Commerce Media’s Exploding Influence Beyond Retail
Commerce Media Networks are moving beyond grocery and mass retail into financial services, healthcare and travel. Advertising budgets are following purchase intent, with industry forecasts showing commerce media spending growing faster than many traditional channels and set to rival TV ad revenue in several markets by 2026. For brands and agencies this means reallocating media plans toward environments where transactions and intent meet, and demanding more creative formats and rigorous measurement from CMNs.
AI’s Dual Impact: Reimagining Discovery and Creative
AI Search and the Rise of GEO
Conversational AI and generative chat interfaces are changing how shoppers discover products. Instead of scrolling product lists, consumers increasingly ask AI assistants for recommendations. Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, is the practice of shaping brand content so AI systems surface and synthesize it as trusted answers. For commerce media this means optimizing data feeds, product copy and structured content so brands appear in AI summaries that drive clicks and conversions.
Accelerating Ad Creative with AI
Marketers are using AI to produce creative variations at scale, cut production timelines and personalize assets for different retail placements. Early testing shows consumers accept AI-assisted ads when relevance and quality are maintained. Practical steps: create template systems that pair human strategy with AI generation, and run rapid A/B tests to validate performance before broad deployment.
The Measurement Mandate for Proving ROI
Retail and commerce media must show commercial impact. That means stronger attribution, cross-channel measurement and transparent incrementality testing. Expect rising adoption of identity-safe approaches: privacy-first data partnerships, clean rooms, authenticated first-party signals and unified measurement frameworks combining MMM, incrementality and event-level analytics. Industry initiatives are accelerating standards for cross-media comparability so advertisers can justify shifting budgets into commerce environments.
Actionable takeaway: treat CMNs as direct-response platforms with brand value, optimize content for AI-driven discovery, and commit to measurement frameworks that link spend to sales and margins.
