Criteo is bringing programmatic ad buying to retail media.
The adtech company is rolling out a change to its platform that allows advertisers to buy retail media display ads programmatically. The change is aimed at making it simpler for advertisers to buy across multiple retail media networks at once.
Auction-based buying could make it easier for retailers to sell leftover ad inventory that isn’t sold through traditional media buying methods like joint business plans, sponsorship deals, or preferred deals that require long-term, negotiated investments. It could also help retailers make more money off their ad slots during peak seasons when ad prices spike due to demand.
“Display advertising is a proven retail media format, but the needs of advertisers and retailers are evolving,” Melanie Zimmerman, general manager of global retail media at Criteo, said in a statement. “Our new auction-based offering is modernizing display technology.”
Criteo said that Costco and Shipt are using the new product.
Criteo’s offering competes with Google, two retail media sources told ADWEEK. The features that Criteo has built into its tech have traditionally been found in Google’s Ad Manager or Ad Exchange, the sources said.
“The way inventory is prioritized on the publisher side is basically a copy-paste of how Google Ad Manager handles inventory reservations,” said one source who has spoken directly with Criteo about the new offering.
Being able to buy Criteo’s inventory programmatically could also allow advertisers to worry less about hitting required investment numbers from joint business plans, the source said.
Joint business plans are yearlong deals between brands and retailers where brands agree to pay for advertising in exchange for selling their products with individual retailers. One of the complaints of joint business plans is that they lock brands into ad commitments that are not guaranteed to drive sales.
Instead of using joint business plans to fund ad dollars, the source suggested that Criteo’s new feature could help brands identify which retailers to spend with based on the retailers where Criteo finds the most sales. That could begin to shift the power dynamic between brands and retailers—putting more power back into the hands of advertisers, with Criteo as the middleman.
Andrew Lipsman, independent retail media consultant, added that Criteo’s product could be a “significant market enabler for retail media—especially with the emergence of second and third-tier RMNs plus the overall growth in upper-funnel ad units onsite.”