In September, McDonald’s announced a media network pilot with ambitions to become a billion-dollar business over time. In the same month, Citi launched Citi Commerce Media, drawing on more than 70 million U.S. customers and 6.5 billion annual transactions. Topgolf launched its own network earlier in the summer, spanning venues and digital screens. Together, these launches show how commerce media is expanding beyond retail. WPP Media forecasts nearly $200 billion in global commerce advertising revenue in 2026.

I work with marketing and digital leaders across retail, grocery, financial services, travel, and entertainment. They have millions of transactions, established customer relationships, and a shared question: how can we generate incremental profit while keeping costs under control and the core business running smoothly?

A few years ago, those conversations were mostly exploratory. What could commerce media look like for us? Should we build it ourselves or work with a partner? Media teams and CMOs typically led the charge.

Today, CFOs are increasingly part of the conversation, with leaders at Walmart, Kroger, and Best Buy publicly discussing commerce media’s contribution to growth and profitability. The question has shifted from whether there’s an opportunity to how much it can contribute, and how quickly. 

Walmart shows why. Its global advertising business grew 46% to nearly $6.4 billion in fiscal 2026, including VIZIO. Advertising income and membership fees together represented nearly a third of fourth-quarter operating income.

But executive interest doesn’t resolve the decisions that determine whether the revenue materializes. A loyalty team wants more members. Merchandising wants another product in the basket. The media team has an advertiser willing to pay for the placement. Each has a reasonable case, but they can’t all take priority in the same customer interaction.

In my experience, the businesses that get it right align on three things:

1. They decide who makes the call.

Executive support gets a program started. Someone with authority across teams keeps it moving.

That person needs a clear mandate: agree on which placements are available, establish how success will be measured, and resolve competing priorities. They also need an agreed definition of success that accounts for the profit generated, the cost of running the program, and the effect on the customer.

Revenue matters, but so do conversion, loyalty enrollment, and repeat purchases. Teams need to know how those outcomes will be weighed before they’re competing for the same placement. Otherwise, every decision becomes another negotiation, and months can pass while a business debates an opportunity its leadership already supports.‍

2. They make relevance a condition of earning revenue.

An opportunity to show an offer isn’t a reason to show it. The highest-paying ad won’t always be the best use of a customer interaction. An offer for the company’s own product might create more value. Sometimes, the right decision is to show nothing.

Consider a grocery customer who orders three times a week. An offer that was useful on the first visit can become irritating on the sixth, especially if they have already declined it. Showing it again may generate revenue today while making that customer less likely to pay attention tomorrow.

That history should inform the next decision. What has the customer seen? What have they declined? Is there a better offer, or would they be better served by moving on?

3. They give advertisers a reason to allocate budget.

A large customer base can get an advertiser’s attention, but it doesn’t guarantee sustained investment. According to EMARKETER, Amazon and Walmart together accounted for an estimated 88% of U.S. retail media ad spending in 2025. To earn a share of that budget, other networks need to answer a basic question: what can an advertiser accomplish here that they couldn’t achieve as effectively elsewhere?

That might mean reaching customers at a particularly relevant moment, acquiring people they struggle to reach through other channels, or demonstrating a clearer connection between spending and additional sales.

In Skai and Stratably’s 2026 survey, 75% of respondents identified incrementality among their biggest measurement challenges. Connecting an ad to a purchase can help justify a campaign. Showing that it generated an additional purchase makes a stronger case for increasing investment. Advertisers who return and increase their spending make the revenue more predictable, giving finance teams a firmer basis for planning.

Where this goes next

As commerce media becomes part of the financial plan, the expectations change. Leaders need to understand what it costs to operate, how it affects customers, and whether advertisers will keep investing.

The businesses that get those decisions right will have more than a successful launch. They’ll have customers who continue to engage, advertisers who return, and a source of profit they can build on. That is what turns the opportunity that caught the CFO’s attention into profit the business can count on.

‍