Retail media is no longer a two-horse race. Through the first half of 2026, Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect still command roughly 68% of total U.S. retail media spend, according to eMarketer’s June 2026 Retail Media Forecast. But the remaining 32%—nearly $19 billion—is fracturing across a rapidly maturing second tier: Instacart Ads, Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM), Target Roundel, Albertsons Media Collective, and a half-dozen category-specific networks including Chewy Ads and Home Depot’s Orange Apron Media.
For Shopify DTC brands, Amazon sellers scaling into omnichannel, and agency media teams managing seven-figure budgets, ignoring these networks in 2026 means ceding ground to competitors who are already exploiting lower CPMs, first-party purchase data, and closed-loop attribution that Google and Meta simply cannot provide.
This guide walks you through how to evaluate, enter, and scale emerging retail media networks — with specific allocation frameworks, testing timelines, and the metrics that actually matter to your P&L.
Why Are Emerging Retail Media Networks Outperforming Expectations in 2026?
The economics shifted when the deprecation of third-party cookies accelerated media fragmentation in 2025. Retailers sitting on years of first-party transactional data suddenly had an asset class that advertisers desperately needed. Instacart, for example, reported that its Ads platform hit $1.4 billion in annualized revenue in Q1 2026 — up 41% year-over-year — driven largely by CPG brands redirecting dollars from Meta’s volatile Advantage+ auctions.
But it’s not just CPG. Chewy Ads, launched formally in late 2024, posted average ROAS of 6.2x for sponsored product units in Q1 2026, according to performance data shared by agency Tinuiti at ShopTalk Spring. Home Depot’s Orange Apron Media is now running offsite display powered by its purchase graph, offering home improvement brands attribution down to the SKU level.
“We moved 22% of our Meta budget into Instacart Ads and Roundel in Q4 2025. By February, blended ROAS across those two networks was 4.8x versus 2.9x on Meta. The purchase-intent signal is just categorically different.” — Sarah Hennessey, VP of Growth, Ridge Supply Co.
The core advantage: these networks close the loop between ad exposure and actual purchase inside their own walled gardens, making attribution defensible in a way that view-through conversions on social never were.
How Do You Evaluate Which Retail Media Networks Are Worth Testing?
Before you commit budget, run each candidate network through a five-factor evaluation. Not every network fits every category or price point.
- Category overlap: Does your product actually sell through this retailer’s platform or stores? Instacart is grocery and household; Chewy is pet; Orange Apron is home improvement. Mismatched inventory means weak relevance scores and wasted spend.
- Minimum spend thresholds: Roundel requires a $50,000 quarterly minimum for managed service. KPM’s self-serve portal starts at $5,000/month. Instacart’s self-serve Ads Manager has no stated minimum but underperforms below $8,000/month in most categories.
- Attribution methodology: Ask explicitly — is it last-click, view-through, or purchase-graph matched? Roundel and KPM both offer 14-day purchase-matched attribution on in-store and online combined, which is genuinely useful. Some smaller networks still rely on pixel-based probabilistic matching that inflates numbers.
- Self-serve vs. managed access: Instacart Ads and KPM both offer functional self-serve dashboards as of 2026. Roundel and Albertsons Media Collective still push most mid-market brands into managed service with longer lead times and less optimization flexibility.
- Incrementality testing tools: Does the network support holdout groups or geo-based incrementality measurement? If not, you’re flying blind on true lift.
What Does a Realistic Emerging Network Testing Budget Look Like?
The biggest mistake media teams make is spreading too thin. Running $3,000 across five networks produces noise, not signal. A disciplined test structure looks like this:
Step 1: Designate 10-15% of total retail media budget as a test pool. For a brand running $200,000/quarter in retail media, that’s $20,000-$30,000. Keep it ring-fenced from core Amazon and Walmart spend so you’re not cannibalizing proven channels.
Step 2: Select one or two networks maximum per quarter. Pick based on category overlap from your evaluation scorecard. A pet supplement brand testing in Q3 2026 should be on Chewy Ads, full stop. A cleaning brand should be on Instacart and KPM.
Step 3: Run a six-week minimum test. Four weeks is industry standard but retail media purchase cycles — especially in grocery and home — require at least six weeks to capture repeat purchase signals. Instacart’s own data team recommends eight weeks for any CPG category with purchase cycles longer than two weeks.
Step 4: Set a ROAS floor, not a target. Your test isn’t designed to hit your Amazon ROAS on day one. Set a floor — typically 60-70% of your Amazon sponsored product ROAS — below which you pause and reassess creative or bidding strategy. Above that floor, let the algorithm learn.
“Brands come in expecting Instacart ROAS to match Amazon in week two. It never does. The learning period is real — but by week six, we’re consistently seeing results that justify scaling. The patience problem is the biggest obstacle we see from DTC operators making their first retail media move off Amazon.” — Marcus Delray, Head of Commerce Strategy, Tinuiti
How Do You Structure Campaigns on Instacart Ads and Kroger Precision Marketing Specifically?
These two networks cover the most accessible entry points for brands not already embedded in Target or Walmart’s managed ecosystems. Here’s the operational setup for each.
Instacart Ads — Campaign Setup:
- Start with Sponsored Product units on category and competitor keyword targeting. Instacart’s search intent is high-purchase-proximity — shoppers are actively building a cart.
- Layer in Display ads only after sponsored product campaigns have at least four weeks of purchase data. Display on Instacart without purchase signal targeting is closer to awareness spend — price it accordingly.
- Use Instacart’s Occasion Targeting feature (launched Q1 2026) to reach shoppers building specific basket types — grilling occasions, back-to-school, etc. It’s underutilized and CPMs are roughly 30% below standard category targeting.
- Connect your brand’s Instacart storefront to your Shopify store’s promotional calendar. Synchronize discount windows so Instacart shoppers see the same promotional pricing your DTC site is running.
Kroger Precision Marketing — Campaign Setup:
- KPM’s core advantage is its 84.51° data subsidiary — 60 million-plus loyalty card households with 15+ years of purchase history. Target by actual purchase behavior, not demographics.
- Use KPM’s Loyal Buyer and Lapsed Buyer audience segments as your first two ad groups. Loyal buyers get retention messaging; lapsed buyers get trial incentives. This alone outperforms cold demographic targeting by 2-3x in most food and beverage tests.
- KPM’s offsite network — display ads served outside Kroger properties but matched to Kroger loyalty IDs — is the platform’s most underrated feature. CPMs run $4-$7 with closed-loop attribution. It effectively turns Kroger’s data into a programmatic buy.
- Request weekly purchase-matched reporting, not the default bi-weekly cadence. KPM account teams will accommodate this for brands spending $10,000+/month.
What Creative Strategy Works Across Retail Media Networks That Doesn’t on Meta or Google?
Retail media creative is a distinct discipline. The user is in a buying mindset, not a discovery mindset. The creative rules are different.
- Lead with the product, not the brand: Your logo doesn’t need to be the hero. The product image does. On Instacart, sponsored product units that lead with clean white-background product shots consistently outperform lifestyle creative by 15-25% on CTR.
- Price and promotion are primary copy elements: “$2 off” or “Buy 2, Save $3” in the first line of ad copy drives click-through on KPM and Albertsons display units. The shopper is in a value-evaluation mode.
- Use variant-specific creative: If you sell three SKUs, run three creative executions — one per SKU. Retail media platforms reward relevance between the ad unit and the product page it links to. Generic brand-level creative underperforms.
- Seasonal refresh cadence: Every six weeks minimum. Retail media creative fatigue is faster than social because the audience is smaller and more concentrated. Roundel’s own benchmarks show CTR decay begins at week four for static display.
How Do You Scale What’s Working Without Blowing Up Your Core Channel Allocation?
Once a network test clears your ROAS floor for two consecutive reporting periods, the scaling decision framework is straightforward:
Step 1: Move the network from test budget into a formal channel allocation — typically 5-10% of total retail media spend per validated network, capped at 25% of total budget across all emerging networks combined until you have 6 months of data.
Step 2: Negotiate directly with the network’s sales team for volume-based CPM or CPC rate cards. Both Instacart and KPM offer negotiated rates at $25,000+/quarter. Roundel’s managed service fees become more favorable above $150,000/quarter. These conversations happen off the self-serve dashboard.
Step 3: Build a unified reporting layer. Tools like Skai (formerly Kenshoo), Pacvue, and Perpetua now integrate Instacart, KPM, and Roundel alongside Amazon and Walmart Connect in a single dashboard. If you’re managing retail media in siloed platform UIs in 2026, you’re operating blind across channels.
“We built a unified retail media dashboard in Pacvue that pulls Instacart, KPM, and Amazon into one view. The first time we saw blended category ROAS across all three networks, we immediately reallocated $40,000 in quarterly budget away from Amazon DSP prospecting. The signal clarity was night and day.” — Priya Nambiar, Director of Ecommerce, Bona Fide Provisions
Step 4: Align retail media investment with your retail buyer relationships. If you’re scaling spend on KPM, your Kroger buyer should know — incremental media investment often supports shelf expansion conversations and promotional co-op discussions. These networks are commercial relationships, not just ad buys.
The brands winning in retail media through the back half of 2026 aren’t spending more — they’re spending across more precisely. The emerging network tier is no longer experimental. It’s operational. The question is whether your media mix reflects that reality or whether you’re still handing Amazon and Meta a consolidation premium they haven’t earned.
