Secure your place at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Vail, March 23-25
This article is a WTF explainer, in which we break down media and marketing’s most confusing terms. More from the series →
This video is sponsored by Sovrn. Sovrn did not have any input or approval over the video’s editorial content.
In the decade-plus since Amazon started selling ads based on people’s purchase histories, retail media has ballooned into a $59 billion business in the U.S., per eMarketer. But that’s just retailers. Airlines, hotels, financial services companies and even gyms have also started to spin up ad businesses on the backs of their customer transaction databases, which has spurred a new term: commerce media.
Commerce media is honestly a pretty simple concept. It boils down to ads targeted and measured based on transaction data. And that simple concept helps to explain why commerce media has been expanding to turn seemingly any and every ad inventory type into commerce media, as executives from PMG, Profitero+, Tinuiti and WPP Media break down in this video.
More in Media Buying
The Rundown: Ad tech’s performance in 2025 was overshadowed by AI concerns and Big Tech
Despite revenue increases, the markets were brutal but reports over talks with OpenAI proved later upside.
As brands respond to AI search, walls crumble between paid and organic
Agencies are knitting SEO and PPC teams closer together as they adapt to the new rules of search that are driven by the use of generative AI.
Future of Marketing Briefing: Epsilon’s quiet bet against the LLM gold rush
In advertising’s AI race, Epsilon says the winners won’t pick one mode. They’ll orchestrate many.