5 minute read | May 1, 2025

Retail Media Networks: Driving Sustainability & ROI for Mission-Driven CPG Brands

How mission-driven CPG brands can leverage retail media networks to boost marketing efficiency, amplify sustainability messaging and drive measurable ROI—even in today's uncertain economy.

For mission-driven CPG brands, 2025 brings a perfect storm of challenges: economic headwinds, budget constraints and mounting pressure to maintain sustainability commitments. In this new landscape of uncertainty, retail media networks (RMNs) offer a surprisingly powerful solution that aligns marketing performance with sustainability goals.

With more than 200 networks now operating globally and retailers of all sizes expanding their efforts in this lucrative advertising channel, RMNs have evolved from simple promotional platforms into sophisticated marketing ecosystems. For CPG brand marketers, the question is, how can RMNs amplify sustainability and reduce waste, both financial and environmental?

The ROI Advantage of Retail Media Networks

The primary reason CPG marketers are flocking to retail media networks is their impressive performance metrics. RMNs often deliver measurably stronger results compared to traditional digital channels due to their unique advantages:

  • Precision Targeting Based on Purchase Behavior: RMNs leverage retailers’ first-party data to target shoppers based on actual buying patterns, not just browsing behavior.
  • Proximity to Purchase: Ads appear when consumers are actively shopping, dramatically shortening the path from impression to conversion.
  • Closed-Loop Measurement: Direct attribution between ad exposure and purchase provides unprecedented insight into ad effectiveness.

Industry analysis suggests retail media campaigns in 2024 are delivering up to 4x higher ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) compared to other digital channels. This superior ability to engage shoppers and prompt action translates directly to improved ROI.

How RMNs Amplify Sustainability Marketing

Beyond performance advantages, retail media networks offer unique opportunities for mission-driven CPG brands to advance their sustainability messaging in ways that resonate with consumers and drive business results.

Targeted Sustainability Messaging That Converts

RMNs excel at connecting brands with consumers who value sustainability. Rather than broadcasting general eco-friendly claims to a broad audience, these platforms allow you to precisely target shoppers who have already demonstrated interest in sustainable products. This focused approach significantly improves conversion rates while ensuring your sustainability message reaches receptive audiences.

Data-Driven Sustainability Messaging Optimization

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of retail media networks for mission-driven brands is their ability to test and optimize sustainability messaging in real time.Using first-party data, you can identify precisely which sustainability claims drive purchase decisions for different consumer segments. A/B testing different creative approaches reveals which specific sustainability messages (regenerative agriculture, carbon neutrality, plastic reduction, etc.) resonate most effectively with your target audience.

This insight enables you to refine your sustainability narrative based on actual purchase behavior rather than surveys or assumptions—delivering marketing messages that authentically connect with consumers while driving measurable results.

Transparent Reporting on Impact and Performance

Advanced retail media networks now offer sophisticated reporting capabilities that connect marketing performance with sustainability metrics. This dual perspective allows mission-driven brands to demonstrate both business impact and values alignment.

For sustainability-focused brands, this level of reporting helps justify marketing investments by showing how messaging about environmental commitments directly influences consumer purchase decisions. This data-driven approach turns sustainability from a cost center into a revenue driver, especially critical during times of budget scrutiny.

The Hidden Environmental Benefit: Reduced Marketing Waste

What many brand marketers don’t realize is that more efficient advertising isn’t just good for budgets—it’s good for the planet. Digital advertising generates significant carbon emissions simply by how they’re created, served and amplified.

A single display campaign generating one million impressions has the carbon footprint equivalent to driving a car for an entire year. By reducing wasted impressions and focusing on qualified audiences, RMNs can significantly decrease the environmental impact of digital marketing campaigns.

New efficiencies create better win-win scenarios: improved business results and reduced environmental impact without a sacrifice in reach or effectiveness. In fact, our work consistently shows that eliminating waste improves performance metrics across the board.

The Five-Step Action Plan for RMN Success

Based on our experience helping better-for-you CPG brands optimize their media strategies, we recommend focusing on these key actions:

  1. Solidify Strategic Goals: Define integrated objectives that connect sales targets with specific sustainability metrics. As outlined in our 2025 CPG Advertiser’s Guide to Sustainable Media Buying, you should clearly define KPIs using the consumer journey as a guide and balance longer term brand growth goals with mid- and short-term sales velocity goals.
  2. Define Channels and Audience: Research thoroughly to understand your audience demographics, preferences, and media consumption habits. Then, activate channels that best reach your target audience to avoid wasted impressions. This approach not only improves performance but also reduces environmental impact by eliminating unnecessary ad serving.
  3. Get Granular in Targeting: As our guide emphasizes, refining and narrowing your targeting segments with effective use of data minimizes wasted impressions, leading to more efficient ad spend and reduces the energy consumption associated with serving unnecessary ads. This precision is where RMNs truly excel.
  4. Optimize in Advance: Apply strategic approaches like our keyword mapping formula to generate relevant terms for every stage of the consumer journey. This method secures impression share against an increased number of search terms while reducing emissions of inflated, invalid impression delivery for better results.
  5. Execute Optimizations Proactively—Not Reactively: Implement a scientific approach to monitoring campaigns using applications like Statistical Process Control (SPC). Our experience shows that data-based campaigns reduce need for reactionary, unnecessary changes that ultimately negatively impact conversion rates and unnecessary impressions.

Maximizing ROI in Uncertain Times

As economic pressures mount in 2025, every marketing dollar must work harder than ever before. The imperative to demonstrate clear ROI on advertising spend isn’t just a financial mandate—it’s a vital necessity for better-for-you brands.

Retail media networks offer a unique opportunity to improve both marketing efficiency and sustainability messaging, reducing waste in your marketing spend while amplifying your brand’s mission. In times of budget constraints, this efficiency becomes not just advantageous but essential.

Ready to transform your retail media strategy? Download our comprehensive guide, The CPG Advertiser’s Guide to Sustainable Media Buying, or contact us directly. We’d love to partner with your brand to drive business growth and create a more sustainable future.


Want to learn more about how sustainable media buying can help your brand thrive in 2025? Book a discovery call today.