Google is about to offer companies and advertisers entry to prime retail media placements on ecommerce websites equivalent to Greatest Purchase, Costco, and Goal.
The deal, introduced on September 10, 2025, connects Google’s Search Adverts 360 (SA360) platform with a community of greater than 200 enterprise-level retailers through Criteo’s promoting and commerce platform.
“With Criteo’s expansive community of retailer companions, we’re serving to advertisers join with clients at a essential second of their purchasing journey,” mentioned Invoice Reardon, normal supervisor, enterprise platform at Google, through a press launch.
Digital Retail Media
Retail media is exploding. Adtelligent estimated that worldwide retail media spend would attain $145 to $165 billion in 2025, up from $59 billion in 2019.
In the USA, the market is valued at greater than $60 billion and is rising at roughly 20% per yr, in response to numerous sources.
Advertisers use digital retail media primarily to advertise merchandise bought on the given retailer’s web site. Thus many retail media advertisers are literally the shop’s suppliers, boosting gross sales through the retail channel.
Digital retail media has taken off, partially, as a result of it depends on first-party buyer knowledge and doesn’t require intrusive cookies or complicated privateness protocols.
Walled Gardens
Just a few “walled gardens,” i.e., closed platforms or ecosystems operated by a single firm, dominate the market. Of those, Amazon is much and away the chief.
In Q2 2025, Amazon’s advert income reached $15.69 billion, a 23% year-over-year enhance, hitting a report 9.36% of the corporate’s complete income and marking it because the fastest-growing phase.
Amazon has leveraged its large ecommerce market and best-in-class purchasing knowledge. Collectively, these create a self-reinforcing promoting flywheel that drives conversions for advertisers and income for Amazon.
Good Knowledge
Amazon’s retail media flywheel works as a result of the corporate controls the whole course of, from preliminary buyer acquisition to ultimate buy, accumulating all of the behavioral knowledge alongside the best way. It has first-party knowledge that’s actual, current, and related.
In comparison with third-party knowledge, Amazon and almost any walled-garden promoting resolution will likely be rather more efficient at concentrating on buyers and producing gross sales.
These closed ecosystems additionally assist with measurement. Because the advertisements are operating and changing in a walled backyard, promoting attribution is simple.
Enter Google
Whereas Amazon is the undisputed chief in digital retail media, Google is the king of digital promoting typically. The corporate generated roughly $71.3 billion in promoting income throughout Q2 2025, representing a ten.4% year-over-year enhance.
Some $54 billion of that Q2 income was particular to look promoting. A good portion of that income passes by the corporate’s SA360 platform. That demand will now connect with Criteo and its retail media community.
This deal is a major shift for the market. Previously, Google’s retail-related promoting merchandise, equivalent to AI-assisted PMax or Buying Adverts, have centered on driving visitors to retail web sites. The thought was that somebody would question on Google search, see an advert for a related product, and go to the retailer to purchase it.
With Criteo’s assist, Google can now provide a extra full strategy to promote to shoppers. Its platform not solely guides advertisers to retail websites, but additionally buyers on these websites to particular sponsored merchandise.
Google vs. Amazon
In a way, the Google and Criteo deal targets Amazon’s dominance in digital retail media and walled gardens typically.
Google positive aspects a foothold within the digital retail media market, offering SA360 advertisers with the chance to increase search campaigns into high-intent purchasing environments, all with unified measurement and attribution.
Manufacturers that had been utilizing retail media now have another. Somewhat than concentrating promoting spend in a number of dominant ecosystems, the Google-Criteo integration opens entry to a broader vary of retail advert placements.
It opens some entry to a few of these walled gardens, and, as a number of pundits have put it, fosters competitors and “democratizes” retail media.
Antitrust
Whereas Criteo and Google had been in discussions for a while, the deal’s announcement got here simply days after Google survived what may have been a devastating antitrust ruling. It was additionally lower than two weeks earlier than a second treatment listening to.
In August 2024, a U.S. District Courtroom discovered Google responsible of sustaining an unlawful monopoly over the overall on-line search and textual content promoting markets.
Main as much as the September 2025 treatment listening to, some observers thought that Google can be required to divest a few of its merchandise, such because the Chrome browser.
No Breakup
As a substitute, the court docket, on September 2, 2025, dominated that Google change its habits, together with:
- Refraining from getting into into unique search engine contracts,
- Sharing some search knowledge with certified rivals.
In a separate April 2025 case, a federal choose discovered Google responsible of illegally monopolizing key segments of the digital promoting market. The treatment listening to for this case is scheduled for September 22, 2025.
Google’s “democratizing” take care of Criteo may very well be a sign to the courts that the corporate goals to encourage competitors.
