Top 3 Advertisers on Target.com

Target. Expect more. Pay less. Advertise well. That’s their slogan, right?

Well it should be because Target is a goldmine for online advertising. Though that might not immediately seem the case. It’s funny to say — given 75% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Target — but in the retail space, they are a bit of an underdog.

Sorry Bullseye. You’ll always be our favorite retail mascot.

Compared to their main competitors — Walmart and Costco — Target falls far behind with just $78 billion in revenue. (Over the same period, Walmart generated a whopping $524B and Costco $158B.)

But those figures only tell part of the story.

Because while Target might not have as dominant a presence in brick-and-mortar, particularly internationally, it is just as strong (read: profitable) online.

eCommerce accounts for around 10% of Target’s total revenue, as it does for both Walmart and Costco. In fact, Target has generated more overall online sales than Costco, making it one of the most lucrative eCommerce sites in the U.S. Much of this is thanks to Target’s initiative to reach over 200 countries online and acquisition of Shipt, propelling its online delivery services. In both regards, the retailer has its direct competitors beat.

So what’s all this mean?

Quite simply that Target is a very enticing space for digital advertising.

Just how enticing? We looked at Pathmatics Explorer to find out.

Advertising on Target Overview

As of writing, over the past 12 months, nearly $29.9 million has been spent on advertising on Target’s website, garnering 3.2 billion impressions.

As you can see, the majority of this was generated via direct ads, with 15% coming from display and ad networks.

Perhaps most notably, when we filter by device, desktop ads account for 90% of this spend and 87% of the impressions. Apparently advertisers find far more success targeting desktop than mobile on Target.

As for the top industries advertising on Target, not much surprise there.

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) is the clear leader, accounting for nearly 50% of total ad spend with $12.6 million.

Now let’s take a deeper dive and see who the top advertisers on Target.com are right now.

1. Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble is the top CPG advertiser. Following suit, they are also the top advertiser on Target, spending $116 million on ads which garnered them 15 billion impressions.

Here’s one of their most successful ads from that period:

As you can see, this is a hyper-targeted ad specific to Target’s curbside pickup service. Most of P&G’s ads on Target.com follow a similar creative template. And unlike most of their ads on other sites, this one does not feature a specific brand but rather promotes Proctor’s offering as a whole.

2. Johnson & Johnson Inc.

Social media channels aside, Johnson & Johnson has picked Target as one of its top sites to advertise on, spending a total of $2 million over the past 12 months.

The data shows that Johnson & Johnson spent almost just as much on Target as they do Walmart, Amazon, and YouTube, combined. (Hey, look at that! Turns out there are some businesses that don’t care YouTube is the most popular site for online advertising.)

Interestingly, Pathmatics Explorer found that Johnson & Johnson doesn’t just advertise on Target but they use Target.com as a landing page for its ads on other sites as well.

Like the one below.

That was Johnson & Johnson’s biggest ad for both spend and impressions over that time period.

Overall, when it came to advertisements related to Target, Johnson & Johnson primarily marketed Aveeno products. This is seen in the following ad, which both appeared on and pointed to Target.

Because who doesn’t want soft skin, amirite?

3. Luxottica Retail

Unlike the other two companies on this list, you might not recognize the name Luxottica Retail. But you know their product. (They own Ray-Ban, along with a slew of other popular eyewear brands you commonly put on your face.) They are the world’s largest eyewear company and own Target Optical, the Target-branded optical company located inside its stores.

So, yeah, they advertise on Target.com a lot.

Coming in at third, Luxottica Retail spent $1.6 million on ads. Like this happy one:

What About the Rest?

Here’s a snapshot of the rest of the top ten advertisers on Target.com for the U.S.

As expected, a whole lot of CPG.

Also worth noting, of these only two — Kimberly-Clark and Newell Brands — tried advertising using video. (Which can be viewed under the “Device” column.) The rest stuck strictly to banner ads.

So that’s a look at advertising on Target.com care of Pathmatics Explorer.

If you’re interested in how this compares to its competitors, check out the top advertisers on Walmart.com.