Retail media networks enter consolidation phase
New research indicates brands are getting choosier about where and how they spend retail media network advertising dollars.
One-in-four (26.1%) brand and agency senior marketing leaders are planning to pull spending from retail media networks to fund other channels. However, almost half (47.8%) marketing leaders surveyed by Keen Decision Systems still expect an overall budget increase for retail media networks and chatbot AI advertising.
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These results suggest that retail media network marketing is now entering its consolidation phase, according to Keen Decision Systems analysis, with marketers demanding proof of performance before allocating funds to any specific retail media network.
The survey shows that, overall, 65.2% of respondents expect to see their advertising budgets increase in 2026 compared to last year, with social media seeing the biggest increase in investment at 69.6%, followed by retail media networks and AI chatbot advertising.
In addition to 26.1% of respondents saying they will pull spend from retail media networks to fund other channels, 21.7% will pull from linear TV and 17.4% will pull from digital audio for the same purpose.
“As economic constraints impact budgets for retail marketers, they’re becoming more selective in their ad investments– a flight to quality,” said Bradley Keefer, chief revenue officer at Keen Decision Systems. “While retail media still remains popular, they’re choosing networks that are low-cost, but deliver higher efficiency. With more economic uncertainty expected this year, we expect these trends to continue.”
Other key findings include:
- Due to economic constraints, 34.8% of respondents have shifted to lower-cost, high-efficiency channels, while another 34.8% cited economic uncertainty as being the biggest barrier to justifying marketing budget requests to their CFO.
- 26.1% of respondents feel that click-through-rates (CTR) are the most overrated or misleading marketing metrics. Three-in-10 (30.4%) would instead prefer to use customer lifetime value (CLV), followed by total revenue at 26.1%, to define the success of their media mix.
- Almost four-in-10 (39.1%) respondents are taking a cautious approach on advertising within generative AI interfaces. Only 21.7% are actively spending on ads within generative AI interfaces like ChatGPT. In terms of overall AI usage, 60.9% are using it for media planning while 56.5% are using it for brainstorming. The loss of human connection (47.8%) was the biggest concern regarding the rise of AI in advertising among respondents.
- More than one-in-four (26.1%) respondents said that creative requirements by channel generate the most uncertainty in media planning right now. Budget cuts and channel allocation, at 21.7% each, were the next most cited issues.
- Data quality (34.8%) and too many stakeholders changing plans mid-flight (26.1%) were the biggest issues to respondents having more reliable forecasts.
Keen Decision Systems, a next-generation marketing mix SaaS company, surveyed 120 brand and agency senior leaders in February 2026 to understand their concerns around marketing mix and AI investments.
