Agencies are increasingly acting as commerce media guides, helping brands move past outdated structures, sort through measurement standards, and bring AI into their planning.

While commerce media networks (CMNs) have expanded to capture more than just retail media dollars, the silos between brand, retail, and sales teams make integration a challenge.

“Retail media networks (RMNs) have now become publishers…but a lot of our clients have legacy structures,” said Lauren Boyle Sanvidge, head of commerce at PHD Media during EMARKETER’s Commerce Media Summit. “Our job as an agency is connecting those dots.”

Here’s what’s shifting in the agency-CMN relationship.

The ownership question is still unsettled

Retail media has matured, but many organizations haven’'t evolved their internal structures to match. No matter which team owns the budget, cross-functional buy-in

is critical, said Ethan Goodman, president of digital commerce at Publicis Commerce.

Integration is still new. Only 12% of commerce media decision-makers have advanced full-funnel offerings, according to November Koddi and Forrester Consulting data.

“You need stakeholders from sales and customer and ecommerce, just as you do on the media and marketing side of the house, to come together and make sure that they're maximizing those activities,” said Goodman.

Agencies are positioning themselves as a safer alternative to retailers with joint business plans, who act as both media seller and commercial partner.

“Retail media networks are telling us that attributed sales and ROAS continue to go up and up and up, but when you look at their total omni business, it's either flat or declining,” said Goodman.

Filling in the standardization gap

Each CMN uses its own measurement methods, and true industry standardization hasn’t materialized, encouraging agencies to build their own solutions.

“In order for [standardization] to happen, all the retailers need to hold hands and say ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and I don’t think they’re incentivized to do that,” said Goodman.

Publicis has developed measurement and reporting tools that normalize performance data across networks.

“We’ve written algorithms and models on top of that to help with the normalization,” said Goodman. “We hear all the time that clients don’t want retailers grading their own homework, and if we can help remedy that issue, we certainly want to be a solution.”

Omnicom is layering marketing mix modeling with its tools, using metrics like lifetime value and new-to-brand customers. The goal is to assess total business impact, as incomplete or inconsistent data makes many brands doubt measurement accuracy, said Sanvidge.

• Siloed or incomplete data is the reason US brand and agency partners question the accuracy of marketing measurement, according to July TransUnion and EMARKETER data.

“We’re not looking at the specific ad sale, but how media as a whole drives total sales,” she said.

Considering AI search, full-funnel retail media

Agencies are testing sponsored prompts on Amazon Rufus and Walmart Sparky while building tools to track brand visibility in AI-generated responses. Goodman mentioned SimilarWeb data that found 20% of Walmart.com’s referral traffic in August came from ChatGPT.

“What happens in a world where the primary place where I’m monetizing this thing doesn’t become important in the shopping process anymore?” Goodman asked.

The experimental stage of AI in retail media has created practical challenges, said Sanvidge, requiring a shift away from the keyword or buzzword strategy.

“[Consumers] are shifting to more of a conversation with tech, which has a lot of implications on how we show up,” said Sandvidge. “We have a task force that is focused on understanding that aspect.”

Despite economic pressure, panelists encouraged clients to resist an exclusively lower-funnel strategy.

“Budget sufficiency is number one,” said Sanvidge. “But as you walk away from awareness or consideration, you’re actually hurting yourself in the long run.”

Watch the full session.

This was originally featured in the Commerce Media Weekly newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here