As marketers look ahead to 2026, one priority eclipses all others: improving return on ad spend (ROAS). This isn’t just about campaign health anymore. As Nikhil Lai, Principal Analyst at Forrester, explained, “It’s a signal that marketers have been able to prove that ROAS is correlated to brand health,” with improvements driving unaided awareness, brand salience and energy — critical assets in a crowded, uncertain market.
Yet, resource limitations are a perennial challenge. Lai noted, “Marketers don’t have enough people, their processes aren’t streamlined enough and their tech isn’t integrated or robust enough to actually fully realize their campaign’s potential.” Measurement remains stubbornly difficult, hampered by fragmented data and unclear attribution. Though, Lai went on to say, “it’s insufficient just to add tech debt to your stack or people and process automation and think that alone is going to improve ROAS.”
This is why marketers are telling us that the need for a new acquisition channel, with built-in trust and scale. Lai described how in Forrester’s consumer data, consumers are putting up more ad blockers, clearing their browsing histories, asking apps not to track them and emptying cookie caches, which means that it is critical that companies honor consumers’ preferences and comply with privacy requirements.
While recognizing the need for new acquisition channels is one thing, actually making the shift is another — often hindered by entrenched processes and legacy media plans, as Alex Goldberger, Head of Strategic Advisory at 3C Ventures, explained. This inertia leaves many brands struggling to operationalize innovation, even when the strategic case is clear.
That challenge is compounded when resources are tight. Jill Moser, Senior Vice President Commerce Media at Mastercard, emphasized that in such environments, “You have to be ruthlessly focused on where human strategic acumen and manual oversight is truly necessary and additive — and where it’s not.” She continued, “When you only have so much time, resources or money, the question becomes ‘How are we ensuring that the right investments are put to work in the right places and then that the right measurements are in place to even understand if they are working?’” Without measurement, even the best ideas are hard to justify.
This is where attribution becomes paramount. Moser observed CFOs are increasingly involved, “looking for that tangible return on investment and that they understand what value they received out of any given campaign.” It’s not just about measuring attribution, but as Moser emphasized, “being confident and trusting whatever that attribution is for the data that you’re measuring.”
Commerce media networks (CMNs) offer a compelling answer. Lai explained these platforms provide “clean, structured, actionable first party data that helps advertisers deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.” Measurement is cleaner, with a “tight closed loop between ad exposure and sales.” The quality of audiences is higher.
Consumer permissioned personalization enables consumers to enroll in programs and provide permission to receive tailored content using only data that they have consented to. As Lai states, “you don’t need more personal information to deliver more personalization.” Mastercard’s solutions embed Privacy by Design requirements and use only data that has been consented to by the consumers, giving consumers the ability to withdraw at any time and ensuring consumer trust and choice. Consumers who have provided consent can receive tailored offers and content within marketing channels, “on site, off site, even in store,” using permissioned, relevant data rather than, as Moser described, “hoarding everything.” If customers understand and consent, Moser went on to say, “we have the ability to serve really personalized offers or ads to that individual based on permissioned data.”
Brand safety and high-quality measurement remain top criteria for new media channels. Moser stressed, “Any connection that is being made on the behalf of a brand is one that they must trust from a net new channel.” Technology, data and high-quality measurement should inform “where should we be placing our bets,” letting “the data do the talking.”
CMOs, meanwhile, want to ground themselves in the ever-evolving customer journey. Goldberger explained that understanding where consumers spend time — whether via AI search or emerging media channels — is essential. Commerce media is playing a bigger role for many brands, offering a structural advantage: “a media business that’s built on the back of a commerce business,” leveraging insights based on consumer purchase activity to provide tailored content and offers to consumers who provide their consents. Unlike traditional paid media, which is often disconnected from outcomes, commerce media “allows brands to meet consumers where they are,” said Moser.
The impact is tangible. Moser shared that Mastercard’s own propensity engine predicts redemptions and engagement, delivering an up to 22x return on ad spend. The right message, right time, right consumer — this is the promise realized.
But not all CMNs are created equal. Goldberger cautioned, “Any successful commerce media business should be able to demonstrate and have that level of accountability around why they’re delivering high ROAS.” The space is crowded, and not all use cases are clear-cut. Brands must scrutinize which networks truly deliver on high intent and measurable outcomes.
Misconceptions persist. Many still view commerce media as strictly lower-funnel performance media, but the most exciting developments are full-funnel, integrating media, offers and loyalty into a unified growth engine. The North Star, Goldberger said, is collapsing silos and powering that based on the same customer understanding across teams.
The imperative is to keep iterating and testing — helping users get value quickly, tweaking creative and strategy and trusting the data. Every dollar must be measured and justified.
Commerce media is the innovation of this generation, offering an inflection point to close the gap of wasted advertising budget and bridge the divide between CMOs and CFOs. For the first time, marketers can prove revenue impact in ways previously unimaginable. The message is clear: act now.
