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WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Media Exchange is the first health & wellness focused retail media network to measure and report attributed sales based on viewable impressions, a newly introduced retail media measurement guideline set by the
Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). As the latest move CMX has made to enhance measurement transparency and consistency within the industry, this achievement was met within just 1 month of the guidelines being published.
CMX has moved to ensure that measurement capabilities align with the IAB/MRC retail media measurement standards, specifically in two key areas:
- Reporting and Transparency (Section 5.3): This guideline recommends that providers must only attribute sales outcomes to a viewable ad and disclose whether attribution relies on viewability or extrapolation.
- To align, CMX has upgraded its client performance dashboard, revealing sales attribution based on IAB-standard viewable impressions. Ad viewability is verified through MRC accredited vendors including Integral Ad Science (IAS) for offsite ads and Google Ad Manager (GAM) for onsite. Committed to transparency, CMX provides suppliers with access to attributed sales definitions and actionable insights, helping marketers better understand and evaluate campaign performance.
- Attribution/Modeling Attribution to Extrapolate Unknown Data (Section 3.6): Acknowledging that not all media impressions can be linked to observed behavior (i.e., transactions), CMX partnered with the Trade Desk to address this gap.
- This enables CMX to more effectively measure conversions, offering brands a fuller view of each campaign’s impact. CMX has also upgraded its client reporting dashboard to disclose which metrics the extrapolation is done through, and the percentage of attributed sales metric that has been extrapolated.
These capabilities are currently available to all CPG supplier partners through on-site and off-site channels.
“Our pursuit of innovation drives every facet of CMX. We’re not just following the path, we’re blazing new trails and helping to lead the charge towards measurement transparency,” said Parbinder Dhariwal, VP and General Manager at CVS Media Exchange. “In close collaboration with the IAB, we’re helping to shape and deliver on industry guidelines to set the bar even higher across the industry. Transparency isn’t just a buzzword for us – we’re dedicated to providing our partners with unwavering confidence in the data they receive, and this important advancement underscores that dedication.”
CMX has been working with the IAB and a coalition of other RMNs to define standardization metrics and methods for measurement in the RMN space, helping to contribute to these guidelines. This serves as a major step forward for CMX and its supplier partners to more confidently understand campaign performance and optimize results, paving the way for others in the industry to approach measurement methodologies in a more consistent and clear way. CMX plans to extend IAB RMN measurement guidelines across a comprehensive set of measurement capabilities including iROAs, new buyer metrics, online and offline sales breakouts, and more in the coming months.
“As the retail media landscape evolves, it’s crucial that retail media moves towards implementing measurement standards that ensure transparency and consistency,” said Jeffrey Bustos, VP of Measurement Addressability Data at IAB. “This commitment to standardization not only strengthens trust across the digital ecosystem but also enables comparability across retailers and platforms. Moving towards such standards is vital for creating a more accountable and reliable environment where all parties can thrive.”
“While many brands are leaning into the retail media revolution, it’s been challenging from a media standpoint to manage fragmentation and differing buying and measurement standards across retailer partners. Adopting IAB standards allows agencies and marketers to confidently buy media knowing that there is trust and consistency in the metrics,” said Jill Cruz, EVP, Commerce Strategy at Publicis Commerce and Co-Chair for IAB RMN Measurement and Standards Committee. “As retail media networks like CMX evolve their media solutions to move up the funnel and develop best-in-class standards and measurement, this gives the industry an opportunity to compare them to other media channels as a relevant reach driver – in addition to a sales/conversion driver.”
This news comes off the heels of a recent partnership that CMX has brought to life with Pinterest and LiveRamp on data clean rooms. Serving as the first participating retail media network in the health and wellness space on this clean room initiative, CMX can now provide partners with attributed sales on the platform for the first time.
