Eighty-five percent of advertisers plan to increase spending on retail and commerce media networks over the next year — yet 86% say slow audience fulfillment would push them to cut spend or leave a partner altogether.

Those two figures come from "The 2026 Commerce Media Investment Index" from GrowthLoop and Ascend2. Together they frame the current state of commerce media: the budget opportunity is real, but so is the friction.

Advertisers want faster audience delivery, more useful segment options, better access to their own first-party data, and measurement that arrives before the next campaign is already planned.

How slow is audience fulfillment, really?

Half of advertisers wait four days or longer for a custom audience segment. Fifteen percent wait at least a week. Only 11% get one the same day.

That delay bites hardest because advertisers don't run one network. Ninety percent of respondents work with at least two retail or commerce media partners, and 10% work with seven or more.

The survey quantified what that slowness costs networks:

• 92% would be more likely to increase spend with a partner that delivers audiences faster.
• 85% would pay a premium for same-day fulfillment.
• 94% said self-service audience-building tools would make them spend more.

A network can have strong inventory and still lose budget if campaigns take too long to launch. In plain terms: audience operations are now part of the sales conversation.

Does audience depth outweigh price?

Almost. Pricing and fees ranked as a top partner-selection factor for 47% of respondents. Audience targeting, reach and segmentation depth came in at 46%. Ease of campaign setup and activation followed at 42%.

The appetite for more segments is nearly universal: 95% said access to more segments would make them more likely to increase spend.

The payoff is measurable. Advertisers with access to 100 or more active segments were more than five times as likely to plan spending increases of 25% or more than those with fewer than 25 segments — 32% versus 6%.

Among audience considerations, reach and scale ranked first at 47%, followed by accuracy at 46%. Advertisers also valued the ability to forecast audience size, combine network data with their own first-party data, and activate one audience across on-site and off-site channels.

Bottom line: segment breadth has closed most of the gap on price as a reason to pick — or leave — a partner.

How does first-party data fit in?

Nearly one-third of advertisers rank first-party data integration among their most important partner-selection criteria, and 30% put it among their top audience capabilities.

Suppression is the standout use case. When customer-list suppression is available, three-quarters of those with access use it. Heavier users lean on it more: among advertisers allocating at least 30% of their digital ad budgets to retail or commerce media, 78% use suppression, versus 58% of lower-investment advertisers.

In short, the more budget a brand commits, the more it wants its own data in the loop.

Why is measurement breaking the feedback loop?

Nearly half of advertisers wait more than a week for post-campaign performance data; only 8% get it the same day. Just 32% say they can consistently use campaign results to improve future audience targeting.

If results land after the next campaign is already planned, the feedback loop is broken — and the budget impact is already visible:

• 32% said difficulty proving ROI led them to reduce, pause or reconsider investment.
• 30% cited measurement and attribution gaps.
• Executives flagged measurement problems more than non-executives: 42% versus 24%.

Confidence in incrementality is thin too. Only 40% said they were very confident in the incrementality measurement networks provide — though those with high confidence reported higher investment and stronger perceived ROI.

Even so, advertisers can't ignore the channel's reach. Seventy-three percent allocate at least 15% of their digital ad budgets to these networks, and 85% plan to spend more.

The hard part is execution: how long does it take to build and launch an audience, and how long before results come back in a usable form? Those questions sound operational. They're also budget questions.

The report is available on GrowthLoop's site (registration required).