Pets Are Leading the Pack on Retail Media

Summary

The pet supplies category has become a powerhouse in retail media, as evidenced by three of the six largest advertisers in 2025 being pet brands—Purina PetCare, Hill's Pet Nutrition, and Blue Buffalo. Purina led all advertisers with 6 billion impressions across 18 retail media networks (RMNs), including pet stores, big box retailers, grocers, and delivery platforms. This outsized representation underscores how retail media has become a critical battleground for pet brands seeking to reach targeted audiences.

Advertiser strategies varied significantly. Among the top eight pet care advertisers, more than half allocated over 40% of impressions to Facebook, establishing a consistent playbook. However, lower-ranked brands diverged: Freshpet and Basepaws ran roughly 90% of impressions through Amazon OnSite Display to drive direct conversions, while Nexgard's OTT campaigns on Chewy's pharmacy network captured nearly half of its impressions. This diversity highlights the need for tailored approaches based on brand objectives.

Chewy and Amazon together captured the largest share of pet supply retail media impressions through April 2026, but no single brand dominated any single RMN, reflecting a competitive and fragmented category. Purina stood out for its breadth, maintaining presence across nearly every top RMN, while Hill's focused on PetSmart via Instagram ads for its Sensitive Stomach & Skin line.

At Walmart, pet supply impressions more than doubled month-over-month in April 2026 to 253M—a three-year high. This surge was driven by Delectables' on-site display push (+528% MoM) and Walmart's own Facebook campaign promoting Express Delivery using Blue Buffalo. The two campaigns illustrate how brands can gain exposure both through direct product advertising and retailer-led messaging. Key takeaways for ad ops decision-makers: pet brands must diversify RMN partnerships and channels, leverage both broad (Facebook) and direct-conversion (Amazon OnSite) tactics, and be aware that retailer-operated campaigns can amplify brand exposure.

Analyst Note

The pet supplies category’s dominance in retail media rankings signals a maturation of the vertical-specific advertising opportunity. Purina’s 6B impressions across 18 different RMNs is a clear indicator that large CPG advertisers are moving beyond platform exclusivity, demanding multi-network reach. What’s notable here is the strategic divergence among top brands: while Facebook acts as a baseline awareness channel, players like Freshpet and Nexgard are betting on platform-specific tactics—Amazon OnSite for conversion, and OTT for brand building within a pharmacy context. This fragmentation suggests that the 'one-size-fits-all' playbook is breaking down.

The Walmart spike reveals an underappreciated lever: retailer-owned campaigns featuring branded products. The Express Delivery campaign using Blue Buffalo shows that retailers are not just passive inventory providers but active curators of brand exposure. For UA managers, this implies that brand partnerships with retailers can yield impression lift beyond direct buys. The timing is key: as third-party cookies phase out, retail media’s closed-loop measurement becomes more attractive. However, the competitive angle is critical—Chewy and Amazon currently capture the lion’s share, but Walmart’s growth and the diversity of RMN strategies suggest that no single network will dominate. Ad ops teams should watch for increased consolidation of pet ad spend into retailer-specific formats (e.g., Chewy pharmacy, PetSmart Instagram) and prepare for more complex attribution models that span multiple RMNs.