Adtech Firm Criteo Lays Out Its Plan to Win in Retail Media

Criteo wants to make it clear that it’s a big player in retail media. During an investor event on Nov. 18, the adtech firm's leadership presented new data and laid out its strategy for winning retailers’ ad businesses and advertisers’ budgets. Over the past few years, Criteo has increasingly pivoted its business away from retargeting to retail media. Criteo is eyeing a $50 billion market in retail media outside of Amazon and China by 2027, up from $42 billion the firm identified in 2022. By 2027, retail media will make up 25% of all ad revenue in the U.S., said CEO Megan Clarken. Retail media represents 22% of Criteo’s business and makes up nearly $250 million, Clarken said. The adtech firm powers retail media programs for 225 retailers like Target, JCPenney, and Walgreens. “Together with our network of retailers, we play a critical role in shaping the future of advertising by leveraging data, best-in-class AI and technology, and innovative ad formats that drive consumer engagement and sales,” Clarken said. “There is no other player that matches our footprint.” Criteo’s message to investors comes as more competition floods into advertising technology for retail media. Competitors like Epsilon, Koddi, Topsport, and The Trade Desk are increasingly inking deals with retailers to stand up advertising businesses. Many of these firms work with both retailers and advertisers to sell and buy retail ads. Criteo claims to handle $1.5 billion in retail media spend for advertisers. Retail media adtech is growing One of the challenges with retail media is that advertisers have to simultaneously manage campaigns with multiple retailers. One-third of retail media advertisers work with more than 10 retail media networks at once, according to data from the Path to Purchase Institute that was included in Criteo’s presentation. Criteo’s technology helps brands aggregate some of these ad buys. Chief revenue officer Brian Gleason said that Criteo is also neutral to which agencies it works with, hinting at criticism that retail media acquisitions made by holding companies like Publicis Groupe and Omnicom favor their own agencies. Publicis Groupe owns Criteo competitor Epsilon, and Omnicom purchased Flywheel in 2023. “Our global retailer footprint, demand-generation capabilities, neutrality, strategic partnerships, and full-funnel solutions are some of the key factors that set our platform apart from adtech competitors,” Gleason said. Earlier this year, Criteo inked a deal with Microsoft to sell retail media to advertisers who work with Microsoft. Microsoft made $13 billion from search and news ads during its 2024 financial year. Testing and a rollout for a search ad partnership will start in 2025 and will open up Microsoft’s more than 500,000 advertisers to Criteo, Gleason said. Retailers are hungry for big budgets Criteo is also increasingly pitching ad agencies that handle non-retail spend like social, programmatic, and TV for brands. Gleason said that spend from ad agencies represents two-thirds of ad spend that flows through Criteo’s demand-side platform that brands use to buy retail media in the Americas. According to data presented during the investor event, 63% of brands have shifted national ad budgets into retail media. Another 63% of those brands say that they’re putting search ad money into retail media. Thirty-three percent of brands say the money comes from social media. And 13% of brands say they’re funding new retail media budgets from TV ad budgets. “More ad budgets are shifting to retail media because it performs and it scales,” Gleason told investors.

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Adtech Firm Criteo Lays Out Its Plan to Win In Retail Media

Retail media will be a $50 billion opportunity by 2027

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