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Credit where credit is due: AdExchanger flagged this first yesterday. They told you what happened. We’re here to tell you why it matters, how it rewires retail media, and who’s about to get squeezed when Google and Criteo climb into the same bed.

This is one of those “did I read that right?” moments. Google—master of the walled garden, the company that doesn’t so much partner as it absorbs—just decided to let Criteo park itself inside Search Ads 360 (SA360). Criteo isn’t exactly some mom-and-pop ad server. It’s an independent challenger that’s been hawking retail media across 200+ retailers for years, constantly reminding brands that there’s life beyond Amazon and Walmart. And now? They’re the first third-party partner Google has allowed into SA360 for on-site retail media.

That’s not just strange bedfellows. That’s like your stern, rule-bound uncle suddenly showing up at Thanksgiving with a date from Burning Man. Unlikely, confusing, and guaranteed to change the family dynamics.

Let’s state the obvious: Google does not like to share. If you’ve ever dealt with their ad stack, you know they like their toys inside their sandbox. And yet, here they are letting Criteo’s pipes flow through SA360.

Why? Because Google wants a bigger slice of retail media budgets. And the only way to get those dollars at scale is to tap partners that already own the pipes into retail supply. Criteo is the first chosen one.

From Criteo’s side, this is like winning an adtech golden ticket. One minute you’re hustling as the underdog retail media network. The next, you’re integrated with the global demand engine that manages billions in search budgets.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road:

Translation: Google just hacked the category lines. Retail media isn’t retail media anymore. It’s search with a different outfit.

If you’re an advertiser, here’s the sales pitch you’ll hear:

Let’s call it what it is: Google is laundering retail media into search. Advertisers won’t even realize they’ve crossed budget categories. They’ll just think: “Hey, my search campaign now extends to Home Depot and Target. Great!” And suddenly, retail media is no longer some exotic sideline—it’s the default extension of digital advertising.

For Criteo, this isn’t a foot in the door. It’s the door, the welcome mat, and probably the house keys. They just hitched themselves to the biggest engine of demand in the world. For Google, it’s one more way to make sure budgets don’t wander into someone else’s ecosystem.

And for everyone else—agencies, other retail media networks, even Amazon—it’s a reminder that Google doesn’t just compete. It co-opts.

AdExchanger gave you the newsflash yesterday. We’re here to unpack the messy guts of it: what this partnership actually means for advertisers—and why it could quietly siphon budgets away from Amazon and the rest of the walled-garden mafia.

Google’s integration of Criteo into Search Ads 360 (SA360) looks simple on paper: advertisers running search campaigns can now extend those dollars directly into sponsored product listings across Criteo’s 200+ retailer network.

It’s not just frictionless. It’s a budget laundering machine.

Criteo gets bragging rights as the first third-party retail media partner in SA360. That’s not just optics—it’s distribution edge. They’re now plugged directly into a global pool of search budgets that never touched retail before.

This is the sleeper story: appliance manufacturers, electronics companies, auto brands. These players never had a “shopper media line item.” Now, thanks to SA360, they don’t need one. They can shove search dollars into retail media and call it a day.

Advertisers live and die by workflow. Running campaigns in SA360 means no juggling a Frankenstein stack of retail media networks. Optimization, creative, attribution—done in one place.

Amazon Advertising used to be the only game in town. Now Google cracked open the door. Suddenly, retail media isn’t synonymous with Amazon anymore.

This is just phase one. Criteo and Google are already eyeing DV360 and Merchant Center integrations. If that happens, commerce media intermediaries start to look like extra middlemen with shrinking leverage.

Criteo just went from “independent challenger” to enterprise-grade gateway for Google’s search budgets. That’s a rocket booster strapped to their retail media business.

Google doesn’t usually open the door to outsiders. Industry insiders note two motivations. First, this partnership helps Google soften antitrust optics—bringing in a neutral partner gives regulators less ammo to argue monopolistic control. Second, search revenue is under siege from AI chatbots, and retail media provides a faster path to growth. Criteo delivers scale immediately, saving Google from building an RMN network from scratch.

Ori Nadler, CPO at ADTE, adds that this is part of a bigger pattern in Google’s evolving approach to search partnerships. For years, Google leaned on external partners like System1, Ask, and Tonic for “Search Partner” traffic, but recently it’s shifted AdSense for Domains to an opt-in model. That move wasn’t about killing extensions entirely—it was about weeding out low-quality supply like arbitraged clicks, low-intent users, and bots. Seen through this lens, the Criteo deal looks like a cleaner, safer way for Google to expand reach while avoiding the messier corners of the search ecosystem.

Advertisers get frictionless access. Retailers get more demand. But insiders are clear: Google is the long-term winner. For Criteo, this is a temporary lifeline—one that looks good now but could unravel fast if Google later partners with Target, Walmart, or Kroger, or simply builds its own supply stack. The bragging rights of being “first in the door” may not last.

For the 200+ retailers in Criteo’s network, new demand at scale is the obvious upside. But the neutrality that once defined Criteo is now in question. Retailers are already asking who ultimately dictates how onsite inventory is sold—Criteo or Google? Once Google sits in the middle, control over data, pricing, and leverage gets a lot murkier.

You’ve got the surface story now—the part everyone’s already gossiping about. But here’s what you haven’t seen yet:

That’s the kind of deep-dive analysis, charting, and backroom intel we reserve for ADOTAT+.

👉 If you stop here, you’re skimming headlines. If you keep going, you’ll actually understand the future of retail media before your competitors do.