Commerce media optimization strategies: How to maximize your ad  funnel

Last month, Koddi released our new analytics suite, featuring the Publisher Overview, Pacing, and Inventory Insights dashboards, all purpose-built to enable commerce media networks (CMNs) to maximize their revenue opportunities. Within the Publisher Overview dashboard, we launched an “ad funnel:” an analytics view that allows CMNs to quickly understand how ads are progressing through each key metric. CMNs can now confidently identify which levers to pull, and when to pull them.

A finely tuned ad funnel ensures you’re making the most of your traffic, maximizing fill rates, and ultimately increasing revenue-driving clicks and transactions. In this article, we identify key ad funnel metrics and optimization strategies that can help close performance gaps within your commerce media program. 

Understanding the ad funnel

Within commerce media networks, the ad funnel dashboard provides insight into whether are reaching their desired advertising pipeline stage. Each stage of the funnel plays a critical role in maximizing revenue, and identifying bottlenecks can help optimize ad performance.

Here’s a breakdown of each stage, including top strategies to maximize your commerce media opportunity.

Slots available: Am I generating enough traffic? 

“Slots available” refers to the number of potential ads you can show users, encompassing both ad calls and available inventory. This is the first step in ensuring ad performance, as high-quality traffic drives ad impressions and clicks—the foundation of ad revenue.

If all subsequent metrics look solid, but ad calls are low, the root issue is likely insufficient traffic. Without a steady influx of visitors, even an ad network with high demand won’t generate enough ad revenue.

How to improve low ad calls

• Ensure pages that do see large traffic volumes are properly monetized and maximizing ad visibility.
• Place ads where they align with user intent on highly trafficked portions of your site.
• Add more ad slots to existing pages (if the subsequent ad funnel metrics are strong).

Slots filled: Do I have enough advertisers?

Slots filled represents how many available ad slots are actively being used by advertisers in your auction. 

It’s important to find the balance between too high or too low fill rates: we recommend 80-95% as a healthy range. If your slots filled percentage is too high, you may be leaving available budget unspent. If too low, it means you need to source more ad demand from advertisers. Either you have a limited pool of advertisers bidding for ad placements or low budget utilization from existing advertisers.

How to improve high slot fill rates

• Charge more for ad slots. If demand is outpacing supply, there’s an opportunity for you to charge more for that inventory.
• Add more inventory. Try offering new and unique ad formats, or simply increasing the volume of inventory you already have.

How to improve low slot fill rates

• Recruit more advertisers. Identify top inventory opportunities by analyzing high-traffic placements and pitching them to new advertisers. Or, target long-tail advertisers. Though they may have lower budgets, a large number of long-tail advertisers can unlock sizable revenue and increase bid competition. Finally, consider expanding your outreach to non-endemic brands looking to enter commerce media advertising.
• Unblock unspent budget from existing advertisers. If budget utilization is below 10%, work with advertisers to improve spend efficiency. Provide real-time insights and recommendations to help advertisers scale their campaigns, and ensure advertisers are able to bid on relevant placements.
• Leverage programmatic demand for advertiser growth. Turning to programmatic solutions, such as integrating an SSP (supply-side platform) that connects to DSPs (demand-side platforms) allows a broader range of advertisers and budgets to easily access their inventory. Connecting your inventory through an SSP to large ad-buying channels (DSPs like DV360 and The Trade Desk) can promote advertiser growth while also making it easy for them to keep spending on your platform. 

Impressions: Are users seeing the ads?

Impressions measure how often an ad is actually viewed on a page. 

Even if you have strong advertiser demand and high traffic, impressions could be low due to poor ad placement (ads aren’t appearing in high-traffic areas) or technical issues preventing ad rendering.

How to improve low impressions

• Optimize ad placements. Move ads higher on the page or to sections with higher engagement (e.g., within product listing pages), and identify the most visible areas for ad placement.
• Ensure proper ad rendering. Check technical integrations to ensure ads load properly on all devices, and optimize for fast-loading creatives to reduce latency and improve viewability.

Clicks: Are customers engaging with ads?

Clicks measure user engagement with ads. Since CMNs typically use a cost-per-click (CPC) model, optimizing click-through rate (CTR) is crucial for revenue growth.

If impressions are high but CTR is low, the issue is likely irrelevant ads that users don’t find compelling, weak ad creatives (images, copy, or CTAs), or poor ad format selections that don’t align with user behavior.

How to improve low click-through rates

• Improve ad creatives. Ensure all creative assets are high-resolution, visually appealing, and optimized for mobile. Write engaging ad copy that includes clear value propositions and strong CTAs (e.g., “Shop Now”, “Limited-Time Offer”).
• Enhance ad targeting through Quality Score modeling. Implement Quality Score algorithms to prioritize relevant ads based on user behavior, and A/B test different ad formats (video vs. display ads, sponsored listings vs. sponsored brands) to find the best-performing placements.
• Leverage data-driven insights. Use advertiser recommendations to help partners refine their creative strategies, and experiment with personalized offers to drive higher engagement.

Transactions: Are ads driving purchases?

Transactions track whether clicks result in actual purchases. This is the bottom of the funnel, and is the most critical metric for advertisers.

Low transaction rates may indicate mismatched ad targeting (where users click but do not convert due to irrelevant offers), landing page issues (such as poor user experience, slow load times, or friction in the checkout process), or ineffective retargeting strategies.

How to improve low transaction rates

• Maximize ad inventory with AI recommendations. AI-driven bid automation can help prioritize ad placements for the most likely-to-convert users. Dynamic ad optimization ensures that bids are adjusted in real time based on performance trends.
• Improve retargeting strategies. Use customer segmentation to deliver personalized retargeting ads, such as abandoned cart recovery campaigns, and ensure cross-device retargeting to maintain engagement across different touchpoints.
• Enhance the post-click experience. Optimize landing pages for fast load speeds and mobile-friendliness, and simplify the checkout process with one-click purchasing options.

Maximizing your commerce media funnel

A well-optimized commerce media ad funnel is the key to unlocking revenue growth and advertiser retention. By addressing traffic, demand, impressions, click-through rates, and conversion barriers, you can drive additional revenue within a high-performing ad program that delivers measurable results for advertisers while enhancing the shopper experience.

For retailers looking to scale their commerce media business, Koddi’s AI-powered solutions provide the tools needed to optimize ad targeting, increase fill rates, and maximize conversion rates. The recent release of our analytics suite, including ad funnel analysis, helps commerce media networks better understand advertiser performance, promote campaign health, and diagnose underperformance quickly.

See Koddi’s ad funnel with advanced AI recommendations in action today by booking a demo. For additional measurement and ad funnel strategies, check out the Koddi Academy.