New research shows what commerce media advertisers really want

Like wide-leg jeans, early-2000s references, and hot honey, retail and commerce media networks are having a moment. 

And actually, that moment has really spanned the last few years; it seems almost anyone you talk to in the ad space lately has media networks on the brain. It’s a revenue juggernaut, and companies across industries want to get a piece of that cash-filled pie. 

Even Forrester predicts that the retail media market will grow more than $300 billion by 2030. 

The secret sauce behind this lucrative advertising sector is the media network’s first-party data. From big box retailers to travel websites to banks — they all have customer data that advertisers want, and advertisers are willing to pay to get in front of those customers. 

We wanted to find out what else these advertisers are looking for. Sure, they want a lower price for the audiences they’re targeting. But what else makes them stay with a retail media network (RMN) or commerce media network (CMN) partner? And perhaps more importantly, what motivates them to leave?

The 2026 Commerce Media Investment Index surveyed nearly 300 brand advertisers across industries, asking them where, why, and how they invest their media network dollars. It aims to help media network owners optimize their offerings and claim a bigger share of this rapidly growing advertising line item. 

Research goals and methodology 

This report was created for RMN and CMN leaders. In fact, we started this project wanting to interview them. 

But because the universe of media network operators is still relatively small, surveying RMNs/CMNs directly and at sufficient scale would have made statistically reliable results impossible. 

So instead, we partnered with Ascend2 Research to survey 291 advertisers actively working RMNs and CMNs: the people at brands who are planning campaigns, influencing budgets, measuring performance, and selecting partners. 

This is an evolving market, and we want the conversation to continue. If you operate an RMN or CMN and have feedback on these findings, perspectives you think the industry should be discussing, or want to dive deeper in any area of the report, we’d love to hear from you at marketing@growthloop.com.

The state of retail and commerce media

Before we dive into some of the key findings, let’s level-set on the commerce media industry today. Given the growth this ad sector has seen, these numbers didn’t surprise us. 

Of the advertisers we surveyed:

• 90% work with 2+ RMN/CMN partners; 54% work with 2-3 networks

• 73% allocate at least 15% of digital ad budgets to RMN/CMN; 30% allocate 29% or more

• 85% plan to increase RMN/CMN spend in the next 12 months

What advertisers really want from their media network partners

Not only is RMN/CMN investment popular, but the advertisers using these networks seem happy with the results. Nearly all survey respondents (94%) said their current RMN/CMN partnerships are meeting or exceeding ROI targets.

It sounds like all good news for the RMN/CMN network owners, doesn’t it? But the truth is, competition for ad budget is fierce. More organizations are getting into the media network game (supply), and advertisers only have so much budget (demand). (In fact, 10% of the brands we surveyed are already working with seven or more networks.)

So, what makes advertisers want to invest more dollars in a network or pull back spend? We found three key trends with the results:

• Richer audience capabilities

• Faster campaign and audience activation

• More actionable, closed-loop measurement

Let’s dive into each of these priorities.

Richer audience capabilities

Across all industries, we found that reach, scale, and accuracy are the most important audience capabilities advertisers consider when choosing a network partner. 95% say they’d be more likely to increase spend with an RMN/CMN if they had access to more audience segments. 

We also found that nearly a third of respondents said a key consideration in partner selection is the ability to incorporate their own first-party data. And most of the advertisers with customer list suppression capabilities in their RMN/CMN do actually use them (75%). 

The main takeaway? Media networks need to expand audience catalogs without sacrificing quality by giving advertisers greater access to relevant, scalable audience segments built directly from first-party data in your cloud. And make it easier to incorporate advertiser data or suppress existing customers to refine who they reach. 

Instant commerce platform Gopuff is already meeting this need by expanding its audience catalog; after implementing a warehouse-native commerce media solution, the catalog went from roughly 100 audiences to more than 600, giving its internal teams and brand partners a broader range of ready-to-use targeting options. 

Faster campaign and audience activation = more money

More audiences = more advertiser investment. But having a catalog with hundreds of segments doesn’t matter if it takes weeks to launch a campaign. 

92% of the advertisers we surveyed said they would increase spend with an RMN/CMN if they had faster audience fulfillment. And 85% would be willing to pay a premium for a partner offering same-day audience fulfillment. 

Here’s the stat to pay attention to: A full 86% of advertisers would reduce spend or stop working with a partner altogether if audience fulfillment was too slow. 

For RMN/CMN leaders, that means reducing the time between campaign request and activation by making audiences easier to discover, build, and deploy. Shorten fulfillment timelines and give advertisers greater visibility into when campaigns will be ready to launch.

Closed-loop measurement

Even if an RMN/CMN investment feels like a sure thing for advertisers, they still need to prove that their dollars are working. 

According to our survey, nearly a third (32%) of advertisers have reduced, paused, or reconsidered investment because of difficulty proving media network ROI to leadership. And 40% of advertisers with the highest RMN/CMN investments have paused or reduced their spend due to measurement and attribution gaps. 

But it’s not just whether the campaigns are working; it’s how those campaign results can inform future ad buys. Nearly half (48%) of the advertisers we surveyed said they have to wait a week or more to receive campaign performance data from their network partners. The slower the reporting, the longer an advertiser takes to make a decision on reinvestment. 

Media network operators need to close the loop between measurement and the next campaign investment by providing faster performance feedback, clear measurement of incremental impact, and insights that advertisers can translate directly into audience and targeting decisions. It builds trust and buy-in, strengthening brand relationships and your share of their ad budget.

Win more brand budget with audience depth, speed, and measurement transparency

There’s no denying the revenue opportunity in front of a retail or commerce media network. But as more organizations enter the media network space, brands will need to be selective about their budgets. 

So, how do you make sure your network stands out and wins the hearts and minds (and budgets) of advertisers? The networks best positioned to capture that investment will be those that make sophisticated audience strategies feel simple. And that comes down to audience depth, speed to activation, and transparent, closed-loop measurement.

If you want to dive deeper into the research findings, you can download the full 2026 Commerce Media Investment Index. 

P.S. Don’t be the last one to get a pair of those wide-leg jeans; commerce media networks are an opportunity you can’t pass up. GrowthLoop’s Composable Commerce Media solution helps turn your valuable first-party data into scalable audiences, connect those audiences across on-site and off-site channels, and make measurement and optimization seamless — all without data leaving the cloud. Learn more about our warehouse-native commerce media platform or book a call with our team.