A retail media network is advertising a retailer sells on its own website or app, putting a brand's sponsored products in front of shoppers who are already searching or browsing on that retailer's platform. Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect and Instacart Ads are the three retail media networks most relevant to Canadian manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and DTC brands right now, and each works differently in terms of access, cost and fit. This guide covers what each one actually is, how they compare, and how to budget a first pilot without guessing.
This sits alongside the channels we have already covered in our guides to selling on Amazon Canada and selling on the Walmart Marketplace. Those guides cover how to list and sell. This one covers how to advertise once the listing exists.
01. The Quick Answer: What Is a Retail Media Network
- What it is: advertising sold by a retailer on its own site, app or in-store screens, reaching shoppers who are already searching or browsing there.
- Who runs the biggest ones in Canada: Amazon Ads on Amazon.ca, Walmart Connect on Walmart.ca, and Instacart Ads for partnered Canadian grocers.
- How it differs from search or social ads: retail media reaches shoppers after purchase intent already exists, not before it.
- Who should start now: any brand already selling through Amazon.ca or the Walmart Canada Marketplace with products that already convert organically.
02. At a Glance: Retail Media Networks Available to Canadian Brands
| Platform | Where it runs | Access | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Ads | Amazon.ca search results and product detail pages | Self-serve for any active Amazon seller or vendor account, no minimum spend | Brands already selling through Amazon.ca who want to win the buy box on competitive searches |
| Walmart Connect Canada | Walmart.ca search results and onsite display placements | Self-serve for approved Walmart Canada Marketplace sellers | Manufacturers and wholesalers already listed on the Walmart Canada Marketplace |
| Instacart Ads | Instacart search and category pages for partnered Canadian grocers | Self-serve, budget-based, tied to an active retailer partnership | CPG, grocery and food and beverage brands sold through Canadian grocery retailers |
| Google and Meta ads (for contrast) | Search results and social feeds, independent of any one retailer | Self-serve, no retailer relationship required | Building awareness and driving new traffic before a shopper reaches any retailer |
Why it matters: the right first retail media network is whichever one already carries a brand's sales, not whichever platform is most talked about. Spending on Instacart Ads without a grocery retailer relationship, or on Walmart Connect without an approved marketplace listing, spends budget with nowhere for the click to land.
03. Why Retail Media Is Growing Faster Than Traditional Digital Ads
Retail media spend has been one of the fastest growing categories in digital advertising because it sells something search and social ads cannot: a shopper who has already typed a product search into a retailer's own site, with a payment method on file and an order about to happen. Retailers have every incentive to keep building this inventory, since it monetizes traffic they already have without needing a shopper to leave the platform.
Why it matters: for a Canadian brand competing for shelf space, literal or digital, retail media is becoming table stakes the same way a paid search presence became table stakes a decade ago. A competitor's sponsored listing above an organic one on Amazon.ca is a real, immediate threat to a sale that was otherwise already won.
04. Amazon Ads in Canada: Sponsored Products, Brands and Display
Amazon Ads is the largest and most mature retail media network available to Canadian brands, running on Amazon.ca with the same three core formats available in the US market. Sponsored Products place a listing directly in search results and on competing product pages. Sponsored Brands show a brand's logo and a small collection of products above search results. Sponsored Display retargets shoppers who viewed a product but did not buy, both on and off Amazon.
Why it matters: because Amazon Ads is self-serve with no minimum spend, it is usually the lowest-friction retail media network for a Canadian brand to test first, provided the brand already has an active Amazon.ca seller or vendor account and at least one product with organic reviews.
05. Walmart Connect Canada: What It Is and Who Can Use It
Walmart Connect is Walmart's retail media network, and its Canadian program gives sellers on the Walmart Canada Marketplace sponsored search placements on Walmart.ca along with onsite display inventory. It follows a similar self-serve model to Amazon Ads, but access depends on already being an approved Walmart Canada Marketplace seller, which is a separate application process from Amazon.
Why it matters: Canadian manufacturers and wholesalers who have already gone through the work of getting approved and listed on Walmart Canada Marketplace have a real, underused advertising channel sitting on top of that listing. Many sellers stop at getting listed and never turn on the advertising layer that would help that listing actually get found.
06. Instacart Ads: Retail Media for Grocery and CPG Brands
Instacart Ads let a brand sponsor placement in Instacart's search results and category pages, reaching shoppers who are building a grocery order through a Canadian retailer partnered with Instacart. This is a narrower fit than Amazon Ads or Walmart Connect, useful specifically for food, beverage and consumer packaged goods brands whose products move through grocery retail rather than general marketplaces.
Why it matters: a manufacturer selling primarily through distributors into grocery retail, rather than direct to consumer, often overlooks retail media entirely because it assumes retail media only applies to Amazon. Instacart Ads exists for exactly this kind of brand.
07. Retail Media vs Traditional Search and Social Ads
Search and social ads, covered in our guide to multichannel ecommerce advertising, reach a shopper before or during research, often on a platform unrelated to any specific retailer. Retail media reaches the same shopper later in the journey, inside a retailer's own storefront, after they have already searched for a product or category there. Neither replaces the other.
Why it matters: a brand that shifts its entire ad budget from Google and Meta into retail media usually sees fewer new shoppers arrive on the retailer's site to begin with, which shrinks the pool retail media has to convert. The two budgets work together, not against each other.
08. Running a First Retail Media Pilot
- Pick the retailer where the revenue already exists. Start retail media spend on the marketplace where a brand already has sales history and reviews, since a new listing with no track record converts poorly regardless of ad spend.
- Advertise the products with proven organic conversion first. A product that already sells well organically on Amazon.ca or Walmart.ca is the safest first candidate for sponsored placement, because the ad is amplifying demand rather than trying to create it from nothing.
- Set a small daily budget and let two to four weeks of data accumulate. Retail media auctions need enough data to show which keywords, categories and placements actually convert before a budget increase makes sense.
- Keep listing content and retail media in sync. An ad that wins the click but lands on a product page with thin content, missing images or poor pricing wastes the spend. Fix the listing before scaling the ad.
- Track retail media spend against that channel's own revenue, not blended ROAS. Attributing Amazon Ads spend against total company revenue hides whether the specific channel is actually profitable, which is the number that should decide whether to scale it.
Retail media spend follows a retailer's own auction dynamics, which shift with competition and seasonality. Treat any early result as a signal to refine, not a fixed number to lock in for the year.
Why it matters: the brands that get the most out of retail media treat the first month as a controlled test, not a full launch, which keeps the downside small while the data comes in.
09. How AtlanticWorks Helps
AtlanticWorks manages Shopify, Amazon and Walmart Marketplace advertising for Atlantic Canada manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and DTC brands, including retail media pilots on Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect alongside the Google, Meta and Microsoft campaigns covered in our Shopify feed setup guide. As a certified Shopify, HubSpot, Google and Salesforce partner, we scope retail media spend against the revenue it should actually move, not a generic percentage of total marketing budget. You keep full ownership of every account and campaign we build. It starts with a free assessment of which channels fit your current listings.
10. Key Takeaways
- A retail media network is advertising sold by a retailer on its own site or app, reaching shoppers who are already searching or browsing there, which is different from search or social ads that reach people before any purchase intent exists.
- Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect Canada and Instacart Ads are the three retail media networks most relevant to Canadian manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and DTC brands in 2026.
- Retail media and traditional search or social advertising are complementary, not substitutes. Retail media converts intent that search and social ads help create in the first place.
- The safest first pilot advertises products that already convert organically, on the marketplace where a brand already has sales history and reviews.
- Track retail media spend against the revenue of that specific channel, not blended company-wide ROAS, to know whether it is actually worth scaling.
- Retail media budgets should scale as a percentage of revenue already flowing through that marketplace, not as a disconnected line item.
11. Frequently Asked Questions
What is a retail media network?
A retail media network is an advertising platform built and sold by a retailer, using the retailer's own website, app and search results as ad inventory. Amazon Ads, Walmart Connect and Instacart Ads are all retail media networks: a brand pays the retailer to show sponsored products or banners to shoppers who are already searching or browsing on that retailer's site, at the exact moment they are closest to buying. This is different from a traditional display or social ad, which interrupts someone before they have expressed any purchase intent.
How is retail media different from Google or Meta ads?
Google and Meta ads reach a shopper before or during their research phase, often on a search engine or social feed unrelated to any one retailer. Retail media reaches the same shopper inside a retailer's own storefront, after they have already searched for a product or category on that retailer, which typically means higher purchase intent and a tighter link between the ad and the sale. Most Canadian brands use both: search and social ads to build awareness and drive traffic, retail media to convert that intent once a shopper is already on Amazon.ca, Walmart.ca or Instacart.
Is Amazon Ads available to Canadian sellers?
Yes. Amazon Ads runs on Amazon.ca the same way it runs on Amazon.com, with Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display available on a self-serve basis to any brand selling through Amazon's Canadian marketplace. A seller does not need a separate approval process beyond having an active Amazon seller or vendor account, and budgets can start small and scale once a campaign shows which products and keywords convert.
What is Walmart Connect and can Canadian brands use it?
Walmart Connect is Walmart's retail media network, and its Canadian program runs on Walmart.ca for brands selling through the Walmart Canada Marketplace. It gives sellers sponsored search placements and onsite display inventory in front of shoppers already browsing Walmart.ca, which is a meaningful channel for Canadian manufacturers and wholesalers who already sell through the marketplace, covered in our guide to selling on Walmart Marketplace Canada.
What is Instacart advertising and who should use it?
Instacart Ads let CPG, grocery, and food and beverage brands pay for sponsored placement in Instacart's search results and category pages, reaching shoppers who are actively building a grocery order through a Canadian retailer partnered with Instacart. It is a narrower fit than Amazon Ads or Walmart Connect, useful mainly for brands whose products are actually sold through grocery and consumer packaged goods channels rather than general Shopify or marketplace retail.
How much should a small Canadian brand budget for retail media in 2026?
Most retail media networks are self-serve and let a brand start with a modest daily budget on a handful of best-selling products, then reallocate spend toward whatever converts once two to four weeks of data comes in. A reasonable starting point for a small or mid-sized brand is to treat retail media as a percentage of the revenue already flowing through that specific marketplace, not as a separate budget line disconnected from where the sales actually happen, and to expand only after the first pilot shows a return worth scaling.
Does retail media replace SEO and paid search?
No. Retail media only reaches shoppers who are already on that specific retailer's platform, so it depends on organic search, paid search and social advertising to keep bringing new shoppers into the funnel in the first place. A brand that cuts its Google Ads or SEO investment to fund retail media spend usually sees fewer shoppers arrive on the retailer's site to begin with, which shrinks the audience retail media can convert. The two are complementary, not substitutes.
Related resources
How to list, price and fulfill on Amazon.ca before you advertise
Getting approved and listed before turning on Walmart Connect
Coordinating Google, Meta and marketplace ad spend
The product feed foundation retail media sits alongside
Not sure which retail media network fits your listings?
AtlanticWorks runs a free assessment of your Amazon, Walmart and Shopify channels, then scopes a retail media pilot around the products and marketplaces that already convert.
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