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Retail Media Networks in 2026: Full-Funnel Marketing

  • Feb 18
  • 4 min read

Updated: 7 days ago

A brand marketer's guide to retail media buying strategies for sustained growth


two women looking into a shopping bag

Key Facts:


  • Retail media will grow about 15% to $198B in 2026.

  • Amazon dominates with 75.2% market share — more than 10 times larger than second-place Walmart Connect.

  • Retail media CTV ad spending grew about 45% in 2025, with Walmart controlling over 20% of the US TV market through Vizio.

  • RMNs have evolved beyond last-touch conversion to offer full-funnel experiences including CTV, programmatic, and brand awareness campaigns.


With retail media set to account for one in eight digital ad dollars, mature retailers are already growing sales by expanding how they reach consumers and the ad products they offer to brands.

Historically, retail media networks have focused on lower-funnel tactics, but Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect, and an ever growing list of other retail media networks are now offering a full-funnel experience to advertisers and media buyers.

What is a retail media network (RMN)?


According to RetailTouchpoints.com, "Retail media is the broader term used to describe the concept of retailers using their systems, infrastructure, data and access to their shoppers to help advertisers reach consumers. A retail media network is the actual platform that retailers put in place to do this."


These ads can appear in various formats and locations, including search results pages, product pages, category pages, and even in-store displays. But what sets retail media networks apart is their access to valuable first-party data—the key to effective targeting and personalized advertising.


screenshots of Amazon ads

What are the top retail media networks?


Amazon is, by far, the top retail media network, projected by EMARKETER to command over $56.71 billion in 2026, more than 10 times that of No. 2 Walmart Connect.


Other big RMNs include Target's Roundel, Kroger Precision Marketing, Alibaba, Instacart Ads, and Costco Media Network. More are popping up every day!


This blossoming of RMNs offers advertisers more opportunities to put their products in front of their target audience when they're already in a purchasing state of mind, but the downside is a lack of consistency or standardization across the platforms.


The better question is: where are your shoppers, and where is your product actually sold? Sponsored search on Amazon is table stakes for most CPG brands, but that doesn't mean it should eat your whole RMN budget.


Brands should always try to maximize exposure through sponsored search campaigns first before tapping into other tactics, since sponsored search typically has the highest return — but that's just the starting point, not the full strategy.


How does retail media fit into an omnichannel marketing strategy?


At the top of funnel, RMNs' off-site capabilities — including programmatic display, CTV, and DOOH placements powered by first-party retailer data — let you reach in-market audiences with a level of purchase-intent precision that is genuinely hard to replicate elsewhere. If you know someone bought your category at Kroger three times in the last 90 days, that's an audience worth paying for at the top of the funnel, not just at checkout.


In the middle, sponsored search on Amazon or Walmart is not just a conversion tool — it's an awareness driver. Appearing at the top of a category search while a consumer is actively browsing tells them your brand belongs there. That's brand building, even if the click leads directly to a purchase.


At the bottom, yes, retail media excels at conversion. Sponsored products, retailer-native display ads, and on-site placements close the loop between consideration and purchase with a directness that most channels can't match.

black and grey chart against white background

What's an example of full-funnel retail media?


As we illustrated to The Current by The Trade Desk, "We have one client who is running a CTV awareness campaign — very typical, but what's new is we're able to target Walmart shoppers and then actually drive them to Walmart, and that is an incredible aspect because now we have a CTV awareness campaign that I can actually share back that they're driving millions of dollars in sales, and to have that data and that closed loop attribution is really going to propel the future of what we can do while we're in the weeds."


Hear more about this below:



Is retail media a good investment?


The truth is, retail media can be both a goldmine or a budget sinkhole, depending on how you use it.


The goldmine: closed-loop attribution, high-intent audiences, and endemic relevance -- especially when paired with strong creative and smart sequencing.


The black hole: fragmented networks, sky-high CPMs, and opaque reporting.

 

Many RMNs prioritize margin over performance, which means your media dollars may be going to prop up retail partnerships rather than drive actual growth.

 

The smart play? Treat retail media like part of your broader media plan, not a separate obligation.

 

It should work with your other channels, not in isolation. That means aligning measurement, creative, and budget logic across the funnel.

 

How do we negotiate our JBPs to get more media value?


This question comes up a lot during media planning season, and it's a real skill. In the age of the RMN boom, retailers have been all too happy to strike deals with marketers, selling off ad space on their own platforms and audience data for ads on third-party platforms.


But not every brand knows how to negotiate media value into those commitments. The brands who treat JBPs as purely a merchandising conversation are leaving significant media inventory on the table.


Action items


Audit your retail media investments quarterly. Audit more often than that, and you'll miss longer-term trends; any less often, and you'll miss opportunity.


  • Map each placement to a funnel stage

  • Identify overlap or redundancy, and

  • Hold your retail partners accountable to the same standards as your other media by evaluating the same metrics like reach, frequency, and sales incrementality.


Critically, the time is now for brands to leverage the two largest retailers, Amazon and Walmart, as complete advertising ecosystems.


Further references:


This piece originally appeared in our weekly Paid Media Insights newsletter. For more tips, research, and analysis; subscribe for free here.

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