Marketplace & retail media agencies, reviewed and ranked

Amazon, Walmart and retail media networks. Scored on contribution margin and TACoS rather than ROAS, which hides the economics that matter here.

13 evaluated, of which we would put 12 in front of a client and cut 1.

ROAS is the wrong number on a marketplace

Marketplace economics are decided by contribution margin after fees, storage, returns and cost of goods — none of which appear in ROAS. The measures this rubric rewards are profitable revenue, TACoS, new-to-brand and organic halo. An agency reporting ROAS alone can grow your sales and shrink your profit, and both of you will be surprised.

Half the job is the listing, not the ads

Titles, bullets, imagery, video, A+ content and storefronts decide whether the traffic converts, and paid spend against a weak listing is a subsidy to the platform. Ask who owns the catalog work — agencies that only touch the ad console are working on the smaller lever.

Ask which networks, specifically

Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Display, DSP, AMC, Walmart Connect and Instacart are genuinely different systems with different economics. Depth in the two or three that matter to you beats nominal coverage of all of them.

Evaluated

And the ones we cut, so you can judge the rest

Named, with the reason and the sources.