Commerce Media: A guide for publishers and advertisers

Imagine you’re a luxury hotelier looking to reach frequent global travelers when they book their next trip. You can use owned channels to highlight promotions to dedicated loyalty members — or even wait until potential customers search for tickets on a search engine or an AI platform to serve ads. But to connect with customers at the point of highest intent, wouldn’t it be more effective to serve personalized messaging alongside a series of partner brands — from industries such as travel, retail and banking — soon after they have booked their flight?  

With commerce media, it’s possible.

Commerce media is an advertising model that connects with customers throughout the buying journey across both physical and digital touchpoints, driven directly by insights from transaction data. In short, it allows a business to selectively promote a product or service based on aggregated and anonymized commerce insights through a network of trusted publishers. A commerce media network (CMN), on the other hand, is the digital advertising ecosystem that enables this approach, connecting advertisers, publishers and consumers. 

Retailers, payment networks, marketplaces and other commerce platforms collect rich transaction insights through direct customer relationships. Commerce media networks use these aggregated and anonymized insights to create audience segments based on verified spending patterns. This enables brands to reach consumers based on permissioned commerce signals rather than inferred interests and obtain closed-loop measurement directly connecting media investment to business outcomes.  

It creates value for all involved. Advertisers demonstrate and maximize impact, shoppers get more relevant content and offers, and publishers unlock new revenue streams and opportunities to deepen consumer engagement and increase loyalty. In that sense, commerce media does not just place an ad near a transaction; it creates a clearer line of sight between the message, the moment and the measurable outcome. 

This shift is not cosmetic. In 2026, commerce media represents one of the fastest-growing segments in digital advertising, offering brands closed-loop measurement that directly ties media spend to actual sales. It’s taken years to reach this point — but with advances in technology, wider merchant reach and tighter attribution, commerce media has begun to power a new form of smarter, more relevant advertising.  

In what follows, we’ll cover the fundamentals of commerce media — and how to implement your own commerce media strategy. 

Commerce media is broader than retail media. Retail media generally refers to ads placed within or through a retailer’s ecosystem, such as sponsored product listings, onsite display, offsite audience extension or in-store media. Commerce media, on the other hand, includes retail media, but extends well beyond retailers into financial services, travel, hospitality, restaurants, loyalty platforms, marketplaces, apps and other environments. 
 
Let’s go over the key differences: 

The distinction matters because retail media networks, while valuable, have inherent limitations. A brand advertising on a single retailer's media network can only reach that retailer's customers and can only measure sales that occur within that retailer's ecosystem. Commerce media networks powered by payment data insights can reach consumers across retailers and measure purchases wherever they occur. 

Despite their limitations, retail media networks have exploded in recent years; eMarketer projects retail media to be one of the fastest-growing areas through 2028, when spending will be close to $100 billion. Optimizing retail media network spend with testing can help brands maximize returns from these investments. But they are simply one piece of a rapidly evolving puzzle.   

Ultimately, brands should consider retail media when their primary goal is driving sales at a specific retailer where they have distribution.  Commerce media becomes the better choice when brands need to reach consumers across multiple retailers, measure total market impact, or activate campaigns across channels beyond retailer-owned properties. Many sophisticated advertisers use both approaches as part of an integrated strategy, with retail media driving performance at key accounts and commerce media providing broader reach and cross-channel measurement.

Commerce media ecosystem works by connecting three groups: advertisers, publishers and consumers. The commerce media network sits in the middle, using permissioned data, audience segmentation, activation tools and measurement to help determine whether the message reaches the right audience — and whether it has made a measurable difference.

• Advertisers: Brands use commerce media to reach consumers with more relevant content, offers or experiences tied to specific goals — whether that’s awareness, engagement, demand, sales or loyalty. Instead of targeting only broad audiences, advertisers can activate against permissioned or consented commerce signals that indicate stronger purchase intent.
• Publishers: Publishers provide the environments where audiences already spend time — websites, apps, emails, loyalty programs, cardholder experiences or other digital inventory. Commerce media helps turn those touchpoints into more valuable placements by connecting them with advertiser demand and more relevant audience insights.
• Consumers: Consumers see content or offers intended to better match their wants and needs. Under the hood, commerce media networks use advanced AI-driven tools to connect advertiser goals with purchase intent — and, in more mature models, link exposure to outcomes such as online or offline purchases where data insights and methodology support it.
• Commerce media networks: The promise of a network is deceptively simple: Place tailored messages into trusted environments at moments that matter, then measure whether those messages made a difference. The execution, of course, is more complicated. It requires millions of data points, secure and trusted partnerships, vaunted industry connections and measurement capabilities — all of which undergo strict legal, technical and organizational controls.

Payments also play a central role in commerce media. Payment networks process billions of transactions, opening a window into spending behavior patterns across merchants, categories and geographies. This helps them to meet consumers’ wants and needs across devices and channels — reducing reliance on third-party cookies or device identifiers.

Here is how a commerce media network enables delivery of relevant content, measurement and ROI in practice:

• Audience creation: The commerce media network analyzes aggregated, anonymized transaction data insights to build audience segments based on their spending patterns. Where supported by the applicable data permissions and methodology, a segment might include consumers who have purchased premium skincare products in the past 30 days, or households that regularly shop at organic grocery stores.
• Campaign activation: An advertiser selects relevant audience segments and provides creative assets. The commerce media network activates the campaign across participating publishers — which might include online retailers, banks, airlines or streaming platforms.
• Ad delivery: When a consumer in the target segment visits a participating publisher, the commerce media network enables the advertiser's ad to be served.
• Transaction matching: After ad exposure, the commerce media network measures campaign performance using transaction data insights where appropriate permissions and controls exist.
• Closed-loop reporting: The advertiser receives aggregated performance data insights showing, where supported by the applicable data, permissions, methodology and market requirements, how many exposed customers made purchases, total attributed sales, average order value and return on ad spend (ROAS). This closed-loop measurement directly connects media investment to business outcomes.

Commerce media has overcome a challenge that marketers have been wrestling with for years: How to make widescale advertising more measurable, scalable and better tied to business outcomes.  

Here are some of the key benefits of commerce media advertising: 

Commerce media helps brands appear closer to the point of decision. Instead of relying only on broad demographic assumptions, advertisers can use commerce signals to reach audiences who have purchased in a category or shown spending patterns that indicate readiness to buy. 

That relevance leads to results. Think fewer wasted impressions and increased conversion rates. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that 86% of surveyed retail and commerce media buyers believe commerce media powered by first-party data drives higher performance than other forms of digital marketing.

Traditionally, marketers have been asked to defend brand investment with instruments built for a less accountable age, relying on proxy metrics such as impressions, views and clicks. Commerce media’s biggest appeal may be its ability to connect media exposure to measurable outcomes through closed-loop attribution. 

Closed-loop measurement means being able to see which media impressions actually led to a sale and other valuable metrics, such as incrementality, sales lift, ROAS, campaign performance and even customer lifetime value when the partner has the right data insights and controls. 

A media buy that can explain what happened after exposure is easier to defend when budgets tighten. It also gives marketers a sturdier answer to a familiar question: What did we get for the money? Senior leaders are often keener on scaling marketing strategies when they can clearly see the impact. 

As third-party cookies phase out and privacy regulations tighten, commerce media offers a path forward. Transaction data insights provide accurate measurement without relying on deprecated methods. Advertisers can reach the right audiences while respecting consumer privacy preferences. 

Commerce media creates a new revenue stream for publishers beyond traditional display of advertising. A publisher with engaged audiences can monetize inventory more effectively when that inventory is paired with relevant advertiser demand and outcome-based measurement. For advertisers, this can mean access to premium, brand-safe environments. For publishers, it creates a path to monetize attention without treating audiences as anonymous impressions.

Publishers can participate in commerce media through several models:

• Data monetization: Licensing anonymized audience segments to advertisers within the network
• Performance-based inventory: Selling placements priced on outcomes (conversions, sales) rather than impressions
• Co-branded offers: Partnering with advertisers on card-linked offers or exclusive promotions that drive measurable transactions

Commerce media is only as strong as the strategy behind it. To make it work, marketers need to define the outcome first, choose partners carefully, tailor their messaging and build measurement into the plan from the start. Let’s walk through it step-by-step. 

A commerce media strategy should begin with the business problem, not the media format. Are you trying to acquire new customers, increase repeat purchase, grow basket size, grow market share, promote a new product or improve loyalty? The answer should shape the audience, creative, offer strategy, measurement design and partner selection. 

This is also where funnel intent matters. A top-of-funnel campaign may prioritize qualified reach, brand lift, engagement or audience learning. A mid-of-funnel campaign may focus on consideration, offer engagement or traffic to product pages. A lower-funnel campaign may optimize toward incremental sales, repeat purchase or ROAS. The same ecosystem can serve different jobs, but only if the brief is honest about the job to be done.

Not every commerce media partner offers the same value. Marketers should evaluate the quality of commerce signals, the scale and relevance of the audience, available inventory, brand safety, measurement methodology and transparency.

Commerce media is not a silver bullet that makes up for misaligned creative. Top-of-funnel creative should educate quickly, middle-of-funnel creative should make the value proposition concrete and bottom-of-funnel creative should give people a reason to act. 

A practical guideline: if the placement is close to purchase, be useful. If the placement is earlier in the journey, be memorable. The best campaigns do both.

Brands should align on KPIs, attribution windows, control groups and test design where possible, and develop a reporting cadence before the first impression is served.  

Consider tools that measure incrementality as well. The ultimate question for any campaign is whether it drove sales that would not have happened otherwise. Incrementality testing answers this by comparing outcomes between audiences exposed to advertising and matched control groups who were not.

The smartest commerce media strategies start small enough to learn and structured enough to scale. That could mean testing audiences, offers, creative variants, partner environments or measurement models before committing larger budgets.

Commerce media is at an inflection point. The networks and strategies that succeed over the next three to five years will be those that leverage transaction data insights, embrace privacy-first solutions and deliver measurable outcomes at scale. 

Overall, the financial outlook for commerce media is bright. McKinsey has projected that the U.S. commerce media market will reach more than $100 billion by 2027.  

At the same time, media buyers are asking harder questions about transparency, standardization and performance. AI will likely accelerate that shift. As discovery and shopping move into more automated environments, advertising will need to become more relevant, permissioned, measurable and context-aware to keep up with consumer expectations. 

Commerce media is becoming more important because advertisers need relevance, scale and measurable outcomes. Mastercard Commerce Media was built to support that need. 

Mastercard Commerce Media is an end-to-end digital media network designed to help advertisers reach high-intent consumers with personalized content across a trusted partner ecosystem, while helping publishers unlock new revenue opportunities. 

For advertisers, Mastercard Commerce Media offers access to high-intent audiences informed by billions of transactions across categories and channels. For publishers, our network of 25,000+ advertisers creates ample opportunity to monetize permitted commerce data insights and inventory using performance-based models. 

Partners across industries — from travel to entertainment to retail — work with Mastercard to reach consumers at moments of intent and measure the outcomes that matter. 

Get started with Mastercard Commerce Media to explore how commerce insights can power your advertising strategy.