Should We Really Care What Consumers Think About Retail Media Ads?

New research from Capgemini found that 67% of shoppers notice retail media ads. The research also reveals that consumers find retail media more relevant than most other advertising—68% say retail-site search ads meet their needs, compared to much lower satisfaction scores for traditional digital formats.

But before marketers start celebrating these positive sentiment scores or worrying about the 33% who don't notice ads, they should consider a more fundamental question: does it actually matter what consumers say about retail media?

The answer is probably not as much as you'd think.

Consumer surveys tell us that people don't like ads, they don't influence buying habits, they want ads to be more personalized but find it freaky when they're too personalized. Meanwhile, other research reveals classic contradictions: 70% say "commerce video" ads annoy them monthly, yet 75% also say those same shoppable videos help them make better purchase decisions.

Here's the reality: asking shoppers about retail media ads is like asking fish about water—they're swimming in it without realizing it exists. While consumer feedback offers valuable context for creative and placement strategies, treating it as a north star for budget allocation is a costly mistake.

The Recognition Problem: Consumers Can't See What They're Swimming In

The first issue with consumer opinion research is that shoppers fundamentally misunderstand what retail media actually is. Capgemini's survey reveals what people think they notice, not how retail media works in practice.

Consumers equate "retail media" with the most obvious formats—sponsored product listings that sit directly in search results with clear "Sponsored" labels. This makes sense: sponsored product ads sit smack in the middle of a shopping task and are clearly labeled as "Sponsored," making them impossible to miss.

These are likely the ads that 67% of shoppers notice. But retail media as any advertising powered by retailer first-party data, a much broader ecosystem that extends far beyond on-site sponsored placements.

This gap creates systematic under-counting of retail media's true reach. When a CTV spot or paid TikTok video is bought through Walmart Connect using shopper data for targeting, consumers have no framework to identify it as "retail media." From their perspective, it's simply a TV commercial or social media ad, even though it's powered by retailer insights and measured against in-store sales lift.

And this off-site spending—fueled by CTV and paid social—is growing three times faster than on-site formats. eMarketer reports that retail media network off-site spend will grow 2-3 times faster than on-site advertising over the next two years.

Consumers Can't Agree on What They Want

Even when focusing on formats consumers do recognize, the research reveals fundamental contradictions that make preference data unreliable for strategic decisions.

Take personalization: Capgemini's report shows 59% of consumers complain that in-store ads are too generic, while 53% want personalized screens. Yet separate eMarketer research found that while 30% say the personalization they value most is tailored retail media offers, 76% are uncomfortable with AI using their data to power that personalization.

Other paradoxes appear throughout retail media research. Consumers simultaneously demand relevance and reject the data collection that makes relevance possible.

The contradictions extend to effectiveness claims. The same consumers who report finding retail media ads annoying also acknowledge they help with purchase decisions. Only 24.5% of consumers claim they'd make an impulse buy after seeing an in-store ad—but 48.6% actually have.

They claim ads don't influence their buying behavior while demonstrating the opposite through their actual purchasing patterns.

Effectiveness trumps perception

While consumers express mixed feelings about retail media advertising, marketers are responding to clearer signals: measurable business results.

According to the Retail Media Network Ratings & Insights report by Path to Purchase Institute and TransUnion, 80% of CPG marketers say retail media networks are as or more effective than other digital channels. More importantly, 70% increased their budgets again in 2024, demonstrating that results are supporting future investment decisions.

(Further reading of this research in my earlier article: The Retail Media Performance Gap Is Even Wider Than We Thought)

This budget growth is happening despite—or perhaps because of—consumer ambivalence. Marketers aren't asking whether shoppers enjoy retail media ads; they're asking whether those ads drive profitable growth. The explosive growth in retail media spending, particularly in off-site channels where consumer recognition is lowest, suggests performance metrics are trumping sentiment scores.

The channel's distinctive measurement advantage explains this disconnect. Retail media's ability to provide closed-loop measurement that connects advertising exposure directly to purchase behavior fundamentally changes how marketers should evaluate success. When you can track whether an ad impression led to an actual sale, consumer satisfaction surveys become secondary considerations.

Whether or not consumers notice ads or say they find them helpful, the fundamental promise of retail media is the ability to measure actual impact. The question that should drive budget allocation isn't "Do consumers like these ads?" but rather "Did this campaign drive incremental sales?"

The Bottom Line

Perhaps the most important reason to view consumer opinion data skeptically is the well-documented disconnect between what people say and what they do. Self-report bias means what shoppers claim in surveys is a shaky predictor of actual behavior.

This pattern appears across consumer categories. According to Harvard Business Review research, 65% of people say they prefer eco-friendly brands, yet only 26% actually buy them when faced with real purchasing decisions. The gap between stated preferences and revealed preferences through behavior is a fundamental challenge in consumer research.

The contradictions in consumer feedback—wanting personalization but rejecting data collection, finding ads annoying but helpful, claiming immunity to advertising influence while demonstrating the opposite through behavior—suggest these surveys capture aspiration more than reality.

Consumer opinion research offers useful context for optimizing retail media creative and placement strategies, but treating it as a referendum on channel viability misses the bigger picture. The explosive growth in off-site retail media spending, sustained marketer confidence despite mixed consumer sentiment, and superior measurement capabilities all point to a channel that delivers results regardless of stated preferences.

Smart marketers will use sentiment data to improve their retail media execution while recognizing that in a performance-driven channel, the ultimate consumer vote happens at the point of purchase, not in a survey response.