• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 1, 2026

Retail media networks (RMNs) are a growing channel, and they’re getting a good bit of buzz at the moment. But you just can’t go out and start one and hope that advertisers will flock to your door, judging by a study from GrowthLoop, conducted by Ascend2.  

Of the advertisers surveyed, 76% use RMNs and 65% commerce media networks (CMNs). In addition, 73% allocate at least 15% of their digital ad budgets to RMN/CMN, and 30% budget 29% or more.  And 85% plan to increase their spend in the next 12 months.  

But that doesn’t mean they are happy with what they are getting. Here are the most common causes of reductions, pauses or reconsiderations of RMN/CMN investment:

• Cost relative to other channels—36% 
• Difficulty proving ROI to leadership—32%
• Limitations in audience availability or quality—30%
• Measurement and attribution gaps—30% 
• Internal resource constraints—29% 
• Slow audience or campaign activation—27%
• Inconsistent experience across RMN/CMN partners—27%
• None of these—20%

Measurement is a top priority for these advertisers, but only 40% are confident in the incrementality measurement provided by their RMN/CMN partners. They would like to see faster access to campaign results (38%), sales lift and/or new-to-brand customer reporting (38%) and consistent metrics across partners (38%). Another 37% seek clearer explanation of measurement methodology.  

Email teams should keep their eyes on this since their lists depend on channels like these, while the networks and advertisers see email as contributing to audience activation. 

As it stands, email is the common audience activation channel, as shown here:

• Email—58%
• On-site display—46% 
• On-site search/sponsored products—46%
• Off-site social—43% 
• In-store digital screens—38%
• Direct mail—38% 
• SMS/push notifications—34%
• In-store display (non-digital)—32%
• Off-site video/CTV—28% 
• Off-site programmatic display—25%

But RMNs and CMNs face challenges in integrating these channels. 

"While advertisesrs are activating audiences across an increasingly diverse mix of owned, on-site, off-site, and in-store channels, only 44% are very satisfied with their partners' ability to deliver a consistent audience experience across them," the study notes.

It adds, "For RMNs and CMNs, the opportunity is now simply to add more activation endpoints--it is to make those channels feel like one connected media ecosystem."

GrowthLoop and Ascend2 surveyed  291 marketing professionals in the US and Canada in August 2026. The respondents are active in RMNs and/or CMNs.