By Lara Forlino, Industry Analyst, Frost & Sullivan
Over a century ago, legendary retailer John Wanamaker lamented, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Today’s advertisers don’t have the luxury of waste. Brands and agencies now need to incorporate cutting-edge tools to reach the right audiences, deliver on relevant supply, optimize campaign success, and increase conversion rates. This is where Criteo comes in.
There are too many media options, yielding too much data, to reach too few customers. To compete in the fast-paced digital advertising environment, agencies need technology that can drive success and maximize return on advertising spend (ROAS). With consumers increasingly shopping online, retail media networks offer the perfect space for brands and agencies to target hyper-relevant audiences near the point of sale. Supply Side Platforms (SSPs) are investing heavily in forming strategic partnerships with retailers, guaranteeing advertisers access to premium and unique inventory, and providing the necessary tools to capitalize on the retail media opportunity. Criteo, however, is taking commerce media to the next level.
With a comprehensive set of specialized commerce technologies and almost two decades of expertise as an AdTech provider, Criteo has a proven track record of helping advertisers not only improve their sales metrics but also expand their supply optimization strategies. Here are three key benefits that agencies can unlock with Criteo:
1) A Simple Path to Driving Commerce Outcomes
Criteo’s SSP, Commerce Grid, offers access to proprietary audiences, insights, and commerce- focused formats. Having built direct integrations into 35,000 domains and apps, Criteo provides brands and agencies with a seamless way to access unique shopper data – audiences built from billions of real-time commerce signals and powered by Criteo’s leading AI technology. This shopper data can be packaged alongside premium, directly-sourced inventory to create data- powered deals that can be activated in any DSP. By sourcing this premium inventory directly, Criteo’s SSP ensures supply path optimization, further helping clients gain efficiencies while achieving their marketing outcomes.
2) Commerce Media: Retail Media Expanded
In addition to advanced programmatic curation capabilities, Commerce Grid also facilitates access to Commerce Supply https://www.criteo.com/blog/commerce-supply-inventory-with- purchase-intent/, inventory directly infused with purchase intent sources from users’ browsing or searching behavior. This strategic inventory can take many forms, and includes scenarios where users have actively searched for a product or category on an inspiration or price comparison site. This allows agencies and brands to harness the same level of purchase intent normally reserved only for Retail Media environments, but with the scale and efficiency of the open web.
3) Future-Proof Addressability Strategy
A major trend impacting the AdTech ecosystem is the deprecation of third-party cookies and the increasing regulations on the use of consumer data. Brands and agencies are seeking to partner with AdTech providers able to integrate modern targeting methods and privacy-focused technologies. Not coincidentally, this is an arena where Criteo excels. Through its multi- pronged addressability strategy—including support for Google’s Privacy Sandbox, first-party data activation, access to closed social and retail environments, and cookieless commerce signals—the company enables clients to remain compliant and maintain effective ad targeting. Additionally, Criteo is expanding its supply-side signals to capture consumers’ intent on the open web by piecing together product SKU level or commerce keywords highlighted within page content. These contextual signals help drive click-through to a retailer’s site for an on-site conversion while driving high relevancy and accuracy. This wealth of commerce data enables Criteo’s Commerce Audiences to give agencies the tools to create a differentiated commerce strategy with a data set representing trillions of customer journeys across 2.5 billion IDs. This extensive collection of valuable data allows buyers to improve targeting strategies, while sellers can package it with their own inventory to increase the value of their media properties.
The Bottom Line
With more customers worldwide embracing online shopping habits, the market demand for commerce media is set to accelerate in the coming years. Criteo’s differentiated value proposition, built on driving commerce outcomes, positions it as an ideal AdTech partner to fully capitalize on this opportunity. Currently, over 17,000 companies leverage Criteo’s AdTech solutions, achieving a remarkable 90% retention rate since 2011. By enabling agencies and brands to secure high-quality commerce supply cost-effectively while equipping them with unique value-added tools—such as curation, deal-packaging, audience segments, and post- cookie targeting technologies—Criteo’s innovative toolkit is driving change in the marketing landscape.
