Macy's Media Ad Network

Problem Statement

Create ad experiences that unlock a new revenue stream.

Challenge

During the pandemic, Macy's faced a financial crisis. Most of the staff were furloughed, and the company itself was on the verge of bankruptcy. With uncertainty around public health, employment, and the retail industry, Macy's needed a fast, scalable revenue solution.

Goal

Monetize Macy's and Bloomingdale's web platforms through ad sales.

Reframed Design Goal

How do we generate ad revenue on macys.com without compromising customer experience? How do we create scalable, cross-team guidelines to ensure a consistent, customer-centered approach?

Process

Discovery

We conducted a competitive audit of how ads were implemented across retail sites.

From that, we identified five distinct zones across funnels:

Monetization
Personalization
Inspiration
Store Messaging
Marketing

Establishing Tenets

We created guiding principles to define when and where ad placements make sense. Our goal was to ensure each ad—regardless of type or density—was backed by user research and business rationale.

An excerpt of some of the early work conducted around creating principles that would later be used by the team.

Testing

We created a testing schalso tested density thresholds across device types to find the right balance between monetization and usability—evaluating how many ads could appear on a page before user experience started to decline

Ensuring each placement was backed by research and thoughtfully integrated.

Ad Placement Solutions

Given the urgency, we quickly designed and tested ad placements that included traditional banner ads...

... and atypical ad formats integrated into product grids to disrupt monotony.

... and ads that were more educational and brand building, while still serving business purposes.

An ad that educated users on a beauty regimen while upselling related products—a hybrid of value and conversion.

Products paired together by relevancy

Results

The program generated $104 million in its first year. Today, it's generating over $300 million annually.

Lessons Learned

Reframe the Ask

"Design ads" isn’t exactly a designer’s dream brief. But reframing the work around customer value created an opportunity to define what meaningful ads could look like. Traditional banner ads were necessary for inventory, but the atypical formats unlocked new space and storytelling potential.

Principles Ground the Work

Creating design principles gave teams a north star. These guidelines ensured ad placements aligned with our brand standards and didn’t degrade the experience. We drew inspiration from platforms like Instagram, where customers consistently rate the relevance of ads highly.

Internally, I challenged our team to make ads *compelling* and *on-brand* for our users. Knowing our audience, what would they want to see? How do we ensure these don't feel like visual spam?

This work built on earlier lessons from the Search redesign: pushing design to elevate what might otherwise be a purely commercial project. We proved that thoughtful design can unlock real business value.