Retail Media Growth Depends on Faster Execution
New research from GrowthLoop and Ascend2 shows how slow audience activation and delayed reporting put retail media budgets at risk
A retail media campaign can reach the right shoppers and still arrive too late. For a brand coordinating a weekend promotion across hundreds of locations, several days spent waiting for an audience segment can consume much of the opportunity to influence a purchase.
New research from GrowthLoop and Ascend2 suggests that execution speed is becoming a factor in where advertisers place their budgets. Networks competing on shopper data and inventory also need to deliver audiences and usable results quickly enough to support the decisions marketers make every day.
Audience Access Has a Deadline
The companies’ 2026 Commerce Media Investment Index surveyed 291 marketing professionals in the United States and Canada during August. Respondents were directly involved in retail or commerce media strategy and used at least one network. Eighty-six percent said slow audience fulfillment would cause them to reduce spending or leave a partner, while 85% said they would pay a premium for same-day fulfillment.
Those responses describe purchasing intentions, rather than documented departures. GrowthLoop also sells audience-activation technology, giving it a commercial interest in the problem. Still, the findings identify a practical source of friction: access to valuable customer data has limited usefulness when activating it requires a lengthy request process.
For multi-location campaigns, timing becomes more complicated as execution moves across markets. A promotion may depend on local inventory, weather, regional demand or an offer available at participating locations. Each additional audience request or approval creates another dependency between the campaign plan and its launch.
Marketers need to know how long a network takes to build, approve and activate an audience—and whether that timeline accommodates changes once a campaign is underway. Those expectations belong in partner selection alongside reach, targeting capabilities and price.
Reporting Must Inform the Following Campaign
Execution also depends on what happens after media runs. As MarTech reported, nearly half of surveyed advertisers wait more than a week for post-campaign performance data. Only 32% said they can consistently use results to improve future audience targeting, while difficulty proving ROI has caused a similar share to reduce, pause or reconsider investment.
For marketers running consecutive promotions, delayed reporting can mean committing the next budget before understanding the previous campaign. Teams may repeat audience choices or creative approaches because the evidence needed to change them has not arrived.
Faster reporting needs useful detail. A national sales total may help evaluate overall performance but offer little guidance about which markets deserve additional investment. Where campaign design and data allow, regional or location-level analysis can help guide media investment around the availability, demand and operating conditions affecting individual stores.
Speed also needs to match the measurement method. Sales reporting can support near-term adjustments, while credible incrementality analysis may require longer observation periods. Networks should explain what advertisers can learn during a campaign, what requires further analysis and when each result will become available.
Make Execution Part of the Buying Decision
Retail media buyers increasingly need direct audience-building capabilities, integration with their own customer data, and consistent campaign management across channels and markets. Reporting must also arrive in time to inform the next spending decision.
Self-service tools can reduce handoffs, but they still require clear permissions, consistent audience definitions and reliable data. As retailer audiences extend into connected TV and other external channels, agencies need workflows that avoid rebuilding the same campaign logic inside every partner’s system.
For retailers, improving those processes can strengthen advertiser relationships without adding another placement or format. Clear turnaround commitments, reusable audience structures and predictable reporting make a network easier to incorporate into recurring media operations.
Retail media’s commercial value depends on turning shopper insight into timely action. Networks that help marketers launch, learn and adjust within the rhythm of their business will be better positioned to retain the budgets they attract.
