Retail media networks embrace RTB for sponsored products

Pentaleap Inc. and Teads announced on July 24, 2025, a partnership delivering real-time bidding capability for retailers' onsite Sponsored Product Ads. The integration represents the first programmatic solution enabling advertisers to activate Sponsored Product inventory across multiple retail networks through a unified platform.

The partnership addresses fragmentation challenges that have hindered retail media growth by providing standardized access to Sponsored Product inventory through Teads Ad Manager. According to the companies, this marks a shift from specialized retail media platforms toward unified media management systems.

Andreas Reiffen, CEO and Co-Founder of Pentaleap, stated in the announcement: "What was once impossible is now a reality: thanks to Pentaleap's industry-leading, lightning-fast ad serving technology, retailers can now run SPAs via RTB for the first time ever—turning onsite retail media into something truly programmatic."

The technology breakthrough centers on solving speed limitations that previously prevented programmatic solutions from working with onsite Sponsored Products. Historically, slow load times blocked RTB implementations for retail environments where millisecond response times are critical for user experience.

Craig Hughes, EVP Corporate & Business Development at Teads, explained: "For the first time, advertisers can activate retail media alongside their broader omnichannel campaigns in Teads Ad Manager. We're reducing complexity for advertisers, enabling activation across multiple retail environments alongside their existing upper-funnel campaigns."

Technical implementation enables programmatic access

The partnership combines Teads' relationships with global consumer brands and Pentaleap's high-speed ad serving technology. Teads brings over $1.7 billion in ad spend from premium brands across 50+ markets to retail media environments previously accessible only through individual platform interfaces.

The integration empowers retailers with quality-first expansion opportunities by accessing Teads' global advertiser ecosystem while maintaining full inventory control. Revenue diversification occurs through seamless integration with existing advertiser demand via single-platform management.

For advertisers, the system enables streamlined activation within existing Teads workflows as part of omnichannel strategies. Campaigns can incorporate retail media alongside display, video, and connected TV advertisements in unified line items. High-intent placements provide access to shoppers near purchase points across retailer e-commerce experiences.

Measurable outcomes utilize Teads' predictive technology and closed-loop sales reporting for full-funnel optimization. This addresses measurement challenges that have limited retail media adoption according to recent industry research.

Retail media market experiences accelerated growth

The partnership announcement coincides with significant retail media expansion across global markets. According to eMarketer projections cited in the announcement, retail media is expected to capture 20% of the $100.7 billion total US digital advertising spending by 2029.

European retail media spending has outpaced the broader advertising market by nearly four times. While overall advertising grew 6.1% in 2024, retail media surged 22.1%, with Sponsored Products emerging as the central growth driver.

Industry research indicates 67% of brands and agencies are redirecting performance advertising budgets toward retail media investments. Brands working with 4-6 retail media networks doubled in 2025, signaling diversification strategies among advertisers.

The shift toward open retail media ecosystems reflects challenges facing retailers operating walled-garden approaches. Unless retailers achieve Amazon-scale market dominance, fragmented specialized platforms limit advertiser reach and operational efficiency.

Standardization efforts address industry fragmentation

The Pentaleap-Teads integration aligns with broader industry standardization initiatives. IAB Tech Lab recently finalized OpenRTB specification updates for product listing advertisements to standardize programmatic commerce media transactions.

According to Chris Coupland, Platform Operations Director at Basis Technologies, these updates address significant gaps in the commerce media ecosystem. The technical modifications introduce prodfeed objects within bidrequest extensions, signaling that product feed understanding is essential for successful transactions.

IAB Europe released updated retail media definitions on March 26, 2025, establishing consensus across European markets. The framework addresses on-site retail media, off-site retail media, and in-store digital retail media categories.

Real-time bidding adoption across digital advertising has accelerated through industry-wide protocol standardization. Google completed its transition to OpenRTB protocol on February 15, 2025, sunsetting proprietary Authorized Buyers RTB protocol in favor of industry standards.

Context from retail media technology landscape

PPC Land has extensively covered the evolution of programmatic advertising from direct sales to real-time auctions. The progression from ad networks through yield managers to sophisticated exchanges established foundations for current retail media developments.

The retail media sector's maturation follows similar patterns observed in broader programmatic advertising adoption. Initial direct sales models gave way to aggregated inventory approaches before technological advances enabled real-time bidding capabilities.

However, retail media presents unique technical challenges due to product catalog integration requirements and inventory management complexities. Unlike traditional display advertising with finished creative assets, Sponsored Products require dynamic creative generation from product feeds and real-time promotional data.

The partnership demonstrates how specialized retail media technology providers are addressing these challenges through purpose-built solutions. Pentaleap's focus on ultra-responsive ad serving specifically targets the speed requirements that previously prevented RTB adoption in retail environments.

Market implications for advertisers and retailers

The industry-first RTB integration for Sponsored Products provides strategic advantages for multiple stakeholder groups. Retailers gain access to premium advertiser demand while maintaining inventory control and competitive positioning through advanced programmatic capabilities.

Mid-to-long-tail advertisers represent substantial but previously difficult-to-access revenue opportunities for retail media networks. Traditional retail media management often requires extensive manual oversight for smaller advertisers, creating barriers to scale that automated programmatic solutions can address.

Recent industry partnerships demonstrate how technology providers are targeting underserved advertiser segments through automation and unified workflows. The Criteo-Mirakl collaboration specifically addresses third-party sellers across marketplace environments.

For agencies and trading desks, unified retail media activation through established programmatic platforms reduces operational complexity while expanding inventory access. Campaign optimization can incorporate retail media performance data alongside other programmatic channels for holistic attribution analysis.

The development positions retail media as integral component of omnichannel advertising strategies rather than isolated specialist channel requiring separate management resources and measurement frameworks.

Technical architecture supports scalable growth

Pentaleap's Fluid Relevancy Engine processes extensive contextual data to dynamically position advertisements to appropriate customers at optimal moments. The algorithm-driven approach ensures advertisement relevancy while maintaining the speed requirements necessary for effective user experiences.

The system's modular architecture enables integration with diverse retail environments while preserving each retailer's unique brand experience and operational requirements. This flexibility addresses concerns about standardization potentially reducing competitive differentiation among retail networks.

According to the technical specifications, the integration supports multiple activation points throughout purchase funnels, from initial discovery through checkout completion. Some retailers can extend opportunities into shopping cart and checkout pages, creating additional discovery moments through recommendation sections.

Measurement frameworks emphasize standardized approaches across different retail environments while accommodating platform-specific attribution methodologies. This balance enables cross-platform comparison without sacrificing detailed performance insights that individual retailers provide.

The partnership's success depends on continued adoption across retail networks and advertiser acceptance of programmatic workflows for retail media campaigns. Early indicators suggest strong interest from both retailer and brand stakeholders seeking operational efficiency improvements.

Timeline

• July 24, 2025: Pentaleap and Teads announce industry-first RTB integration for Sponsored Product Ads
• July 15, 2025: IAB Europe publishes updated Attitudes to Retail Media Report showing 63% of advertisers maintain retailer partnerships over one year
• June 17, 2025: Criteo launches auction-based display technology introducing programmatic flexibility to retail environments
• April 21, 2025: European retail media spending surges 22.1% driven by Sponsored Products growth
• March 26, 2025: IAB Europe publishes updated retail media definitions establishing European consensus
• February 15, 2025: Google completes transition to OpenRTB protocol for all bid requests
• January 25, 2025: IAB Tech Lab finalizes OpenRTB specification updates for product listing ads
• September 2024: IAB and IAB Europe release in-store retail media measurement standards

Key Terms Explained

Real-Time Bidding (RTB): An automated auction process that enables advertisers to bid on individual ad impressions in real-time, typically completing transactions within 100 milliseconds. RTB allows buyers to evaluate each advertising opportunity based on user data, context, and campaign objectives before submitting bids. This technology has transformed digital advertising by enabling precise targeting and efficient inventory allocation across programmatic platforms.

Sponsored Product Ads: Native advertising formats that promote specific products within retail environments, typically appearing alongside organic search results and product listings. These advertisements blend seamlessly with editorial content while maintaining clear commercial identification. Sponsored Products leverage product catalog data to display relevant items near purchase decision points, making them particularly effective for bottom-funnel marketing objectives.

Retail Media Networks: Advertising platforms operated by retailers that monetize their customer data and digital properties by selling advertising space to brands. These networks provide advertisers access to high-intent shoppers within commerce environments where purchase decisions occur. Retail media networks have emerged as significant revenue sources for retailers while offering brands direct access to consumers during active shopping sessions.

Programmatic Advertising: The automated buying and selling of digital advertising inventory through technology platforms that use algorithms and data to optimize campaign performance. Programmatic systems eliminate manual insertion orders and negotiations, enabling advertisers to purchase targeted impressions at scale. This approach has become the dominant method for digital advertising transactions across display, video, and increasingly retail media channels.

Omnichannel Campaigns: Marketing strategies that coordinate messaging and experiences across multiple touchpoints and platforms to create unified customer journeys. These campaigns integrate various advertising channels including search, social, display, video, connected TV, and retail media to reach consumers throughout their decision-making process. Omnichannel approaches require sophisticated attribution and measurement systems to track cross-platform performance effectively.

Ad Serving Technology: Infrastructure systems that deliver advertising content to websites and applications in response to user requests. High-performance ad serving requires sub-second response times to maintain optimal user experiences while processing complex targeting and optimization logic. Advanced ad serving platforms can handle millions of requests per second while integrating real-time data for personalization and relevance optimization.

Fragmentation: The division of advertising inventory and audiences across numerous independent platforms that lack interoperability and standardized measurement frameworks. In retail media, fragmentation occurs when brands must manage campaigns across multiple retailer platforms using different interfaces, reporting systems, and optimization approaches. This complexity increases operational costs while limiting campaign efficiency and cross-platform attribution capabilities.

OpenRTB Protocol: An industry-standard communication framework that enables different advertising technology platforms to exchange bid requests and responses in real-time auctions. OpenRTB specifications define technical requirements for data formatting, transmission methods, and auction mechanics to ensure compatibility across diverse programmatic systems. Widespread adoption of OpenRTB has facilitated ecosystem growth by reducing integration complexity for buyers and sellers.

First-Party Data: Information that companies collect directly from their customers through owned properties and interactions, including website behavior, purchase history, and preference settings. This data is particularly valuable because it represents consented, accurate information about actual customers rather than inferred or third-party insights. Retail media networks leverage first-party transaction data to offer precise targeting capabilities that cannot be replicated through external platforms.

Inventory Control: The ability for publishers and retailers to maintain authority over which advertisements appear on their properties, including content approval, pricing strategies, and advertiser selection. Effective inventory control systems enable retailers to preserve brand safety while maximizing revenue through automated programmatic channels. This balance between automation and oversight is essential for maintaining publisher-advertiser relationships in programmatic environments.

Summary

Who: Pentaleap Inc., a retail media technology leader, and Teads (NASDAQ: TEAD), the omnichannel outcomes platform, announced the partnership. Andreas Reiffen serves as CEO and Co-Founder of Pentaleap, while Craig Hughes holds the position of EVP Corporate & Business Development at Teads.

What: The companies introduced the first-ever real-time bidding integration for retailers' onsite Sponsored Product Ads, enabling advertisers to activate Sponsored Products across multiple retail networks through Teads Ad Manager platform.

When: The partnership was announced on July 24, 2025, with implementation beginning immediately for participating retail networks and advertisers.

Where: The integration operates globally across retail networks utilizing Pentaleap's technology platform, with initial focus on markets where Teads maintains established advertiser relationships across 50+ countries.

Why: The partnership addresses retail media fragmentation challenges by providing standardized programmatic access to Sponsored Product inventory, solving speed limitations that previously prevented RTB adoption in retail environments while enabling unified omnichannel campaign management for advertisers.