On today’s special edition podcast, EMARKETER analysts Sarah Marzano and Max Willens explore how commerce media is reshaping advertising—covering platform innovation, measurement, and its overlap with CTV and social—before a fireside chat with Chase Media Solutions’ Lauren Griewski. Recorded live at the EMARKETER Commerce Media Trends 2025 virtual summit on May 9th. Listen wherever you find podcasts, or watch on YouTube and Spotify.

Measurement should do more than recap results—it should help guide your next move. By aligning metrics with true campaign goals, marketers can turn insights into smarter decisions and create space for long-term growth.

“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.”

With US commerce media ad spending projected to reach nearly $70 billion in 2025, understanding how to effectively operate in this space has become critical for marketers.

Attention measurement is maturing: The hotly sought-after metric is getting industry standards thanks to the IAB and MRC.

As tariffs put pressure on retail media budgets, advertisers are, in turn, pressuring retail media networks (RMNs) for more sophisticated measurement tools that provide them with richer data across the entire funnel.

VideoAmp focuses on outcomes as CTV spend thrives: An exclusive EMARKETER interview demonstrates how the measurement challenger is elevating big data.

With TikTok in limbo, Neptune is pitching itself as a mental-health-conscious, creator-first alternative, but it’ll need more than good vibes to scale

VideoAmp gains on Nielsen, partners with Televisa: The company’s Upfront event highlighted the major changes across the measurement landscape.

AI is reshaping media campaigns—but most companies haven’t fully integrated it yet, according to the State of Data 2025 report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). While publishers are leading, agencies and brands are catching up, with many expecting full deployment within the next few years. However, challenges like complexity and data security are prompting the need for clearer strategies, use case definitions, and performance metrics.

As customers grab the same grocery staples they have for decades, Walmart is betting that gamifying the experience will challenge those habits. The retailer plans to launch Walmart Unlimited, a three-part miniseries that features the entrepreneurs behind its products. Launched last month on Spatial, the game includes full commerce integration that enables in-app purchases.

Retail media resilience: Brands continue investing in this ad channel, but rising expectations put pressure on their retail partners.

It’s been about a month since Google made its marketing mix model (MMM) tool, Meridian, available to the public, igniting a debate about whether open-source MMM is the way to go or if marketers should stick to vendor’s proprietary tools. Of course, the answer isn’t that simple. The effectiveness of these tools can depend on organization size and resources, customization needs, and cost. Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of each to help make the process a bit easier.

36% of UK and US content and creative professionals cite inconsistent metrics across platforms and limited resources as the biggest hurdles in measuring digital content performance and ROI, according to October 2024 data from Canto and Ascend2.

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.

64% of US ad buyers expect to focus somewhat or significantly more on cross-platform measurement in 2025, according to a December 2024 IAB survey.

News and magazine apps have the highest engagement score in North America, with 29% of monthly active users coming back daily, according to a September 2024 Airship survey.

Nielsen and Paramount bury the hatchet: Measurement renewal deal offers a glimpse into the state of Nielsen competitors.

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.