Shoppers warm up to sponsored ads
Advertisers and retail media networks have some good news as the holiday shopping seasons approaches.
Six-in-10 (61%) U.S. consumers don’t mind seeing sponsored ads for brands or products. This figure rises to 70% of millennial consumers and dips to 54% of baby boomers, with Gen Z and Gen X customers both basically adhering to the overall response rate.
[READ MORE: Survey: Millennial e-commerce habits include...]
Data from Bain & Company and its research partner ROI Rocket also indicates that 42% of all surveyed U.S. consumers think the sponsored ads they see are usually relevant, including 56% of millennial respondents but only 23% of baby boomers.
More than half (53%) of all respondents think sponsored ads can be helpful when done well, with millennial (60%) and baby boomer (43%) respondents again representing the outliers.
Brands invest in retail media
Results of the “Retail Media: The Holiday Gift That Keeps on Giving” study also reveal that retail media is a top-five brand holiday investment measuring by its expected investment increase from 2024 to 2025. The leading investments are:
- E-commerce
- Marketing & media
- Retail media
- Shopper marketing
- Trade
However, brands have worked with an average of five retail media networks in the past 12 months in 2025, down from six in 2024, which Bain analysis indicates is a sign of retail media network consolidation among ad buyers.
On average, ad buyers plan to increase 2025 holiday retail media investments by 11.6% year over year and say that 64% of uncommitted campaign spending on retail media is incremental for retailers.
The top five retail media strategies for retail media networks in the fourth quarter of 2025, determined by the percentage planning to deploy them, are:
- Dedicated holiday creative and shopper segments (55%).
- Early sales or reservation windows for key advertisers (47%).
- Increase in owned and operated inventory (43%).
- Increase in offsite inventory (42%).
- Increase in package availability (e.g., on-site, in-store 40%).
Bain & Company’s recently released annual U.S. retail holiday forecast predicts a 4% year-over-year increase in retail sales in November and December, reaching more than $975 billion.
