The Rise of Retail Media Networks: Unlocking Opportunities for Advertisers

Retail media networks (RMNs) have rapidly transformed the digital advertising landscape, offering brands innovative ways to connect with consumers. With the rise of digital platform connectivity and data, RMNs have grown exponentially, providing both benefits and challenges for advertisers. As RMNs look to scale, diversify their advertiser base, and prove greater value to new sectors, they’re hitting some familiar, and significant, roadblocks. Effectiveness remains the top priority – but how can this be measured and achieved?

The Surge in Retail Media Networks

In recent years, RMNs have experienced remarkable growth. In 2024, global digital retail media advertising spending was estimated at $136 billion, with projections suggesting continued growth. This surge positions retail media as the fastest-growing advertising channel, with expectations to overtake traditional mediums, such as linear TV, in the near future.

Why Advertisers Are Embracing RMNs

So, why are advertisers flocking to retail media networks? It’s simple: they offer something unique that other digital channels struggle to match. First, they give advertising brands direct access to high-intent shoppers - people who are actively searching, digital window-shopping, and ready to buy. That means advertisers aren’t just throwing their budget at general audiences; they’re reaching consumers who are already in a shopping mindset.

Then there’s precision targeting. Because RMNs are built on first-party retailer data, advertisers can reach specific customer segments based on past purchases, behaviours, and interests. This level of personalisation makes campaigns far more relevant and, as a result, more engaging and effective.

And let’s not forget measurement. One of the biggest frustrations in digital advertising has always been proving whether an ad actually led to a sale. RMNs solve this with closed-loop measurement, allowing brands to track a consumer’s journey from ad exposure all the way to checkout. This is a real game-changer for marketers, with all generally looking to optimise their ad spend.

The Challenge of Digital Reach

Most RMNs are built on incredibly valuable first-party shopper data. That’s great for understanding what people buy, how often they shop, and where they shop - but it’s often locked within the retailer’s ecosystem. When advertisers want to activate campaigns outside of the retailer’s owned-and-operated media (such as across programmatic, social, or connected TV), match rates between the RMN’s audiences and the platforms’ identity systems can be disappointingly low. That means reduced scale, limited reach, and in many cases, missed revenue.

For RMNs, this challenge is especially painful. They know their audiences are valuable, but they struggle to connect those audiences to broader digital platforms in a meaningful way. Without that bridge, their offer becomes less appealing to advertisers who demand omnichannel reach. CPGs will want to ask the retailer, what can you tell me about the customer? For some RMNs, knowing the customer beyond contact data is a challenge, but its where the value lies. Enhanced data, enriched with demographic, lifestyle and behavioural variables deliver customer insight above and beyond the norm. This enriched customer data is what appeals to the CPGS, and ultimately provides insight for audience targeting and ad planning.

Broadening Appeal Beyond CPG

Another hurdle comes in the form of vertical diversification. Most RMNs are built with CPG brands in mind—because these advertisers understand the value of SKU-level data. But what about industries like financial services, insurance, or travel? These brands don’t sell through retailers, and they don’t benefit from basket-level insights in the same way.

If RMNs want to grow, they need to provide value to these non-endemic advertisers. That means offering audience insights beyond what’s being purchased at checkout. Financial services brands, for example, might want to reach affluent, tech-savvy individuals. Travel brands may want to find households with disposable income and a history of leisure spending. But retail transaction data alone won’t always reveal these kinds of audience signals.

The Ad-Tech Stack Challenge

Even when RMNs have the data and audience insights, setting up the right ad-tech infrastructure is no small feat. Advertisers expect seamless activation across their preferred digital channels—and that requires the right integrations. Building or licensing a tech stack that supports everything from audience ingestion to campaign execution across programmatic, social, and CTV platforms can be resource-intensive and complex.

Retailers must ensure that their media networks integrate with key ad-tech partners to make activation smooth and scalable. Without this, even the best audience data can be under-utilised.

Helping RMNs Evolve and Grow

We offer two key solutions that help RMNs tackle reach, relevance, and integration:

ID Graph for Scalable Activation

Our ID graph technology dramatically improves match rates between RMN audiences and major digital ad platforms. By resolving fragmented identities and unifying customer data across devices and environments, our solution enables RMNs to activate their audiences across programmatic, social, and CTV channels with higher fidelity. Importantly, our ID graph is already integrated with market-leading ad-tech platforms, helping RMNs reduce friction and go to market faster.

Third-Party Data for Broader Appeal

To help RMNs attract advertisers outside of CPG, we enrich their first-party data with high-quality third-party insights. Our data includes demographic, lifestyle, financial, and interest-based attributes that allow RMNs to build audience segments tailored to the needs of financial, insurance, and travel brands. This expanded view of the customer means RMNs can deliver highly relevant, privacy-safe targeting options to new advertiser categories—again, fully accessible through the ad-tech platforms advertisers already use.

Building the Future of Retail Media

For RMNs to succeed in the long term, they need to be more than just a closed-loop media solution for grocery brands. They must become scalable, versatile platforms that deliver value to a wide array of advertisers across digital channels. With our ID graph, third-party data enrichment, and plug-and-play compatibility with the industry's top ad-tech solutions, we give retail media networks the tools they need to expand their reach, diversify their revenue, and meet the evolving expectations of the digital ad ecosystem.