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Before brands put more budget into retail media, they need a clear read on what each network can do for them.
In Market Guide for Retail Media Networks, Gartner® writes that “CMOs and their teams are slowed by the increasingly fragmented and labor-intensive nature of performance advertising across multiple retail media networks. Furthermore, advertising inventory on RMNs is often more expensive, which means advertisers must weigh the benefits of reaching highly valuable audiences at a higher cost against reaching larger, less precisely targeted audiences at a lower cost per impression.”
For brands, the next step is to see where each network falls on that trade-off.
What sets one network apart
Rithum builds retail media plans retailer by retailer, because every network works like its own environment. The report spells out where networks differ: “On the retailer capability side, key differentiators include data portability, measurement options, media buying across different channels and campaign optimization capabilities (like connecting ad spend to new incremental customers or habitual buyers, networkwide frequency controls and ad suppression for shoppers that previously converted).”
Measurement is one of those differentiators, and Gartner® notes a gap: “Despite advancements in reporting, many retailers lack a full self-service reporting model with closed-loop measurement.”
Reporting also affects what ROAS can tell a brand, which is part of why a high ROAS doesn’t always mean high profit.
Growing beyond key partnerships
The report includes the Gartner® Retail Media Network Prioritization Matrix, which plots advertiser maturity against retail media network capabilities and impact on sales. Alongside the matrix, Gartner® writes: “Once RMN advertising teams have sufficiently mastered the campaign levers of key retail media partnerships, CMOs should focus on expanding existing relationships, developing new measurement opportunities for further optimization and leveraging automation to free bandwidth. That extra bandwidth can then be reinvested to identify new, differentiated partners and tools to drive additional growth.”
At Rithum, automation handles campaign work like bidding and dayparting, so a weekly optimization routine can roll one change across many campaigns at once.
Want the full picture? Download the report for the complete findings, including the prioritization matrix and a list of representative retail media networks.
Gartner, Market Guide for Retail Media Networks, Greg Carlucci, 4 August 2025.
GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.
