The insight: Consumers have grown more accepting of sponsored ads—according to a recent survey by Bain and ROI Rocket.

Behind the numbers: Roughly 3 in 5 US consumers (61%) say they don’t mind seeing sponsored ads for relevant brands and products, up 14 percentage points from last year.

But the key word here is “relevant.” Just 42% agree that the sponsored ads they see are usually pertinent to them. While that’s also a notable jump from last year’s 24%, it shows that advertisers—and the retailers they’re buying inventory from—have a lot more work to do to deliver maximum outcomes from their ads, and consequently ROI.

Though what consumers say they like doesn’t always line up with their real-life behavior, shoppers’ largely positive sentiment toward sponsored ads suggests that they have come to accept them as an integral part of ecommerce. That could be because retailers’ advertising ambitions have made the format ubiquitous: The average shopper on Walmart and Amazon encounters 20 to 24 ads per page of search results, according to a Pentaleap analysis, with retailers like Macy’s and CVS not far behind.

What this means for brands: Shoppers’ acceptance of sponsored listings makes it unlikely for brands to shift dollars away from retail media search, particularly heading into an uncertain holiday season. We expect the channel to account for 63.8% of total retail media spending, or $37.5 billion in revenues, this year.

But consumers’ desire for ad relevancy—and brands’ struggle to deliver it—means that more work needs to be done to hone targeting strategies.

• Some of that work will have to be done by retail media networks (RMNs) themselves to offer clients smarter audience segmentation and more precise targeting.
• In the meantime, brands should focus their budgets on keywords that correspond closely with how people are searching for products and that demonstrate clear purchase intent, as well as lean on RMNs’ first-party data to inform their ad buys.