Criteo - the practical guide.

Criteo is a commerce media platform best known for product-feed-driven retargeting display ads. Founded in Paris in 2005, it has expanded from pure retargeting into a full commerce media stack covering retail media (sponsored ads on retailer sites), prospecting, and brand awareness across the open web. Most e-commerce performance teams know it as the easy way to retarget cart abandoners with product-level dynamic creative.

E-commerce brands of all sizes with a product feed, particularly fashion, retail, travel and consumer goods. Also relevant for retailers and marketplaces wanting to monetise their own traffic via Criteo's retail media network. Less of a fit for pure brand campaigns, services businesses, or anyone without a product catalogue.

Historically sold on a CPC model with managed service. Self-serve is now available, with no fixed minimum, but most active accounts spend $2,000+ per month. Criteo retains a media margin within the CPC, so true costs are bundled. Retail media buys on partner retailer networks have their own auction-based CPC pricing.

Right when you have a product feed, a healthy stream of site visitors, and want easy dynamic retargeting plus a layer of prospecting. Strong for retailers wanting to play in retail media. Wrong fit when you don't have a product feed, your traffic volumes are too low for retargeting to scale, or you'd rather buy retargeting via Meta and Google's own dynamic ads.

The bundled CPC model makes it hard to see Criteo's true take rate - push for transparency. Retargeting attribution often overlaps heavily with Meta and Google; run incrementality tests before assuming Criteo's reported conversions are incremental. Cookie deprecation has dented retargeting reach - ensure you're using Criteo's first-party identity solutions.