CitrusAd is retail media technology that powers sponsored product ads and other onsite placements for retailers, usually under the retailer's own ad network name. Founded in Brisbane, Australia in 2017, it was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2021 and connected to Publicis's Epsilon data business. Epsilon now presents it as part of Epsilon Retail Media. For many brands, CitrusAd is the interface they log into when they buy ads on a grocery, pharmacy, pet, or specialty retailer that does not run its own ad technology.
What CitrusAd Does
For retailers, CitrusAd provides the engine to sell ad space on their own sites and apps. For brands, it provides a self-serve way to buy that space. Onsite formats include sponsored product ads, onsite display, and brand pages. Through Epsilon, campaigns can extend offsite to display, mobile, online video, connected TV, and audio, using Epsilon's identity data to reach the same shoppers across the web and tie results back to sales.
Because CitrusAd runs behind many different retailer networks, a brand may use it on several retailers without seeing the CitrusAd name prominently on any of them. That makes it easy to underestimate how much of a brand's retail media outside Amazon, Walmart, and Target runs on it.
Why It Needs a Real Owner
Spend on smaller retailer networks often gets set up once and left alone. Each network has its own budgets, minimums, reporting, and attribution windows, so results are hard to compare and easy to overstate. The owner has to decide which retailers deserve investment, keep sponsored product bids tied to in-stock, profitable items, and judge whether offsite campaigns are reaching new shoppers or just taking credit for sales that would have happened anyway.
Who Should Own It
CitrusAd usually belongs with a Retail Media Manager responsible for retailers beyond Amazon, often the same person who manages Criteo, Instacart, and other retailer networks. At brands with strong grocery or pharmacy distribution, a Shopper Marketing Manager may own it, since retailer ad budgets often come out of trade and shopper marketing funds. A Director of Retail Media should set the overall split between these networks and the larger retailers.
What to Screen For
- Multi-retailer budget judgment, including how they decide which smaller networks earn more money and which get cut.
- Comfort with inconsistent reporting, and a method for comparing results across networks with different attribution rules.
- Trade and shopper marketing fluency, since retailer media is often negotiated alongside trade spend and joint business plans.
- Onsite and offsite thinking, with a clear view of when offsite retail media adds new shoppers and when it does not.
- Experience with comparable technology such as Criteo or retailer self-serve consoles, which shows they understand how retailer ad networks work underneath.
A strong answer covers incrementality, retailer relationship value, minimum spend commitments, and how they normalize reporting. A weak answer ranks networks by reported ROAS alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CitrusAd the same as Epsilon Retail Media?
CitrusAd is now part of Epsilon Retail Media. Publicis Groupe acquired CitrusAd in 2021 and combined its onsite retail media technology with Epsilon's offsite activation and identity data. Many retailer ad networks and support materials still use the CitrusAd name.
How is CitrusAd different from Criteo?
Both provide technology that powers retailers' ad networks, and brands often use both. Criteo is a larger, publicly traded ad technology company with a broad retail media business; CitrusAd is part of Publicis Groupe and pairs retailer onsite ads with Epsilon's offsite reach. For a brand, the practical difference is which retailers run on which technology.
More Retail Media Tools
For the full set, browse the retail media and marketplace tools guide. For pay ranges for these roles, see the 2026 eCommerce Salary Guide.