B2B social media has evolved from an awareness tool into a central part of how brands build trust, influence buying decisions, and drive business growth. AI, video, and influencer marketing are reshaping strategies and raising expectations for measurable impact.

YouTube’s strength is that it’s many things to many people. But that also makes it harder for marketers to reach audiences on the platform. This report outlines YouTube’s challenges and explains how marketers can make the most of the YouTube opportunity.

Criteo is modernizing retail media by launching a global auction-based ad platform and integrating with Mirakl to enable self-serve advertising for over 100,000 third-party sellers. This dual move addresses two persistent challenges: outdated fixed-price ad systems used by most retailers, and untapped ad spend from marketplace sellers. The auction system gives advertisers more control and performance insights, while Mirakl opens up a scalable, automated path for small sellers. Criteo also brings standardized attribution and reporting across retail partners—fixing transparency gaps. These changes position Criteo as a full-spectrum solution for brands, retailers, and sellers looking to compete in a fast-evolving market.

As retail media networks expand, one of the biggest challenges facing marketers is measurement. In fact, 42% of US retail media buyers believe that more effective and accurate campaign measurement is the most important issue in retail media advertising today, according to March 2025 data from Koddi. To help advertisers better assess the effectiveness of their campaigns, Sam’s Club Member Access Platform (MAP) has introduced Omni-Impact—a new AI-powered measurement solution.

The news: Cannes Lions 2025 marked a shift in retail media strategy, with platforms like Pinterest and Reddit forging deeper ties with retailers. CVS announced a clean room data partnership with Reddit to allow targeting based on shared first-party data, launching a Sensodyne and Advil campaign this fall. Pinterest partnered with Instacart to enable shopping from pins and connect ad exposure to sales via closed-loop attribution. Our take: Social platforms are becoming full-funnel retail media environments. By fusing community context with purchase signals, these integrations aim to blend discovery and commerce in real time—paving the way for more data-rich, measurable campaigns.

Connected TV (CTV) is booming in households and becoming significantly more important for advertisers.

There are now more than 80 retail media networks (RMNs) in the US. The volume of RMNs, combined with the dominance of Amazon and other established competitors, makes it challenging for new and niche RMNs to capture share.

GenAI search is gaining traction, but not all consumers are seeking out the conversational experiences that will eventually disrupt the search ad market.

On this special edition podcast, we examine practical ways to track commerce media ROI—covering KPI selection, attribution, and cross channel measurement. EMARKETER Principal Analyst, Sky Canaves talks with Maev’s Michael Campi, PepsiCo’s Mike Glaser, and LiveRamp’s Christine Grammier in this panel from the May 9th EMARKETER virtual summit, Commerce Media Trends 2025. Listen everywhere you find podcasts, or watch on YouTube and Spotify.

In this report, CMOs share how they’re transforming influencer strategies to deliver business impact—and what solution providers can do to help.

“As retail media has grown, the landscape has become increasingly complex and fragmented, said EMARKETER principal analyst Sky Canaves during last week’s EMARKETER's summit on Commerce Media Trends 2025. “Comparisons are hard when standards vary across channels and platforms.”

Latin America’s commerce media ecosystem is rapidly evolving. Financial, travel, and other nonretail players are now looking to monetize their own first-party data—following the path retailers have already paved.

WPP acquires InfoSum for AI-driven, privacy-first data tools: The move enhances WPP Open with secure clean room tech as marketers shift from ID to AI.

Spotify boosts global ad tools: New programmatic, targeting, and AI creative features position Spotify as a full-funnel solution for global marketers.

B2B influencer marketing has become a key strategy for driving trust and engagement. Buyers turn to industry experts, micro-influencers, and thought leaders for credible insights. Marketers should use video and events to maximize reach as well as AI for efficiency and measurable ROI.

Data fuels marketing, but it’s tough to track and even harder to make sense of. Businesses juggle measuring customer behavior, respecting privacy, and personalizing experiences—all while marketers try to prove their campaigns are worth the investment. Analytics and attribution tools help by showing what’s working, where to focus, and how to improve.

Google made its marketing mix model (MMM), Meridian, available to the public last week and launched a program of over 20 trained and certified measurement partners to help marketers use the tool.

As marketers attempt to piece together a full, nuanced picture of how their paid media affects outcomes, old-fashioned measurement tactics are coming back into vogue, and new players are rising to prominence.

PayPal Ads offers unique ad targeting via transaction data: Access to PayPal’s 400 million users aims to transform digital advertising for small and medium-sized businesses.

We spoke with four CMOs on their approaches to data management, communication, and fostering a culture of innovation to maximize marketing effectiveness.