.
Where practical, a test can distinguish a saving, added visibility and their combination. Use the incrementality guide to define a suitable comparison rather than treating the full basket as incremental.
PA's current product description marks its co-funding demonstration as unavailable functionality. Keep that boundary when planning a pilot. Agree supported offer types, funding responsibilities and experience integration before making a commercial commitment.
Frequently asked questions
What does supplier funding pay for?
In this operating model, the funding supports an eligible shopper saving. Keep it separate from the budget used to buy advertising exposure and from any agreed fees. The campaign brief should state the funding event, eligibility, payer and treatment of returns or cancellations.
Does a funded offer guarantee a sponsored placement?
No. Funding a shopper saving and buying media exposure are separate components. The agreed placement and eligibility rules still apply. Define the supported workflow, campaign terms and reporting with the implementation team rather than treating the saving as an automatic right to appear.
Are the co-funding and auction examples live product specifications?
No. The page labels its ranking illustration and co-funding concept separately from confirmed functionality. Co-funding is not currently available PA functionality. Use the examples to understand the commercial questions, then confirm the actual operating model, supported experience and terms for your implementation.
Can a product receive a saving without a sponsored placement?
These are separate decisions. The retailer’s approved offer and exposure rules should define when either can apply. Do not imply that funding a saving guarantees sponsored placement.
Is promotion funding counted as media revenue?
Not automatically. Track advertising charges, funded savings and any agreed fees separately, with a finance-approved accounting treatment. A transfer that funds the shopper’s saving is not additional media income merely because it appears in the same campaign.
Does a redemption prove the offer caused a sale?
No. It proves the eligible saving was used under the recorded rules. Estimating additional sales or contribution requires an appropriate comparison and treatment of substitution, returns and other costs.