As retail media booms, lines blur between performance and brand marketing budgets

By Kimeko McCoy • March 20, 2025 •

Ivy Liu

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Marketers and agencies are grappling with divisions over who exactly controls retail media spend, seemingly causing a trickle-down effect on how retail media deals are brokered.

The rise of retail media networks has happened fast. By 2028, retail media is expected to account for almost a quarter of all U.S. media spend, according to eMarketer. At the same time, retail media networks are positioning themselves as media companies, blurring the line between retail media networks as performance marketing channels and brand marketing channels. They’re also asking for brand dollars as well as increased spend commitments year over year to help maintain momentum and boost revenue, as Digiday has previously reported.

To put some numbers to it, eMarketer also reported that by 2028, retail media CTV will represent more than a quarter of RMN display ad spend, and nearly 22% of CTV ad spending overall.

As this shift happens, the industry is trying to determine who is holding the purse strings. Out of the 10 retail media experts Digiday spoke with for this story, at least three said there’s a lack of clarity when it comes to who maintains budgets for retail media. Advertisers are instead pooling dollars from wherever they can to make good on joint business plans and partnerships (JBP) planning commitments.

“The argument now is retail is full funnel,” said George Musi, chief business officer at Night Market, the retail and commerce agency at Horizon Media Holdings media agency. “Once you believe that, that’s it. There is no dollar that is safe.”

Retail media is growing quickly, offering performance marketing capabilities as well as brand marketing capabilities. But similar to the disparities among top advertisers over which teams control retail media budgets, there seems to be no clarity when determining what dollars should fuel the RMN growth spurt. “It’s very much still a trial and error right now. Some brands are pooling, some brands are pulling [brand marketing dollars] from other places,” he added.

True enough, some advertisers have started shelling out brand dollars — spend that RMNs like The Home Depot’s Orange Apron Media have been asking for. At least one commerce exec, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said clients are currently spending an estimated 10% of brand marketing budgets on retail media. Meanwhile, other advertisers are simply making the trade and shopper dollars already committed to RMNs during the joint business planning process work harder. Advertisers are leveraging the dollars already locked into RMN commitments to test brand awareness channels, like CTV, as opposed to creating new budgets.

Striking JBP deals

Retail media is still largely in its infancy, lacking standardization in things like measurement and budgets. Right now, RMNs are competing with over 200 networks to get advertisers to spend ad dollars with them. For marketers, that means there’s a chance to better negotiate and unlock media buys with shopper and trade dollars during the negotiation process, otherwise known as the joint business plans and partnerships (JBP) planning.

“We’re leveraging the media dollars that are already happening and identifying what elements of those are actually doing the work of shopper [dollars],” said Hillary Kupferberg, vp of performance marketing at Exverus Media. “We’re not actually asking for incremental investment. It’s investment they’re already making, and they’re just getting more value from it.”

According to Renee Caceres, head of retail media at programmatic ad platform StackAdapt, dollars are flowing from traditional ad formats into programmatic channels like CTV in retail media. But that movement blurs the lines between brand and shopper marketing budgets, making it difficult to determine who oversees funding, she added.

“Once it gets that big, money comes from everywhere,” said Luke Stillman, evp of market insights, demand, and strategic innovation at MAGNA, a media intelligence unit within IPG Mediabrands, referring to the $140 billion global business that is retail media, according to 2024 figures from eMarketer.

The uphill battle continues

“We’re starting to see is more of a cohesive conversation with the different budget holders,” said Deanna Mulkeen, head of media investment at WPromote.

Still, the bulk of ad spend within the RMN space is search and on-site display, retail media experts say. In the last year or so, brand clients have been less reluctant to spend brand dollars in the retail media network ecosystem, according to Ethan Goodman, evp of digital commerce at Mars United Commerce.

RMNs have been pushing for more brand marketing spend, opening up off-platform opportunities across social and streaming. But at the same time, there have been calls mounting from media buyers for transparency in measurement (return on ad spend versus incrementality) and premium pricing.

“In order for more brand dollars to flow to retail media networks for things like CTV, some combination of getting the price parity with other options is going to be really key, or proving that the investment, proving the premium is worth it,” Goodman said.

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