Where to spend, how much, on which products, and how to measure it — across 11+ retail media networks.
What is retail media strategy?
Retail media strategy is the plan governing how a brand allocates advertising budget across retailer networks — Amazon, Walmart Connect, Instacart, Kroger, Target and others — and how performance is measured. It sets which retailers to invest in, at what level, against which objectives, and how success is defined before campaigns launch.
What is retail media strategy?
Retail media strategy is the discipline of deciding where to advertise, how much to spend, which products to prioritize, and how to measure what's working — across an increasingly complex ecosystem of retail media networks.
US retail media ad spend reached $60.32 billion in 2025 and is forecast at $71.09 billion in 2026, now representing roughly 30% of all US digital ad spending.[1] Amazon and Walmart alone are forecast to capture 89% of the incremental spend. At that scale and that level of concentration, the brands winning are not the ones spending the most. They are the ones with the clearest view of where their money should sit.
A mature retail media strategy goes beyond campaign management. It encompasses portfolio prioritization, platform selection by category, budget allocation by funnel stage, always-on vs. promotional planning, and an incrementality-first measurement framework that distinguishes real growth from recycled demand.
Portfolio Prioritization
Which ASINs or SKUs deserve ad support? Hero SKUs, new launches, and defensive plays each require different budget logic and KPI targets.
Platform Selection
Match platform to category and objective. Grocery brands prioritize Instacart and Kroger. Broad CPG needs Amazon and Walmart. DTC needs Google and Meta alongside retail media.
Budget Allocation
Divide budget across platforms, funnel stages (search vs. display vs. CTV), and campaign types — with clear gating conditions that trigger reallocation based on performance signals.
Incrementality Measurement
Attribution-based ROAS overstates performance. Incrementality testing reveals which spend is creating new demand — and which is capturing sales that would have happened anyway.
Strategy pillars
Retail media is most efficient when always-on campaigns (brand defence, category search, retargeting) run continuously — with promotional bursts layered on top for key sales moments. Brands that run retail media only during promotions pay premium CPCs without the baseline data needed to optimize.
Budget decisions should flow from ROAS, iROAS, NTB rate, and category share data — not last year's plan. We build dynamic allocation frameworks that shift spend toward platforms and products delivering incremental growth, with explicit decision rules for when to scale or pull back.
With 10+ retail media networks each using different attribution windows, metrics, and definitions, consolidating performance into a single view is as strategic as the campaigns themselves. We build cross-platform reporting that makes the data comparable and actionable.
The TNOMADS approach
Category diagnostics first
Before recommending spend, we audit category dynamics — competitor ad presence, share of voice gaps, seasonal demand curves, and platform-specific conversion rates — to identify where incremental opportunity actually exists.
Platform selection logic
Not every brand should be on every platform. We map your category, distribution footprint, margin profile, and growth objectives to determine which 2–4 networks deserve meaningful investment — and why.
90-day action plans
Every strategy engagement delivers a prioritised 90-day roadmap with clear decision gates, spend thresholds, and measurement milestones — so the strategy is executable, not theoretical.
The vocabulary
Comparisons
The central allocation question, and one where the honest answer depends on your distribution rather than on a trend.
| Amazon-concentrated | Diversified | |
|---|---|---|
| Best when | Most of your sales genuinely happen on Amazon | Meaningful revenue sits with Walmart, grocery or club channels |
| Advantages | Deepest tooling, clean room measurement, mature auctions | Reaches shoppers Amazon does not; less auction pressure |
| Risks | Rising CPCs, platform dependency, no visibility outside Amazon | Operational complexity; fragmented and non-comparable reporting |
| Measurement | AMC gives genuine depth | No cross-network clean room; measurement must be assembled |
Two ways to decide where money goes, producing very different portfolios.
| ROAS-led | Incrementality-led | |
|---|---|---|
| Decision basis | Reported return by campaign | Measured causal lift |
| Tends to favour | Branded terms, retargeting, existing customers | Acquisition, upper funnel, new audiences |
| Cost | Low — uses existing reporting | Higher — requires test design and held-out spend |
| Failure mode | Efficiently buying sales you already had | Over-engineering measurement on budgets too small to test |
The delivery model question, stated plainly rather than as a pitch.
| In-house | Full-service agency | Specialist consultant | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best when | Volume justifies dedicated headcount and platforms are few | You need scale, many markets, and broad channel coverage | You need depth in specific platforms or a defined problem solved |
| Cost model | Salaries and tooling | Retainer, often percentage of spend | Retainer or project |
| Risk | Key-person dependency; limited cross-account pattern recognition | Junior delivery behind senior pitch; incentive tied to spend | Capacity limits; less suited to very broad multi-market scale |
Real results
Challenge
Each retail media network was managed independently, making strategic investment decisions difficult.
Our approach
Business impact
Leadership gained a consistent decision-making framework across Amazon, Walmart, Instacart and additional retail media platforms.
Case studies are presented by industry rather than by client name. Figures are drawn from live account analysis. Engagements marked prior agency engagement were delivered by Ana Perez Ibarz in a previous agency role; the work and results are hers, the client relationships were the agency's. TNOMADS does not identify clients or publish client performance data without written consent.
Frequently asked questions
Why TNOMADS
About the author
Sources
Related services
The diagnostic that should precede any new strategy.
How to test whether the plan is actually adding sales.
Usually the largest single line in the plan.
The second network for most CPG brands with Walmart distribution.
Multi-retailer grocery reach in a single buy.
The upper-funnel layer that keeps the search layer from stalling.
Ready to build a strategy that works?