Most retail media benchmarks have focused on enterprise brands, leaving small and mid-sized businesses without meaningful guidance. The new 2025
Shaun Brown
October 9, 2025
Small Brands. Big Shifts. The State of SMB Retail Media Spend in 2025
For years, the majority of retail media insights have been built around how large enterprise brands allocate their budgets. While valuable, that perspective often leaves small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) without a clear roadmap for how to invest their own limited resources.
At BirdDog, we see the realities of SMB marketing every day. These brands are innovative, agile, and eager to compete, but they need guidance rooted in data that reflects their actual scale and challenges. That is why BirdDog partnered with Keen Decision Systems to develop the 2025 Retail Media SMB Spend Report—a comprehensive analysis designed specifically for small and mid-sized brands.
The study draws on real investment data from over 400 brands, representing more than $16 billion in annual marketing spend. It examines how SMBs are allocating budgets across retail media networks (RMNs), which tactics are producing the strongest returns, and where optimization opportunities exist across retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, Target, and Sam’s Club.
A few of the most significant findings include:
- SMB investment in RMNs has increased 50 percent since 2021, with nearly one-third of total media budgets now devoted to retail media.
- Amazon accounts for about two-thirds of SMB retail media spend, but smaller retailers such as Meijer, Sam’s Club, and Albertsons are producing higher ROI and marginal ROI performance.
- SMBs use an average of six retail media tactics, most of which are concentrated in lower-funnel search, creating an opportunity to test mid- and upper-funnel formats like onsite display and streaming video.
- Optimization potential often comes from reallocating spend, not necessarily from increasing total investment.
This analysis provides a practical benchmark for SMB leaders to evaluate their media mix, test new retail partners, and make more informed budget decisions. It is not based on opinion or perception, but on verified performance data that reflects how smaller brands are truly performing in today’s competitive marketplace.
To explore the full set of insights, download the 2025 Retail Media SMB Spend Report.
Shaun Brown
Shaun Brown is the Founder and CEO of Birddog, a leading agency at the intersection of commerce media, digital shopper marketing, and retail technology. With over 25 years of experience, he specializes in connecting big data and AI to deliver better ideas, optimized shopper connections, and proven business results.
Shaun's career spans both client and agency sides, working with some of the world’s most recognized brands. His expertise includes shopper marketing, customer marketing activations, and the seamless integration of broadcast, print, retail, digital, social, mobile, and influencer channels to drive strategic, insight-led campaigns that resonate with today’s shoppers.
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