The team-up is also powered by Criteo’s Commerce Grid supply-side platform (SSP), which curates Deal IDs, enabling advertisers to activate commerce-led CTV strategies across the DSP of their choice. This allows them to connect ad exposure to measurable outcomes, such as foot traffic or sales.
Welsch said that from a CTV standpoint, the biggest takeaway from the activation is that CTV doesn’t only have to be a reach and frequency play anymore.
“Driving digital GRPs is becoming a scalable vehicle to deliver against highly curated commerce audiences,” Welsch said.
Balabanov added that the activation marks a new chapter for CTV, one where reach no longer comes at the expense of precision or performance.
“Advertisers are looking for smarter ways to invest,” Balabanov said. “By leveraging our real-time shopper intent signals, they can now apply the same level of performance thinking to CTV that they’ve come to expect from digital. And because it’s built to scale across supply and DSPs, this model is built for growth.”
Merging commerce and premium supply
According to Criteo, its real-time commerce signals are originally from 17,000 e-commerce sites, 200 global retail partners, and thousands of open web publishers, which span over $1 trillion in annual ecommerce sales. Amplifying those signals through WPP Media’s Open Intelligence will be able to create high-intent, as well as shopper audiences created to convert, while brands and advertisers will now be able to access these segments across their preferred DSP partners.
Balabanov said advertisers are under more pressure than ever to prove ROI and that Criteo wants to help them do that by unlocking a new level of accountability in CTV.
“This gives advertisers more control, more flexibility, and more measurable impact. It’s a natural extension of what we’ve always done at Criteo, using commerce data to help brands reach the right consumers, in the right moment, and deliver results,” Balabanov said.
Welsch said we’re at a point in the industry where commerce is at the heart of everything that marketers do.
“Bridging a traditionally upper-funnel supply source with transactional, direct response signals is a strong acknowledgement that the boundaries in which we’ve traditionally bifurcated those types of activations are colliding,” Welsch said. “The output of that is advertisers’ dollars will work harder.”
