About Retailer Budget Campaigns

Retailer Budget campaigns let your approved brands run retailer billed campaigns on your inventory directly from Criteo Commerce Max, without changing how you manage your brand relationships, billing, or inventory.

This article explains what this means for you, what you control, and what to expect from reporting and billing.

What Are Retailer Budget Campaigns?

Retailer Budget campaigns allow brands you approve to launch and manage campaigns directly in Commerce Max, using a budget you've agreed on commercially.

From your perspective, the commercial relationship stays the same: you and the brand agree on a budget via your existing insertion order (IO), you bill them for working media, and Criteo bills platform fees separately. Now, the brand activates the campaign in Commerce Max rather than a separate account or platform.

Brands can also activate Retailer Budget campaigns via third-party API integrations, making your inventory accessible to brands and agencies operating through their preferred tools and workflows.

What You Control

You retain full control over every aspect of how Retailer Budget campaigns run on your inventory:

Who can activate: you approve which Commerce Max brand accounts are Authorized Buyers. No brand can run a Retailer Budget campaign without your explicit approval.
What they can buy: you define which campaign types (Sponsored Products, Onsite Display, or both) and buy types (Direct, Indirect, Private Market, Retailer Budget) each Authorized Buyer can access, via your Retailer Budget Campaign Profile.
Budget and billing terms: budgets are set based on your existing IO with the brand. Any budget changes require an updated IO. You bill the brand for working media; Criteo bills platform fees separately.
Revocation: to remove a brand's Authorized Buyer status, contact your Criteo representative. Associated Retailer Budget campaigns will stop running.

What You Can and Cannot See

Retailer Budget campaigns are managed by the brand in Commerce Max. This means:

You can see:

Campaign performance data in the Analytics tab of Commerce Yield, within the demand side of Commerce Yield, consolidated alongside your Direct Sold and Private Market campaigns.

You cannot see:

Campaign setup or configuration details, such as targeting, creative, optimizer settings, or SKU lists. These remain in the brand's Commerce Max account and are not surfaced in Commerce Yield or via the API.

Billing Retailer Budget Campaigns

Billing: Your Responsibilities

You are responsible for billing brands for working media spend generated through Retailer Budget campaigns, in line with your existing IO. Criteo bills platform and service fees to the brand separately.

Before Campaigns Launch

Confirm that the balance amount created by your Criteo account team matches the budget agreed in your IO with the brand. Brands can only activate against an approved balance. If the balance does not exist or the amount is incorrect, campaigns cannot launch. Resolve any discrepancies with your Criteo account team before the brand begins campaign creation.

During Campaigns

Monitor spend against the agreed budget using:

Monitor spend against the agreed budget using:
- SSP Analytics — no change to existing access. Retailer Budget campaigns are included in your full program reporting by default, across both the SSP Analytics UI and SSP Reporting APIs.
- DSP Analytics — use the Budget Model dimension to filter specifically for Retailer Budget campaigns and view spend, impressions, clicks, and attributed sales. See Introduction to Demand-Side Analytics for details.

When Budget Changes Are Needed

Any change to the agreed budget amount requires an updated IO between you and the brand. Once the updated IO is in place, contact your Criteo account team to adjust the balance accordingly. Campaigns cannot exceed the approved balance amount.

At Billing Time

Use DSP Analytics reports — including Account Activity, Account Activity Sponsored Products, Account Activity Onsite Display, and the Capout report — to reconcile working media spend against your IO before issuing an invoice to the brand.

Get Started

Setting up Retailer Budget campaigns requires coordination between you, the brand, and Criteo. Your Criteo account team manages the technical setup on your behalf. Here is how the process works:

Your Criteo account team will reach out with an Authorized Buyer submission request for a brand that has expressed interest in running Retailer Budget campaigns with you.
Review the request and confirm whether you approve the brand account.
If approved, Criteo activates the brand as an Authorized Buyer in Commerce Max.
Agree on a budget amount and IO with the brand. Share any relevant setup details, such as naming conventions or billing requirements, with your Criteo account team.
Your Criteo team creates the Retailer Budget balance in the brand's Commerce Max account.
The brand creates campaigns in Commerce Max. Performance data becomes visible in Commerce Yield Analytics, across both the demand side and supply side tabs.