Retail media’s mid-2025 reality: Why advertisers are going all in on full-funnel

Either RMNs deliver or advertisers pull back spend.

“This year, you’re starting to see more streamlining, more material partnerships start to transpire because [RMNs] understand that having the data alone is not the full story,” said Deanna Mulkeen, head of media investment at Wpromote. The full story, she added, is “data, scaled inventory, reach and eyeballs all through to closed loop measurement.”

Media buyers are focused on total commerce strategies, full-funnel measurement and total transparency in the off-platform push. Amazon may still rule the roost with its data and ad ecosystem, but other players like Walmart and Instacart are working to close the gap, media buyers told Digiday.

Here’s a look at how the retail media landscape is shaping up in the second half of the year:

Amazon and the AMC ‘Holy Grail’ 

In the retail media network arms race, there seems to be Amazon and then everyone else. According to media buyers, that’s because of the tech giant’s sheer scale, first-party data, and its demand-side platform (DSP) that’s been catching the eye of non-endemic advertisers. More comparisons are being made between Amazon’s DSP to DSPs like Trade Desk or DV360, per Mulkeen.

Amazon Marketing Cloud, however, seems to be “the glue” connecting top and bottom of funnel media, said Damien Bianchi, group media director of retail media and commerce at VML. That full-funnel effect is what retail media networks have been vying for in the push to off-site media, taking RMNs beyond on-clicks and ROAS to deeper, long-term business goals, like household penetration and customer lifetime value, Bianchi added.

“If you’re taking advantage of it correctly, you’ll know exactly what type of Amazon media to serve specific cohorts at very specific times of the year,” he said.

But Walmart and Instacart are still making a play for their share of the full-funnel ad spend and were among the flurry of announcements during Cannes inking partnerships around measurement and off-platform ads.

Blurring budget lines

Internally, brand budget lines are also blurring as retailers push to become full-funnel media channels. Historically, dollars were siloed — either labeled shopper marketing spend or national media spend, per the three media buyers Digiday spoke with for this story. But the type of spend is changing as RMNs expand their capabilities beyond search and display ads on site to encompass video, streaming and social commerce.

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It’s less that dollars are being shifted from one budget to another, and more that brands are unifying brand and performance budgets.

“We’re not seeing dollars being pulled out of existing brand building campaigns just yet,” said Anthony Costanzo, chief analytics officer at Mile Marker, an independent media agency. 

Off-platform push 

Retail media is seemingly hitting its maturation curve. Retailers inked partnerships with streaming services, social media platforms and other third-party partners to extend media capabilities beyond their owned-and-operated channels. 

But as much as the space has grown up, buyers say there’s more to go and they’re still left with questions : Who controls access to the inventory? Who controls access to the audiences and delivery of the media strategies? Is the retailer to own that strategy and provide it as a managed service or is the advertiser in control of the off-platform media? 

To help get advertisers over the hurdle, retailers are offering incentives, like co-funding (or dollar matching programs) off-platform investments, opportunities to test new ad formats, dedicated resourcing support and, perhaps most importantly, measurement, per Costanzo. The latter is especially true for larger players in the space who have droves of data and insights, he added. 

“Measurement is being used as an incentive for a lot of these partnerships, because it’s something that’s in such high demand,” Costanzo said. 

Test and learn fatigue

While Amazon holds a strong foothold in the retail media space — with the likes of Walmart trailing not too far behind — other retail media networks are working to prove their own unique value propositions. 

Whether advertisers buy into it comes down to sales as the appetite for testing and learning — especially as economic uncertainty looms — is shrinking, said Bianchi. 

He added, “If brands are able to effectively create awareness and move product, move SKUs at a very effective rate on the bigger retailers right now, there’s not what I would call a compelling reason to do test and learns on smaller retailers unless there’s some kind of incentive.” 

Heading into the second half of the year, retail media’s trajectory is likely one of more investment, but also more scrutiny and pressure to deliver at parity with the broader digital media ecosystem — think Meta and Google.

“This industry loves to talk about measurement, but in reality, there’s so much more sophistication that can be realized,” said Wpromote’s Mulkeen.