Retail media platforms: AI search visibility ranking (2026)
How AI search engines rank retail media platforms by visibility and citations. 20 brands measured monthly across Google AI Mode: which brands the AI names in answers, which domains it cites as sources, and how the leaders compare. Retail media platforms used by brands and retailers to buy, sell, manage, and measure on-site and off-site commerce advertising inventory. Composite score: 70% visibility (% of AI answers naming the brand) + 30% citation rate (% citing the brand's domain). Full methodology →
Refreshed Jun 13, 2026Download this ranking as a PDF
We'll email it to you. One-off send — no list, no follow-up, no surprise marketing.
At a glance
What we observed in this categoryauto-generated
Criteo is the only brand in this category holding both a visibility score and a citation score of 12.5%, giving it a composite score of 12.5 against a category average visibility of just 0.6%. That gap is significant because it means 18 of the 20 tracked brands register zero visibility in Google AI Mode responses, leaving Criteo as the sole brand consistently surfaced in generated answers. In a category with this many established players, such concentration at the top is a structural signal, not a marginal difference.
Moloco Commerce Media and Kevel each carry a 12.5% citation rate despite recording 0.0% visibility, producing a composite score of only 3.8 for both. This divergence means Google AI Mode references their domains as source material without naming them as recommended platforms in the answer text itself. CitrusAd previously held a 12.5% visibility score but has since dropped to 0.0%, with no corresponding citation loss, suggesting its brand mentions in AI answers collapsed while its domain may still appear in underlying source pulls.
The top cited sources in this category are dominated by third-party analyst and review sites: tinuiti.com, gartner.com, and g2.com all appear alongside brand-owned domains moloco.com and kevel.com. This pattern indicates Google AI Mode is anchoring retail media platform descriptions on independent commentary and aggregator content rather than vendor sites. YouTube also appears in the cited source list, which points to video content playing a role in how AI assembles answers for this category.
Movers & shakers since last refresh
Biggest visibility fallers
-
CitrusAd 12% → 0% · rank #2 → #4-12pp
The ranking
| # | Brand | Visibility | Citation | Top engine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
criteo.com
|
12% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Criteo holds a 12.5% visibility and 12.5% citation score, the only brand in the category to register above zero on both metrics against a 0.6% category average visibility. |
||||
| 2 |
moloco.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Moloco Commerce Media records 0.0% visibility but a 12.5% citation rate, meaning AI cites its domain as a source without naming it as a platform in generated answers. |
||||
| 3 |
kevel.com
|
0% | 12% | Google AI Mode |
Kevel mirrors Moloco exactly with 0.0% visibility and 12.5% citation, placing it as a referenced source rather than a named recommendation in Google AI Mode responses. |
||||
| 4 |
citrusad.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
CitrusAd fell from a previous visibility of 12.5% to 0.0%, the steepest recorded drop in the category, while its citation rate remained unchanged at 0.0%. |
||||
| 5 |
koddi.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Koddi sits at 0.0% on all three metrics, composite score, visibility, and citation, identical to seven other brands ranked below Criteo, Moloco, and Kevel. |
||||
| 6 |
skai.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 7 |
pacvue.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 8 |
promoteiq.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 9 |
cervinodata.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 10 |
mabaya.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 11 |
smec.ai
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 12 |
cocarri.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 13 |
mikmak.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 14 |
thetradedesk.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 15 |
quartile.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 16 |
perpetua.io
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 17 |
gotvantage.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 18 |
mirakl.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 19 |
epsilon.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
| 20 |
stackadapt.com
|
0% | 0% | Google AI Mode |
Sources AI engines trust in this category
Across the 8 buyer-intent queries we ran on retail media platforms, these are the domains Google AI Mode cited most often. If you're not on this list — or if your competitors are — that's a concrete PR / linkbuilding target.
How to read this ranking
Four things worth knowing before you act on the numbers above. These are the same definitions across every industry page — for category-specific observations, see the What we observed section above (where available) and the per-brand insights inline in the ranking.
Visibility = being named
A brand's visibility % is the share of AI answers that mention it by name in the response prose. This is who AI engines actively recommend to the buyer.
Citation rate = being trusted
Citation rate is the share of AI answers that include the brand's domain as a clickable source link. This is what the AI treats as authoritative evidence — different from being named.
Top engine differs by brand
The "top engine" column shows which AI surface each brand performs best on. Big gaps between a brand's score across engines usually points to specific content or schema gaps.
Rankings move month to month
AI engines re-crawl and re-rank on shorter cycles than classical search. We re-audit every brand on this list at least every 30 days and refresh this page automatically.
Get your own retail media platforms brand audited
The brands above were curated from public market-leader lists. Want the same measurement against your own brand — including the queries you appear on, which competitors get named instead, and a prioritised fix list? Run a free preview.
Frequently asked about retail media platforms AI visibility
Who leads AI visibility in the retail media platforms category?
Criteo leads with a composite score of 12.5 and matching visibility and citation scores of 12.5%, well above the category average visibility of 0.6%. No other brand in the top 10 records any visibility at all.
What sources does Google AI Mode cite most for retail media platform research?
The top cited sources include tinuiti.com, gartner.com, g2.com, voyado.com, and youtube.com alongside brand domains moloco.com and kevel.com. Third-party analyst and review sites feature more prominently than vendor-owned content.
Which brands are cited by AI but not named as recommended platforms?
Moloco Commerce Media and Kevel both carry 12.5% citation rates but 0.0% visibility scores, meaning their domains appear as source references in AI answers without the brands being surfaced as named solutions.
Has any retail media platform brand lost significant AI visibility recently?
CitrusAd dropped from 12.5% to 0.0% visibility, a delta of -12.5%, making it the only recorded faller in this audit period. Its citation rate did not change, remaining at 0.0%.
How concentrated is AI visibility across the retail media platforms category?
Visibility is heavily concentrated: Criteo accounts for all recorded visibility at 12.5%, while 18 of the 20 tracked brands register zero visibility against a category average of just 0.6%.
Which engine drives AI visibility for retail media platform brands?
All brands in the top 10 list Google AI Mode as their top engine, and the entire audit dataset is drawn from Google AI Mode responses, with no other engine contributing to the recorded scores.