Why retail media CTV campaigns are so hard to track

Connected TV (CTV) is already a wild west of providers, platforms, and inventory. Add retail media networks (RMNs) into the mix, and measuring success becomes even more complicated.

Advertisers want to tap into CTV’s premium video formats with the precision of retail media, but the fragmented landscape, mismatched measurement tools, and lack of standardization are causing headaches.

A crowded and confusing landscape

CTV’s fragmentation is well-documented, but adding retail media adds complexity.

• 39% of US CTV/OTT advertisers cited fragmentation/too many providers as their biggest challenge, according to an April 2024 Advertiser Perceptions survey commissioned by Premion.

More platforms make campaign execution harder. Consumers might see the same ad too many times on different services. Audience targeting gets muddy when platforms don’t communicate, and ad waste becomes a real concern.

“On paper, it is easy for advertisers to chart out where they will hit the specific viewers they want to hit,” said our analyst Ross Benes, author of “The CTV Opportunity” report. “But executing is difficult. The platforms they plan to use might not have enough inventory for the specific audience they want, or there may be frequency problems due to audience overlap with other streaming services.”

RMNs need better upper-funnel measurement

Retail media thrives on performance marketing, where on-site search and display ads are directly tied to sales. But as RMNs expand into upper-funnel channels like CTV, the measurement tools haven’t kept up.

• 49% of US brands and agencies say difficulty with accurate attribution is an obstacle they’ve encountered when integrating offsite media into their core retail media strategy, according to a December 2024 survey from Skai and Path to Purchase Institute.

Balancing performance and brand marketing

Retail media drives purchases, so advertisers have used it as a lower-funnel workhorse. But CTV isn’t just a conversion tool—it’s also a brand awareness play.

• Enhancing brand awareness and perception is the biggest opportunity in using CTV within retail media, according to 54% of US brands and agencies, per Skai and Path to Purchase.
• 36% of US brand and agency marketers say brand awareness/consideration is a top strategic priority for 2025 investment/budget allocation, according to October 2024 data from InMarket.

That means advertisers need to find a balance.

• Performance-driven teams want to prove that retail media CTV is delivering on sales goals, while brand marketers want to measure upper-funnel success.
• Without clear measurement solutions, it’s tough to know if campaigns are optimized for one goal, both, or neither.

The standardization struggle

Measurement challenges aren’t exclusive to retail media—CTV also lacks standardization. Advertisers can’t easily compare performance across networks because every platform plays by its own rules.

• A third of CTV/OTT advertisers say inconsistent measurement standards is their biggest challenge, while 32% say the same about disparate reporting across multiple buys, per Advertiser Perceptions’ survey.
• A single CTV service can have up to 114 different supply paths, according to Benes.
• “Even when the viewer is seeing ads, the ads may be sold by an array of different companies that don’t communicate with each other. Extrapolated across millions of people, this becomes very confusing,” he said.

The bottom line: Retail media ad spend on CTV is growing quickly in the US, increasing 45.5% YoY in 2025, according to a November 2024 EMARKETER forecast. However, if retail media networks want to keep the ad dollars flowing, they’ll need a more standardized approach without compromising transparency or ad effectiveness.

Some networks have teamed up directly with streamers for more accurate, seamless CTV measurement.

• Walmart Connect has partnerships with NBCUniversal, Roku, and Disney Advertising to enhance targeting and measurement capabilities.
• Albertsons Media Collective works with NBCUniversal to provide advertisers with CTV measurement solutions.
• Best Buy Ads and Roku enable advertisers to use Best Buy’s first-party data to target and measure CTV campaigns across the streaming platform.

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