IAB Europe released its third Attitudes to Retail Media report Nov. 3, 2026, finding that measurement remains an obstacle for European advertising buyers even as their retailer relationships deepen. The findings give marketers a current checkpoint for evaluating what media networks can substantiate before expanding spending.
This Rapid News Brief covers a new industry survey, not an audit of campaign effectiveness or a representative census of all advertisers.
Buyers report a measurement obstacle
The research draws on 150 buy-side and sell-side respondents, including advertisers, agencies, retailers and retail media networks, with European and Middle East and North African perspectives. Among European buyers, 61% identified inadequate measurement and reporting as a barrier to further investment, according to IAB Europe.
The association said 71% of European buyers had partnered with retailers for more than a year. Longer relationships and confidence in measurement are separate questions: duration alone does not establish that a campaign produced additional sales.
LuckyCart and Mirakl Ads sponsored the qualitative research, which Ascentinel conducted alongside quantitative analysis by Caras Consulting.
Read metric preferences with their caveats
IAB Europe reported that 49% of European buyers selected return on ad spend as a desired metric, compared with 89% in 2025. Media Marketing’s coverage noted that the available metric choices expanded this year, potentially contributing to that decline. It also reported that response counts vary by question and that year-over-year comparisons use the European sample.
That caveat limits the headline conclusion. A lower selection rate does not establish that advertisers have stopped tracking returns, and a survey of preferred measurements is not a finding that one method performs better in every campaign.
For budget owners, a useful next step is to ask which requested measures are available today, what data supports them and which are merely planned. An attractive dashboard and a documented evaluation method are different deliverables.
The practical value of the survey is in identifying questions for those discussions. Its findings do not replace an advertiser’s own assessment of campaign evidence, commercial objectives and the limits of a network’s reporting.