New research finds 54% of Australian brand leaders feel pressured by retailers to lift retail media spend, while only 5% report high trust and 96% struggle to quantify returns. Spend is rising despite the doubt.
Spending more on a channel you do not trust and cannot measure is not a strategy. It is pressure with an invoice attached.
Australian brands do not trust retail media, and they are spending more on it anyway. New research finds 54% of brand leaders feel pressured by retailers to lift their retail media investment without the budget or capacity to support it. The trust numbers behind that pressure are striking.
Only 5% of brands report high trust in retail media networks while 44% report low trust. Not a single respondent said they had high trust in Australian retail media networks specifically. Even so, 53% plan to increase their spend, and 96% admit they struggle to quantify the returns on what they are already putting in.
The market keeps growing regardless. Around $2.6 billion went into retail media in Australia in 2025, with another 10 to 15% growth forecast this year. Amazon Ads has been the biggest winner, now used by more than half of brands, up from a third a year ago.
Why it matters
This is one of the clearest examples in the market of money following pressure rather than proof. Brands are increasing spend because retailers are leaning on them and because everyone else is doing it, not because they have looked at their own data and decided it works. When 96% cannot quantify the return, the spend is running on faith.
For Australian marketers the lesson is bigger than retail media. Any time you are spending into a channel you cannot measure, you have handed control to the seller. Retail media networks are grading their own homework, and the brands paying in have admitted they cannot check the marking.
The share of brands reporting high trust in retail media networks, while 53% plan to spend more on them.
What to do about it
Separate pressure from performance. If a retailer is pushing you to spend more, that is a negotiation, not evidence. Ask for the proof before the budget.
Demand independent measurement. A network that cannot show incremental return on its own inventory has not earned a larger share of your budget.
Run a holdout test. Pull spend from one retail media line and watch what happens to sales. If nothing changes, you have your answer.
Know what the channel actually drives. Retail media can work where it reaches buyers at the point of decision. The job is to prove that for your brand, not assume it.
Retail media is not the problem. Spending into it blind is. The brands that win here are the ones who treat every retail media dollar like every other dollar, and make it earn its place.