Costs and pricing
Retail media pricing: questions to put to a seller before you accept a rate
Retail media pricing models start with one question: what does the seller bill on? Ask it for clicks, impressions, share of spend and fixed charges.
A rate is only half a quote. The seller's billable event decides what the rate multiplies, so the first conversation with an England retailer selling advertising should settle that event, not the price.
The questions below follow the four shapes a quote can take: a rate per click, a rate per thousand impressions, a share of working media spend and a fixed charge. They draw on how Amazon Ads, Tesco Media, Nectar360, Criteo, Boots Media Group and Ocado Ads are described. Public rate cards are rare, so no tariff is invented.
What to take away
- Ask what the seller bills on before you ask what it charges.
- A click rate, a CPM, a share of spend and a fixed charge are different calculations, so labels prove nothing.
- Ad requests, impressions, clicks and sales are separate events, and none stands in for another without evidence.
- Criteo's fee records are global service descriptions, not a comparable England price pair.
- A seller who cannot answer a question leaves a gap, and the honest result may be UNKNOWN.
Five questions for every seller
Put the same five questions to every seller before any rate is read, because quotes only compare when the envelope matches.
- Which retailer property and placement does the quote cover?
- What service period and included operational work does it assume?
- What is the billing-event definition, with its filtering rules and reconciliation basis?
- Which currency, payment timing and commitments apply?
- How is VAT treated on the invoice?
Common contract envelope
- Same retailer property, placement, service period
- Shared billing-event definition and filtering rules
- Reconciliation basis agreed for both quotes
- Currency, payment timing, commitments, VAT treatment
- Separate managed campaign work from software-only supply
- Mark comparison unavailable if scope cannot be quoted
A quote that leaves one of these open is an unfinished quote, not a cheaper one. Agree a shared billing-event definition in writing, and note who answered and when.
If the seller bills per click
Amazon Ads sells Sponsored Products on a cost-per-click basis, and Ocado Ads is described the same way for sponsored products. Nectar360 is described with CPM or CPC. The question is what counts as a click, since that quantity is what the rate multiplies.
Ask whether the click count is the one the seller will invoice from, and whether the same report also shows impressions. Amazon Ads reports clicks and impressions separately, and Tesco Media reports clicks for sponsored products. Do not treat one count as a proxy for the other.
If the seller bills per thousand impressions
Tesco Media sells on-site display on a CPM basis, and Nectar360 and Boots Media Group are described with CPM for on-site display. A CPM multiplies eligible impressions divided by 1,000, so ask what counts as an impression before comparing any two figures.
Ask whether an ad request, a served impression or a viewable impression is billed. Ad requests are not served impressions, and served impressions need not meet a viewability criterion. IAB Europe's May 2026 standards help document the denominator, but they do not make a request-priced offer equal to an impression-priced purchase.
| Seller says | Do not treat it as | Ask for instead |
|---|---|---|
| Ad requests | Served impressions | The count of served impressions |
| Served impressions | Viewable impressions | The viewability criterion, if one applies |
| Clicks | Impressions or sales | Clicks and impressions reported separately |
| Attributed or incremental sales | Delivery volume | The delivered quantity the rate multiplies |
Billable events by provider
Provider
- Amazon Ads (UK)
- CPC Sponsored Products
- Tesco Media
- CPM on-site display
- Sainsbury's Nectar360
- CPM or CPC
- Criteo Retail Media
- % of working media spend
- Boots Media Group
- CPM on-site display
- Ocado Ads
- CPC sponsored products
Billable event
- Amazon Ads (UK)
- £0.30–£1.50
- Tesco Media
- £5–£20
- Sainsbury's Nectar360
- £8–£25 CPM
- Criteo Retail Media
- 10%–20%
- Boots Media Group
- £10–£30
- Ocado Ads
- £0.40+
Typical rate
- Amazon Ads (UK)
- Tesco Media
- Sainsbury's Nectar360
- Criteo Retail Media
- Boots Media Group
- Ocado Ads
Converting between these quantities needs evidence about the relationship, not a convenient assumption. Neither attributed nor incremental sales should stand in for delivery volume, and the media measurement definitions say which count is which.
If the seller bills a share of spend
Criteo Retail Media is described with a percentage of working media spend, account-specific, with off-site CPM billed separately. A percentage is only as comparable as its base, so ask which spend counts as working media.
Criteo's fee explanation, inspected on 6 September 2026, describes account-specific percentages of working media spend. Its off-site CPM billing record concerns a different billing context. Neither supplies a comparable England price pair, so carry no percentage from one quote into another.
Can a tariff be published?
Is there a dated, comparable England price pair?
Publish the verified rate
Retain as UNKNOWN
These are global first-party service descriptions with no reliable publication date established here. Restrict their relevance to buying retailer-related advertising under the applicable arrangement. Do not import off-site terms into an on-site quote or generalise account-specific fees across the market.
If the seller bills a fixed charge
A fixed charge multiplies nothing, so compare it over the same contracted period. A term described as monthly still needs its start, end and commitment conditions recorded the same way in every quote.
If one proposal includes managed campaign work and the other supplies only software, separate the added work rather than compare totals unchanged. Where a seller cannot quote the required scope, mark the comparison unavailable and do not fill the gap with an assumed service allowance.
Any minimum spend, cancellation charge or rebate must come from the actual terms and keep its qualifying conditions. Ask the seller to confirm each one in writing.
The VAT question for finance
Ask finance to confirm VAT treatment before comparing, including whether any recoverable amount should leave the economic comparison but stay visible in cash planning. No VAT rate is assumed here.
HMRC's notice on the place of supply of services sets default rules for business customers and for consumers, with exceptions.
For a supplier outside the UK, HMRC's VAT guide says a customer under the business-to-business general rule must account for any output tax due. The customer can recover that VAT as input tax, subject to the normal rules.
When the answers do not arrive
List the unmatched fields and unresolved inputs before drawing any conclusion. Quantities, spend and fees for one account stay unconfirmed without a signed quote, and the proper result may be UNKNOWN rather than a winning model.
Record the answers in a cost record with their dates. This is not legal or tax advice; qualified reviewers must assess the commercial evidence, and the official records need refreshing before a later buying decision.
Before you act
- Put the five envelope questions to every seller.
- Ask what each seller bills onclick, thousand impressions, share of spend or fixed charge.
- Get the definition of the billed event in writing.
- Ask whether ad requests, served impressions or viewable impressions are billed.
- Ask which spend counts as working media for any percentage fee.
- Separate managed campaign work from software-only supply before comparing totals.
- List unanswered questions before drawing any conclusion.
Common questions
What is the first question to ask a retail media seller about price?
Ask what the seller bills on. A click, a thousand impressions, a share of working media spend and a fixed charge are different calculations, so a headline label cannot show which quote is cheaper. Settle the billable unit first, then read the rate.
What should happen when a seller cannot quote the required scope?
Mark the comparison unavailable. Do not fill the gap with an assumed service allowance. Where the answers do not arrive, the honest outcome may be UNKNOWN rather than a winning model.
Can ad requests, impressions, clicks and sales be swapped in a comparison?
No. They are separate events. Ad requests are not served impressions, and served impressions need not meet a viewability criterion. Neither attributed nor incremental sales should stand in for delivery volume without documented evidence of the relationship.
