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The 2021 Digital Advertising Manual: Rethinking Campaign Objectives, Creative & KPIs​

Plan effective campaigns for every stage of the customer journey with the right audiences, creative, and KPIs to meet your goal.

Updated on January 5, 2026

2021 Marketing Objectives

Every business wants to increase profits and grow, but from a marketing perspective, there are many paths to achieve these goals.

In our survey, we asked marketing leaders what objectives they are focused on to bounce back this year.

Campaigns for real customer journeys

To meet the top marketing goals, you need a commerce media strategy to engage consumers at every stage of the path to purchase. The digital commerce ecosystem is crowded. If you don’t have campaigns designed to get consumers from awareness to loyalty, you’ll miss opportunities to grow sales and customer lifetime value.

Customer Acquisition

Customer Retention

Build more impactful ad campaigns

Here, we have frameworks to build commerce media campaigns that drive meaningful outcomes no matter where your customers are in their journey. See the right audiences, creative, and KPIs to meet each campaign goal and drive your high-level marketing objectives.

Awareness

Audiences

Commerce Reach new customers that are interested in products or services like yours. Build your audience with commerce data that shows products people are interested in, brands they like, and meaningful demographics such as purchase power and gender to drive interest and engagement.

KPIs

Cost per completed video The price you pay each time a video ad is viewed to completion. Calculated as total cost divided by total completed views.

Creative

Rich Media Ads Capture attention with a combination of video and brand creative, plus animated elements and interactive features.

Consideration

Audiences

Commerce Reach new customers that are interested in products or services like yours.

KPIs

Cost per mille (CPM) The price you pay per one thousand impressions.

Creative

Retail Media Draw attention from retailer website audiences as they consider their options with onsite commerce display ads that blend branding creative and product information.

Conversion

Audiences

Contact List Reach online and offline customers already in your database.

KPIs

Cost per acquisition (CPA) The amount you spend on a consumer’s action, such as a purchase, form submission, or completed booking.

Creative

Dynamic Product Recommendation Ads Encourage interested consumers to complete their purchase with dynamic product recommendations and relevant promotions.

Align every campaign with real business goals

In Criteo’s survey of 1,000 marketing executives, 50% said website sales is one of the most influential metrics for their marketing plans.

Measuring Connected TV-Influenced Outcomes

It’s challenging to understand the impact of branding video and connected TV campaigns on the bottom line. But when these ads run with lower-funnel campaigns, you can capture users further up the funnel and guide them through their path to purchase.

Rethinking Budgets & Channels for the New Customer Journey

If you haven’t already read part one of The 2021 Digital Advertising Manual, download your copy here. You’ll get data and advertising strategies to help you allocate your budget across channels and learn how to face issues like consumer privacy, brand safety, and diversifying ad spend.