What the explosive growth of financial media networks means for retailers 

It all marks a new chapter in the evolution of ad networks as the space grows beyond conventional retailers. From 2024 to 2026, financial media network ad spending in the U.S. is poised to explode at a compound annual growth rate of 107% to hit $1.50 billion, according to an eMarketer report published this month. Admittedly, it’s a small piece of the overall retail media pie — U.S. advertisers are forecasted to spend more than $54 billion on retail media by the end of this year. But given the massive footprints and troves of customer data financial institutions have access to, it’s hard to overstate the role banks and other financial services will play in the broader advertising industry. 

“The financial media network market is really tiny, but within that market, the growth is enormous,” said eMarketer analyst Maria Elm in an interview. 

It’s only a matter of time before more financial institutions hop on the bandwagon with advertising businesses of their own. Some of the biggest candidates include Citigroup, Capital One and American Express, to name a few. 

How it all started 

The rush to make everything shoppable is driven in part by increasingly stringent consumer privacy legislation and the death of the third-party cookie. That means digital advertisers are losing the ability to find and target individual audiences, making troves of first-party data, like the ad networks run by retail giants Amazon, Walmart and Target, a lifeline for media buyers. Like retailers, financial institutions are sitting on a vast amount of shopper data. It’s no surprise that banks are turning that data into a lucrative side hustle.

“In an environment where first-party data is going to be like gold dust for advertisers, that really opens the floodgates for more of these kinds of ad networks,” said Elm. 

Retail media networks in general have seen enormous growth and revenues thanks in part to changes Apple made to user privacy on iPhones in 2021, which made it harder for social media apps like Facebook to track consumer behavior for advertisers by letting users opt out of online ad targeting. 

Indisputably, the biggest beneficiary of this policy change was Amazon, as the online marketplace became a more attractive destination for brands to gain insights into shopping behavior and convince people to buy their goods. Amazon alone will capture 77% of U.S. retail media ad revenues, per eMarketer. As Amazon’s ad business grew, retail media challengers like Walmart and Instacart took notice, launching their own ad businesses.

Arguably, financial institutions are better positioned than traditional media networks to deliver returns for advertisers. While retailers only know what people are buying from their particular store, financial media networks capture a much more comprehensive picture of customer spending. Take PayPal, for instance. The online payments provider can see itemized spending history across a range of retailers. They also know what customers bought and what they returned. 

“You’re not necessarily shopping for products when you’re in your Chase app, but you’ve got an impression there, and it’s a very targeted one,” said Nich Weinheimer, evp of strategy at advertising platform Skai. “I think that’s a great value to expand.”

What’s next

Looking ahead, eMarketer’s Elm expects financial institutions like banks to leverage additional data, such as mortgage loans and investment holdings, to turbocharge their ad networks.  

“If they can share with an advertiser that they know that you took out a mortgage or a home improvement loan, then that’s going to be really valuable to someone who sells home goods,” said Elm. “It opens up a whole new world.”

Eventually, Elm also predicts that banks, which can’t see product-level data, will form relationships with retailers to obtain information about the specific items customers buy and target ads more effectively. Meanwhile, non-banks may build data-sharing relationships with specialist financial providers to tap data from complex, long-term products like mortgages and investments. 

All told, financial media networks will likely grow in size and scope, assuming banks and payment providers can get customers, advertisers and regulators on board.

Obstacles ahead

Still, financial media networks face plenty of challenges along the way. 

One major concern among regulators is whether or not financial media networks violate consumer privacy. Last fall, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed a rule that would guarantee a consumer’s right to their data, including letting customers opt in or opt out of their data being used for advertising purposes.  

Plus, consumers don’t spend a long time using financial apps, diminishing the opportunity for users to see and engage with ads. By the end of 2026, daily time spent on apps that fall under “other activity,” including banking, will reach just 31 minutes, or about 14% of total time spent on apps, per eMarketer. In contrast, video apps will make up more than 35% of users’ total time. As a result, advertisers may shy away from pumping resources into lesser-viewed platforms. 

Relatedly, banks and payment providers will have to be careful not to agitate consumers with ads on financial platforms, where consumers are generally less receptive to seeing adverts.  

As eMarketer analyst Sarah Marzano put it, “When you look at various upset formats or new industries looking to get into the retail media space, the challenge is really thinking about what frame of mind that customer is going to be in and whether you can incentivize shopping behavior without interrupting what the customer has come to your space to accomplish.”