Best retail media agencies compared, and the one network minimum that decides whether you need one at all
The retailers publish more about how to buy their media than the agencies publish about how they sell it, so the shortlist starts with the networks rather than the shops.
Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 22 October 2026
You need a retail media agency when you are buying across more than one retailer's network and none of those retailers will put a managed team on your account at the level you spend. That threshold is published in one place. Amazon's own advertising site states that a managed service with an Amazon Ads account executive will "typically require a minimum spend of $50,000", read at advertising.amazon.com on 22 October 2026. Under that figure, across most networks, your choices are the retailer's self-service tool or an agency. Over it, at one retailer, you may already have the help you were about to pay for.
This page ranks the suppliers on what each one publishes that a buyer can read before the first call, because in this category the retailers disclose far more than the agencies do.
What the four big American networks publish about access
Everything in this table was read on the network's own site on 22 October 2026. The point of reading them first is that the answer to "do I need an agency" is set by the retailer's access rules, not by the agency's pitch.
| Network | What it publishes about getting in | Managed service |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Ads | Calls sponsored ads "self-service solutions with no up-front fees" and names Amazon DSP as a current product alongside display, video and streaming TV | Yes, and it publishes the floor: "typically require a minimum spend of $50,000" |
| Walmart Connect | Splits the offer into a Small Business track and an Enterprise track, and points at Ad Center to "Launch and optimize campaigns for any objective". No minimum is published | Not stated as a tier. It offers instead to "Get added support from our Partner Network if you need it" |
| Roundel, which it brands "Roundel Media Designed by Target" | Publishes audience scale rather than access terms: "100M+ unique Target Circle members with first-party data" and "30M+ weekly in-store visits". No minimum is published | Display is described as a "managed service offering"; programmatic can be activated "via self-service within your DSP" |
| Kroger Precision Marketing | Sells insights, media and incentives as three separate families, and answers the access question most buyers arrive with directly in its own FAQ | Sold through conversation, with the self-service front door branded Kroger Ad Platform |
Two things fall out of that table immediately. Amazon is the only one of the four that puts a number on the managed-service door, so it is the only one where you can work out in advance whether you qualify. And Walmart's answer to a brand that needs help is to send it to a partner directory, which means the agency decision is built into the network rather than being an alternative to it.
Our page on Kroger Precision Marketing and the parts a brand that does not sell in Kroger can still buy works through one network in full, including the question of whether you can use any of it without a product on the shelf.
The criterion this page ranks on, and what it says about the agencies
The criterion is what the supplier publishes on its own site that a buyer can check before taking anybody at their word. It is a disclosure test, not a quality test, and it is the only test that can be applied to this category from outside.
On that criterion the retailers come first and the agencies come second, which is the reverse of how most shortlists in this category are written. Among the agencies, Tinuiti is first, and the reason is specific. Read at tinuiti.com/services/commerce on 22 October 2026, it names the networks it works in rather than gesturing at them: it describes itself as "an Amazon Ads Advanced Partner" and as "A pioneer partner to the biggest players including Walmart, Instacart, Target, Kroger, and 50+ other retailers we work with". A named badge and a named retailer list are claims the retailer can contradict, which is what makes them worth something.
The same reading found no fee, no rate card, no minimum and no figure for the spend it manages. That is the pattern across this lane rather than a fact about one shop, and it is a disclosure finding rather than a quality finding. It means the comparison you actually run is between named relationships, because price is not on the table until you are on a call.
For the related but different question of which supplier a packaged goods brand needs across all of its marketing, our page on CPG marketing agencies and the retailer relationship that decides which one you can use sorts four supplier types, one of which is the shopper and commerce agency. That page answers the brand-wide supplier question. This one answers the narrower retail media buying question.
The three routes, in the order most brands should try them
The retailer's own self-service tool. Ad Center at Walmart, Roundel Media Studio at Target, the Kroger Ad Platform, and Amazon's sponsored ads with no up-front fee. Right when you sell at one or two retailers and somebody internally can own a bid strategy. The limit is not capability, it is attention: these tools reward daily management and punish a weekly glance.
The retail media specialist agency. Right when you are live at three or more retailers, because the work that cannot be done in-house is the comparison across them. Each network reports on itself, in its own definitions, and nobody inside a retailer's dashboard will tell you that your money works better at another one. That cross-network judgement is the actual product you are buying, and it is worth asking for in those words.
In-house, hired through the network's partner directory. Amazon publishes a Partner Directory and Walmart publishes a Partner Network. Both are useful for the opposite reason to the one brands assume: a directory listing tells you a shop has cleared that retailer's own bar, and it tells you nothing about the other retailers you sell at. Use the directory to verify, not to shortlist.
What to settle before you sign, because it decides what you keep
- The advertiser accounts in your own company's name, with the agency granted access. This single line is the difference between a cheap exit and an expensive one, and it is harder in retail media than in search because some network seats are issued through the retailer relationship.
- Placement-level reporting, not a summary. A network-level ROAS figure hides which of your items and which of your placements earned it.
- A written answer on rebates and on trading-desk margin. Ask whether the shop takes any payment from a media owner on your spend. A shop that answers plainly is the kind worth hiring.
- Which incrementality method each network uses, and who holds the result. Closed-loop measurement is named by both Walmart Connect and Kroger, and a closed loop inside one retailer cannot tell you what the same money would have done elsewhere.
- Your product feed first. Every one of these networks reads your titles, identifiers, price and availability. A feed problem presents as poor media performance in four places at once, which is why our page on retail marketing solutions and the order to buy them puts feeds before media.
When a retail media agency is the wrong purchase
If ninety per cent of your volume goes through one grocery chain, a specialist in that one network, or the network's own managed team if you clear its floor, beats a multi-network agency. If your distribution is the problem, media spend buys attention for a product a shopper cannot find, and the category and trade conversation is the higher-return purchase. And if your feed is not clean, fix that first: it costs less than a month of fees and it raises the performance of every placement you already run.
Questions brands ask before appointing a retail media agency
Is retail media worth it below a $10,000 monthly budget? At one retailer, yes, run through the self-service tool, because the targeting reads actual purchase behaviour rather than inferred interest and that is unusually efficient at small scale. Across several retailers at that budget the fee takes too large a share of the working media.
Can a brand that is not stocked at a retailer buy its media? At some networks, for the offsite audiences. Kroger answers this one directly in its own FAQ, which is why it is worth reading a network's FAQ before assuming you are ineligible.
How many networks should we be on? As many as carry a real share of your volume, and no more. A network where you sell very little produces a sample too small to learn from, and the learning is most of what the first year buys.
Should the agency hold our media budget? Paying the retailer directly keeps the spend history and the account relationship with you, and is the stronger position wherever the network allows it.
What does a retail media agency actually do that we cannot? The cross-network comparison, the item-level decisions at scale, and the argument with each retailer about measurement definitions. Ask a shortlisted shop to describe a case where it moved budget away from a retailer, and what evidence persuaded that retailer's team.
The answer a shopper gets when nobody is buying the placement
Every network on this page sells reach to a shopper who is already in the aisle or already on the retailer's site. The brand decision has started moving to a place none of them can sell you: a shopper asks an assistant which brand of a thing to buy, and the reply names two or three. That set is assembled from reviews, trade coverage and editorial outside every retailer's walled garden, so it appears in no retail media dashboard and there is no placement to bid on. It is the one surface in your media plan with no rate card, and the only lever is being the brand the answer names. AI Knows Us records which brands the assistants name on a category buying question and which pages each answer leaned on, so the difference between your shelf share and your answer share becomes a list of places worth being written about rather than a suspicion. The scan on your own domain is free and needs no account.
On breadth of surfaces a rival is ahead of us, and for a brand team that is the number that matters here. Profound states that it tracks "Up to 9 Answer Engines", naming nine that include Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek and Exa Search, read at tryprofound.com/pricing on 22 October 2026. We read five: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews. If the assistant your shoppers use is one of the four we do not cover, that is a straightforward reason to buy elsewhere, and it is worth asking any vendor in this category to name its surfaces rather than count them.