👋 Hello programmatic people


You know that awkward moment when you're trying to book retail media and feel like you're haggling with a deli counter? Yeah, well—Criteo just ripped the ticket machine off the wall.

The French ad tech firm best known for its retargeting roots just soft-launched its DSP villain arc.

It’s called… wait for it…. Auction-Based Display.

A name as exciting as a Tesco meal deal but with enough firepower to take on Google Ad Manager. Yep, Criteo has officially entered the retail media Thunderdome.

What Just Happened?

Criteo’s new tech lets advertisers bid programmatically for retail media display ads across major retailers like Costco and Shipt, with Albertsons Media Collective queuing up next.

So instead of clunky IOs and seasonal fixed prices, advertisers can now plug into a dynamic auction model—like the rest of programmatic—only inside retailer ecosystems.

This isn’t just a UX upgrade.

It’s a structural change to how retail media is bought, sold, priced and optimised. A move that:

  • Helps retailers flog unsold inventory

  • Gives buyers real-time price control

  • And allows agencies to hit multiple retailers with one, glorious log-in

Why This Matters (a lot)

The market’s been crying out for this. Until now, most retail media inventory was locked in a fixed-price time capsule circa 2017. But as omnichannel pressure mounts and unsold placements gather dust, retailers are finally learning the dark art of yield optimisation. And Criteo is teaching the class.

The new platform supports:

  • ✅ Onsite + Offsite inventory access

  • 📊 Cross-retailer buying from one seat

  • 🔁 Real-time auctions based on demand and category value

  • 🎯 Attribution and analytics built in

Think of it as the marriage of commerce media efficiency and traditional DSP firepower. And Criteo wants to be your celebrant.

What's the Catch?

There isn’t one… yet.

But this puts Criteo in the firing line of some serious competitors. Cough Google. And with PubMatic and The Trade Desk also aggressively courting retail media budgets, Criteo better have more than Costco banners up its sleeve.

Let’s not forget: Criteo's real superpower has always been shopper intent.

If it can layer that same signal-rich DNA into this new auction model across multiple retail environments… well, Google might actually have to try for once.

The Agency Takeaway

🎯 If you're still manually booking retail media, get help.

This move means your programmatic team can now treat retail media like actual programmatic—test, optimise, scale, repeat.

It also:

  • Simplifies multi-retailer media buying

  • Adds campaign agility for seasonal/sale moments

  • Makes it easier to backtest category-level ROAS

Oh, and if your client’s paying £28 CPM for homepage banners with no targeting, maybe ask them why??

Final Thought

Criteo’s not just rebranding its stack—it’s rebranding retail media buying as something that doesn’t need a slide deck and a blood sacrifice.

About time.

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Until next time, you dashing media pro!