In 2024, retail media networks (RMNs) dominated discussions of paid digital advertising. But in 2025, commerce media is poised to take center stage as it offers advertisers a more comprehensive approach to digital targeting. While often used interchangeably with retail media, commerce media is actually the next evolution in digital advertising targeting.
What Is Commerce Media?
Commerce media represents a more nuanced strategy for understanding consumer behavior. While retail media focuses on data from consumer-facing retail brands like Amazon and Walmart, commerce media taps into a wider array of institutions that offer products and services, like United Airlines and PayPal. According to EMARKETER, 58% of brands are seeking consumer verticals to provide similar opportunities to RMNs. And within this commerce media ecosystem, financial media networks (like PayPal) are projected to generate $1.5 billion in ad spend this year alone.
The core advantage of commerce media lies in its ability to target users based on a more holistic digital footprint that moves beyond singular transactional data. Advertisers gain a more intimate understanding of consumer behaviors across multiple platforms, enabling more sophisticated, and contextually relevant, targeting strategies.
The Evolution From Retail Media to Commerce Media
Retail media paved the way for this broader approach by demonstrating the potential of data-driven advertising. The transition from purely transactional data to loyalty and intent insights allows nonretailers to maximize their unique data sets. This evolution is crucial in a saturated digital advertising environment, where understanding a consumer’s diverse online interactions provides incremental targeting benefits.
Consider how a consumer’s shopping behavior on Amazon might differ significantly from their interactions on PayPal-enabled platforms. Commerce media offers visibility into these varied digital touch points, making it possible for advertisers to meet potential consumers at more receptive moments.
How Travel Brands Can Benefit
Travel brands are uniquely positioned to leverage commerce media data because destination awareness, inspiration and booking aren’t confined to a single platform. A comprehensive understanding of consumers’ digital footprints enables highly personalized campaigns that go beyond traditional targeting. By analyzing touch points across various platforms – from flight research to financial interactions and loyalty programs – travel marketers can uncover nuanced insights about consumer intent, preferences and purchasing power.
A recent Marigold survey underscores that consumers want to be treated as individuals, expecting brands to engage in meaningful, personalized conversations. Commerce media enables this by providing a holistic view of digital interactions, allowing advertisers to deliver tailored messages. And for travel brands, this means moving beyond generic advertising to create connections that feel intimate, relevant and timely.
By tapping into commerce media data, advertisers can take more intimate, human-centered marketing approaches. Given that travel is already inherently personal, the ability to forge meaningful connections significantly impacts trust, loyalty and repeat visitation – elevating the travel experience for visitors while driving measurable results for travel brands.
