Best Food and Beverage Retail Media Agencies

Your snack might need a better introduction. Your drink might need a campaign built for a specific grocery chain. Those are different jobs, even when both land under “retail media.”

The right food and beverage retail media agency depends on what you need help with: buying ads, making creative, managing retailer accounts or running a larger shopper campaign. Amazon, Walmart Connect, Instacart and Target Roundel also require different experience.

Below, you'll find ten agencies with verified retail media services and food or beverage experience. Each profile explains its particular strengths, so you can build a shortlist around the work you actually need. We include 9AM, our agency, first (but it’s tested against the same criteria as all agencies in this review).

Food and Beverage Retail Media Agencies at a Glance

Start with the work you need help with. Some agencies focus on buying ads. Others also make creative, manage retailer accounts or run shopper promotions. Use this table to find the profiles that fit your needs.

Food and Beverage Retail Media Agencies

These ten agencies offer retail media capabilities relevant to food and beverage marketing. We reviewed official service pages, work archives and category evidence to identify their strengths. Use the descriptions to choose a service fit; the order isn't a performance scorecard.

1. 9AM

Best for: Creative testing and expert analytics across retail media and paid social

9AM develops ad concepts, produces variations and uses campaign results to decide what to make next. That gives you creative support alongside the team managing your media budget.

The team’s creative strategy service covers video, static ads, carousels and story formats. They test variables such as the opening hook, message, offer and visual style. Their media team manages campaigns on platforms such as Amazon Advertising, Walmart Connect and Target Roundel, as well as paid social.

For food and beverage, that creates room to test how you introduce the product. Say you're advertising a brand of juicers: a quick breakfast demonstration answers “How would I use this?” An ingredient-led ad answers a different question. The team can develop both concepts and measure how each performs against your campaign goal.

You get an ongoing creative testing process. The next brief and budget decision is based on accurately measured weekly/monthly results, whereas reusing the same launch assets for months leads to fatigue.

2. Harvest Group

Best for: Retail media alongside retailer account support

Harvest Group can support the retailer relationship as well as the advertising account. Its teams cover sales, replenishment, analytics and business strategy, along with hands-on retail media management.

Its account management service includes preparing for sales meetings and managing buyer relationships. Separately, its retail media team handles planning, campaign execution and optimization across networks such as Walmart Connect, Kroger Precision Marketing and Instacart.

Harvest also builds its own advertising technology. The tools support bid optimization, dayparting, budget management and digital shelf analysis, while advertising managers remain responsible for the campaigns.

That broader service range is useful if you need help managing an important grocery account. You can discuss retailer sales priorities, replenishment and advertising with specialists in the same organization. For a lean food marketing team working closely with sales, that's a more substantial engagement than outsourcing PPC alone.

3. Mars United Commerce

Best for: Retailer planning supported by Marilyn commerce data

Mars United Commerce combines retail media buying with retailer expertise and its Marilyn technology platform. Its team can look at your ads alongside sales, operations and product listings.

The agency's digital commerce services include media planning and buying, ecommerce account management and product content. Marilyn adds tools for comparing campaign results across retailers, while its ecommerce insights cover search, sales and shelf performance.

That matters when you're reviewing several grocery accounts. A campaign report can show what happened inside an ad account. Sales and product information help your team investigate why one retailer performed differently from another.

Mars also has a wider creative and shopper marketing practice, including retailer-specific activations. That means you can bring in analysts, media buyers and retailer specialists for a larger campaign.

4. Tinuiti

Best for: Audience planning across grocery media and streaming

Tinuiti approaches food and beverage advertising through audience planning across retail and other media. It combines grocery platforms with channels such as search, social and streaming, supported by its TAPS audience planning system and Bliss Point measurement tools.

Its food and beverage practice explicitly covers Amazon, Instacart and major grocery retailers. The team also evaluates online and offline performance, including the relationship between digital campaigns and in-store sales.

Consider Tinuiti if you want to expand beyond sponsored products and need help deciding which audiences to reach next. Its team can research those audiences and plan the additional channels to introduce your snack to more potential customers.

If grocery ads are one part of your customer acquisition plan, Tinuiti can help you look at who your campaigns reach across channels and how they contribute to sales.

5. Acadia

Best for: Food launches with retail media and shopper activation

Acadia can take on a food launch that needs marketplace advertising, creative production and shopper activity. Its food work includes campaigns spanning retail media, social creative, in-store sampling and point-of-sale materials.

Its retail media services cover Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, Target Roundel and Kroger Precision Marketing. Acadia also works on product pages, promotions and other marketplace tasks.

Acadia's own platform, Acadia Analyze, brings results from multiple networks into one place. That can help you decide which retailer campaigns deserve more of your budget.

That range of services can help when you're launching a product. A new protein bar, for example, may need people to see an ad, understand what makes it different and try it in person. You can brief Acadia on the launch, including retail ads and sampling, instead of commissioning those as unrelated projects.

6. Channel Bakers

Best for: Retailer campaigns with in-house video production

Channel Bakers has an in-house production team that can script, shoot and edit video alongside its advertising services. That's useful if your campaign needs product demonstrations and you don't want to source a separate production company.

Its advertising and video services include sponsored formats, streaming TV, product detail content and ecommerce account management. Its published food work also documents campaign management across Amazon, Instacart, Walmart and Target.

For a beverage, video can show the pour, texture or serving occasion. A product image identifies the pack; a demonstration gives you more room to explain the experience. Those assets can then be adapted to the formats included in your campaign.

Channel Bakers is worth considering when production is a substantial part of the job. You get retail advertising and video production from the same agency, with broader account management available if you need it.

7. Flywheel

Best for: Retail media automation and marketplace operations

Flywheel pairs its Commerce Cloud software with managed media and retail operations services. Its team can run your campaigns and help with the day-to-day work of selling on marketplaces.

Its managed media team uses tools for intraday bidding, rule-based optimization and placement targeting. Services include retail paid search, programmatic display, video and Amazon Marketing Cloud analysis.

Beyond advertising, Flywheel provides digital commerce support such as inventory forecasting, marketplace brand protection and fee recovery. You can add those services if your team needs help with them.

This is a particularly useful model if you have many products or marketplace accounts to manage. Software can carry out repeated bidding tasks, while specialists handle campaign strategy and operational issues. For a food business with different pack sizes and a growing online assortment, that combination can cover considerably more work than a media-only retainer.

8. Advantage Unified Commerce

Best for: Shopper marketing and retail media in one engagement

Advantage Unified Commerce can run retail media as part of a larger shopper marketing campaign. Its teams also handle retailer programs, creative and product listings, with experience across grocery, mass and club retailers.

Its media and performance practice handles planning, buying and measurement, including retail search, product marketing and online and in-store retail networks. Other teams cover shopper strategy and commerce creative.

That mix is useful when paid ads are part of a bigger campaign. For example, you might need a seasonal retailer promotion, creative for the offer and ads to tell shoppers about it.

AUC also manages Amazon accounts. If you need help with product listings as well as ads, you can discuss both with its team.

9. Blue Chip

Best for: Food creative adapted to retailers and shopping occasions

Blue Chip plans retail media around category behavior, the reason for the shopping trip and the message you want people to remember. Its creative and media teams work together on those decisions.

Its retail media capabilities cover Amazon, Walmart, Kroger, Target and Instacart. The agency also connects campaign planning with ecommerce, shopper marketing and retailer performance reviews.

Think about a breakfast product: a weekday ad might focus on getting out the door quickly, while a weekend ad might show a recipe. Blue Chip considers those kinds of shopping occasions when planning creative and media.

Blue Chip also buys video, audio, social and other media. Consider it when you need a food campaign idea that can work across retailer placements and broader advertising, with creative development central to the assignment.

10. DIGITS

Best for: Target campaigns and regional grocery advertising

DIGITS specializes in Target, regional grocery and alcohol retail media. Its team includes former Target operators, and its services cover Roundel advertising and Target Circle promotions.

Its regional grocery programs give consumer packaged goods companies a way to advertise through retailers such as Coborn's and Fareway. Available program elements include offsite campaigns, retailer email, ecommerce placements and digital coupons. In-store screens are also part of some programs.

DIGITS handles planning, creative, execution and reporting. That's helpful if you sell mainly through regional chains and want a team that knows how to advertise with those retailers.

You can also consider it for a focused Target assignment. Its experience with Target and regional grocers gives you options if those are the retailers where you want to grow.

Retail Media Services for Food and Beverage Brands

A retail media agency can plan your retailer investments, run onsite and offsite ads, develop creative and report sales performance. Some also buy in-store placements or manage product content. Use these service categories to define what you want the agency to deliver before discussing fees.

Retailer Selection and Media Planning

Your agency should recommend where to advertise and explain why each retailer makes sense for you. To do that, it needs to know where your products are sold, which ones you want to promote, how the category is performing and what you can spend.

If you sell a regional beverage, start by looking at the grocery chains where you already make substantial sales. A bigger network may be less useful if only a few of its stores carry your product. For an established snack business, the assignment may be to support a particular retailer promotion.

The plan should name:

• The retailers and products receiving budget.

• The purpose of each campaign, such as introducing a flavor or supporting a promotion.

• The placements and creative required.

• The sales measures you'll use to review the investment.

Our CPG media buying service covers this planning alongside campaign management across retail, social and search.

Onsite Retail Media: Sponsored Search and Display

Onsite retail media places your ads on a retailer's website or app. Sponsored search helps shoppers find your product while browsing a category; display placements can introduce an offer or a larger product range.

Your agency may handle keyword selection, bids, budgets, product targeting and display creative. For example, advertising a single sauce SKU in search is a different task from creating a banner for your full dinner range.

Ask which ad formats the agency will manage. “We manage your Amazon account” doesn't tell you whether that means only sponsored search or display and video too.

Offsite Retail Media: Social, Display and Video

Offsite retail media uses retailer audiences or other retail media capabilities to reach people away from the retailer's own site. Depending on the network, placements can include publisher websites, social platforms and streaming video.

If you already work with a paid social agency, ask who will run each campaign. Your usual Meta campaign and a retailer-supported audience program may be bought through different accounts and come with separate reports.

For example, Walmart Connect's offsite media service uses Walmart audiences across social, streaming and the open web. That means you can reach Walmart shoppers before they visit the retailer's site. Ask your agency who the ads will reach, where it will buy them and where shoppers will go when they click.

In-Store Retail Media: Screens, Audio and Connected Placements

In-store retail media reaches people inside physical shops through placements such as digital screens, audio and connected shopping equipment. Your agency can help you choose and book those placements, adapt your ads and decide how to measure them.

The IAB's in-store media standards identify five store zones, including entrances, aisles and checkout. Each gives you a chance to reach shoppers at a different point in their visit.

Ask where shoppers will see the ad. A cold-drink message near the drinks aisle reaches people while they're choosing what to buy. A checkout screen reaches them later, as they're getting ready to pay.

Retail Media Creative and Product Content

Your agency should produce or adapt the assets included in your campaigns, and identify who handles the product pages shoppers reach afterward. Creative production and catalog work are related services, but they aren't automatically part of the same fee.

Your product content should answer the questions shoppers actually have: What does it taste like? How do you serve it? Which flavor or pack size are they buying?

Be clear about what you need made. Specify whether you need product photography, recipe video, display versions, product page copy or only campaign setup using assets you supply. That prevents a creative gap from surfacing halfway through a launch.

Retail Media Measurement and Sales Reporting

Your agency should show you which sales the retailer credited to your ads and explain what to do with the results. Each report should tell you which products, dates and sales channels it covers.

For in-store campaigns, the IAB standards recommend sales reporting for 30 days before exposure, the campaign period and 30 days afterward. Before you book the campaign, check whether your agency can get sales data for those periods.

To find out whether your ads brought in additional sales, plan a test before you launch. For example, you could compare sales changes in markets where the ads run with similar markets where they don't.

The IAB's incrementality guidance covers experiments and other methods for estimating what would have happened without the advertising. That can help you work out how many sales your ads added, rather than relying only on the sales a platform credits to them.

Should You Hire a Retail Media Agency or a Shopper Marketing Agency?

A retail media agency can plan, buy and improve your ads. A shopper marketing agency can help with a wider campaign, including retailer promotions, sampling and materials for stores. Some agencies do both, so look at the work each one will actually take on.

Retail Media Agency Services

A retail media agency typically focuses on the advertising work: selecting networks, setting budgets, buying placements, testing creative and reviewing performance. Your internal team may continue to own sales relationships, promotions and product supply.

This setup works well when you need someone to manage your ads or bring skills your team doesn't have. For example, you may have strong retailer relationships and finished creative, but nobody available to manage sponsored search every week.

You get a team focused on your ads. You may still need another partner for sampling, store displays or conversations with retailers.

Shopper Marketing Agency Services

A shopper marketing agency develops programs that encourage people to choose your product during the shopping process. Work can include retailer promotions, coupons, sampling, displays, partnerships and campaign creative.

This comes in handy when you need more than ads. A summer beverage campaign, for example, might need a retailer offer, signs in stores and ads that tell shoppers about the deal.

The IAB's in-store media playbook notes that merchandising spend can represent 15–30% of gross sales from a supplier to a retailer, depending on the market and category. So ask for a clear breakdown of costs. How much will go toward retailer promotions, how much toward materials for stores and how much toward ads? Also check which paid channels the agency will manage.

Advantages and Limitations of Each Agency Model

A retail media agency can give you a team focused on your ads. A shopper marketing agency may handle more of the campaign, which also means there are more pieces of work and approvals to agree on.

Neither label tells you who does the work. A shopper agency may have an excellent media team. A retail media firm may also produce creative or manage ecommerce accounts.

Ask the agency to spell out who will handle each part of the work:

• Planning and buying paid media.

• Producing creative and updating product content.

• Creating offers, sampling programs or store materials.

• Working with retailer buyers and sales teams.

• Reporting campaign results and evaluating sales lift.

You can then see which tasks your team will keep and which the agency will own.

Agency Selection for Launches, Promotions and Ongoing Campaigns

Start with the campaign you need to run. Then look for an agency with the right people to do the work:

1. Ongoing retailer campaigns: Prioritize campaign management, testing and reporting. A retail media team may be all you need.

2. A food launch that needs trial: Include sampling or another way for shoppers to experience the product, plus the creative and advertising needed to support it. A shopper agency or a combined team may suit that job.

3. A retailer-specific promotion: Specify offer setup, store or digital materials, media support and the retailer approval process. Look for a team that has done this kind of work with that retailer before.

You don't need to buy every service an agency has. You need enough support to deliver the campaign you've agreed to run.

Plan Your Food and Beverage Retail Media with 9AM

9AM can help you develop creative, test it in paid campaigns and decide where to invest next. Our work brings retail media, paid social and measurement into the same ongoing program.

That means you can bring us a creative problem as well as a media budget. If shoppers aren't responding to your product, we can test different ways to introduce it, then use the results to guide the next production round.

Bring your retailer priorities, current campaigns and available creative. We'll discuss the work needed and where our team can help.

Book a strategy call and let’s kickstart your retail growth plan!

FAQs

The questions below cover the practical decisions that remain before you hire: fees, retailer coverage, measurement and account ownership. Settle these points during the scope discussion so you know what the agency will deliver and what your team will keep.

How much does a food and beverage retail media agency cost?

The management fees for a food and beverage retail media agency vary from $500 to $25,000+, but that doesn’t include your advertising budget. The overall cost depends on which retailers you advertise with and what you hire the agency to do. Ask for a written breakdown of the management fee, advertising budget, creative costs and any technology charges. Have each shortlisted agency quote the same scope and period so you can assess the total cost fairly.

Can you hire an agency for just one retailer?

Yes. You can hire an agency to focus on one retailer, though each agency sets its own minimums and terms. Specify the retailer, advertising formats, products and reporting you need. Confirm whether the fee covers just campaign management or also includes creative, product content and account support.

Can a regional food brand use retail media without national distribution?

Yes. You can build the campaign around the retailers and markets where your products are sold. Ask the agency whether it can target the areas and retailers where shoppers can find you. A regional program may be more relevant than a national campaign when most of your sales opportunity is local.

Can a retail media agency measure in-store sales?

It can report in-store sales when the retailer, platform or measurement partner provides the necessary data and matching capabilities. Confirm which purchases are included and how they're linked to the campaign. If you want proof of additional sales, include an incrementality test; relying only on attributed sales isn’t 100% accurate.

Who owns your retailer advertising accounts and campaign data?

Ownership and access depend on the account setup and your agreement. Request access to the accounts and reports your business can own, and document what you'll receive if the engagement ends. If the agency or retailer buys ads through its own account, ask which reports and data you can take with you before you sign.

Does hiring a retail media agency help you get stocked by retailers?

Advertising management by itself doesn't secure a retail listing. Some firms also provide brokerage, sales representation or retailer account services. You'll need to arrange those separately from advertising management. If distribution is your main problem, look for that expertise explicitly. A media plan can support products you sell; it doesn't replace a retailer's buying decision.

About Corentin Grisoni

Retail Media Lead

Corentin Grisoni helps DTC and wellness brands turn paid media into a connected growth system. As Retail Media Lead at inBeat Agency, he works across Amazon, Meta, TikTok, and Google to build omnichannel campaigns that are measurable, scalable, and tied to business outcomes.

His work brings together retail media strategy, paid social and search, attribution modeling, UGC, and performance creative. He focuses on helping retail, technology, and wellness brands understand where their media budget is working and create a system that compounds what performs.

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