Why New Standards Are Essential for Retail Media
Retail media growth has been held back by inconsistent metrics, fragmented creative specs and operational friction between retailers, brands and ad tech. IAB Europe’s updates aim to reduce ambiguity so networks and advertisers can compare performance, cut creative production time and protect the shopper experience.
Key Updates to Measurement Standards
The Commerce Media Measurement Standards V2 introduces a clear set of definitions and reporting rules. Highlights include:
- Standardised definitions for gross versus net sales and unified timeframes for reporting campaign outcomes.
- Consistent rules for measuring incrementality and attribution, and guidance on deduplication across channels.
- Required data mapping and event definitions that make cross-network comparisons feasible.
- Greater transparency on methodology and recommended reporting templates to improve auditability.
The Retail Media Certification Programme complements the standard by offering third-party validation. Certification will give brands confidence in reported KPIs and speed up procurement decisions.
Streamlining Creative with Flexi Ad Sizes
The Flexi Ad Sizes Guidelines introduce flexible aspect ratios and safe-area rules so a single creative can adapt across placements. The practical outcomes are lower production costs, faster time to market and fewer technical rejections. Templates and size rules also reduce latency and preserve shelf experience on product pages and apps.
Impact for Retailers and Brands
Adopting these standards produces tangible benefits: comparable campaign measurement, simplified operations, scalable creative workflows and clearer ROI. Retailers gain operational efficiency and improved shopper experience. Brands gain consistent performance benchmarks that enable smarter media allocation and faster campaign launches.
Looking Ahead: Embracing Standardization
For teams running retail media networks or buying on them, immediate steps are practical: map internal metrics to the new definitions, update tagging and measurement partners, adopt flexi creative templates and pursue certification where available. Aligning with these standards helps future-proof retail media investments and supports a more transparent, efficient ecosystem.
