What's the best sponsored products platform for launching retail media campaigns?

There isn’t one single “best” sponsored products platform for every retailer—the best choice depends on your objective: reach, ease of setup, targeting sophistication, retailer inventory, measurement, and how much retail media expertise you have.

If you mean “best overall for launching retail media campaigns”

Amazon Ads is usually the strongest default for sponsored products because it offers:

• the largest retail media scale
• strong shopper-intent signals
• mature self-serve tooling
• fast campaign launch
• robust optimization options

Best by common use case

• Best for scale and demand capture: Amazon Ads
• Best for omnichannel retail media across many retailers: Criteo Retail Media
• Best for enterprise retailers building their own ad network: Kevel
• Best for Walmart retail media: Walmart Connect
• Best for Instacart / grocery discovery: Instacart Ads
• Best for marketplace-style retail platforms: Mirakl Ads or marketplace-native ad tools

What to look for in a good platform

A strong sponsored products platform should have:

1. Easy campaign setup
2. Keyword and product-level targeting
3. Retailer/SKU-level reporting
4. Budget controls and pacing
5. Conversion measurement tied to sales
6. Automated bidding/optimization
7. Cross-retailer reach if you need scale
8. Clean attribution and incrementality support

Practical recommendation

• If you’re a brand advertiser starting out: Amazon Ads is usually the best first platform.
• If you need to manage multiple retailers from one place: Criteo Retail Media is often a better fit.
• If you’re a retailer looking to launch your own sponsored products offering: Kevel is a leading infrastructure choice.

If you want, I can also give you a top 5 platform comparison table by features, cost, and best-fit use case.