Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) executives used the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call to emphasize a strategic pivot toward “commerce intelligence and AI decisioning,” while acknowledging that 2025 “unfolded a bit differently” than expected and that 2026 growth is set to remain muted due to previously disclosed retail media client scope reductions.
Strategy centers on “Agentic Commerce,” cross-channel performance, and retail media
CEO Michael Komasinski said the company is aligning around the idea that consumer attention is increasingly fragmented across websites, apps, social feeds, connected TV (CTV), and AI-powered assistants. He argued that fragmentation increases complexity for advertisers but benefits platforms that can “orchestrate decisions and outcomes holistically.”
- Agentic Commerce: Preparing for shopping experiences influenced by AI assistants and shopping agents.
- Scaling the AI-powered performance engine: Expanding self-service, increasing cross-channel activation, and moving further up the funnel into discovery budgets.
- Reinforcing retail media leadership: Using AI to help retailers improve discovery and monetize sponsored placements while maintaining control over product ranking.
Agentic Commerce: recommendation service, new ad experiences, and embedded agents
Management described “Agentic Commerce” as the next evolution of digital shopping, where assistants influence discovery and purchasing. Criteo said it is developing an “Agentic Commerce recommendation service” for prospective partners including large language model (LLM) platforms and personal shopping agents. Komasinski said offline testing showed “an average uplift of 60%” in prioritizing products most likely to be purchased compared with baseline large platform recommendations.
The company said a proof of concept with an LLM partner moved into extended testing during the fourth quarter, and additional testing is being prepared with other partners. Chief Product Officer Todd Parsons noted the recommendation service is “application agnostic,” which management said could support multiple monetization models as agent ecosystems develop.
Criteo also said it is testing conversational shopping experiences such as conversational ads and sponsored products within retailer agents, with management citing “strong client interest” and a potential path to monetization. In addition, the company said it is embedding agentic capabilities directly into its solutions for marketers through its Model Context Protocol infrastructure, enabling external agents to interact with Criteo for demand creation, activation, and optimization. Management said “multiple agents” are live across campaigns, including “audience and insights agents,” with additional work planned for campaign creation and reporting.
On monetization, Komasinski said retail monetization in agentic interfaces would largely follow existing onsite fee structures, while monetization for LLM platforms is “early days” and could range from paid API access to participation in broader monetization models as they mature. CFO Sarah Glickman said 2026 guidance assumes no revenue contribution from agentic commerce initiatives given their early stage.
Financial performance: record 2025 results, Q4 headwind tied to retail media scope changes
Glickman said the company delivered “record results in 2025 with strong margins and robust cash flow generation.” For full-year 2025, Criteo reported:
- Revenue of $1.9 billion
- Contribution ex-TAC of $1.2 billion, up 3.5% at constant currency (including a $14 million FX tailwind)
- Adjusted EBITDA margin of 35%
- Free cash flow of $211 million, up 16% year over year (52% of adjusted EBITDA)
- Adjusted net income of $253 million and adjusted diluted EPS of $4.62
In performance media for 2025, revenue was $1.7 billion and contribution ex-TAC was $915 million, up 4% at constant currency. The Commerce Growth solution rose 5%, while ad tech services declined 3%. Retail media revenue was $264 million and contribution ex-TAC was $260 million, up 2% at constant currency; excluding two clients with scope changes, retail media contribution ex-TAC grew 16%.
For the fourth quarter, revenue was $541 million and contribution ex-TAC was $330 million, with constant-currency contribution ex-TAC down 4% as expected. Glickman said this reflected a $25 million headwind (about 700 basis points) tied to previously communicated scope changes with two retail media clients. Client retention was 90%, and management said macro trends were stable with a solid holiday season.
In Q4 performance media, revenue was $465 million and contribution ex-TAC was $255 million, up 2% at constant currency, led by Commerce Growth up 3%. Glickman said travel was the fastest-growing vertical (growth accelerating to 37%), followed by classifieds (up 12%), while retail was softer, including a 13% decline in department stores and a 12% decline in fashion. When asked about department store weakness and specific client exposure, Glickman declined to comment on specific clients and said the headwinds that began in Q4 are expected to continue into 2026.
In Q4 retail media, revenue was $76 million and contribution ex-TAC was $75 million; excluding the headwind, contribution ex-TAC grew 20% across the underlying client base, driven by on-site strength. Same-retailer contribution ex-TAC retention was 99% (or 110% excluding the company’s largest retailer). Management also cited Q4 media spend growth of 25% year over year, and said brands are prioritizing retail media investments during key peaks such as the Cyber Six period.
Product and channel initiatives: Go self-service, social growth, and retail media product traction
Management highlighted “Go,” Criteo’s AI-powered automation and optimization toolset, which enables advertisers to launch cross-channel campaigns “in just five clicks.” The company said it remains on track to launch a full self-service offering at the end of the first quarter. Management said Go campaigns have higher spend, lower churn, and better return on ad spend, and that Go campaigns including social activation deliver more than 20% higher ROAS than traditional campaigns. Criteo said 37% of Go campaigns now include social, and in the U.S., “one in two” campaigns from small clients runs through Go.
On cross-channel performance, management said social scaled with “double-digit sequential growth in every quarter of 2025,” supported by momentum with Meta and expanding engagement with additional partners. New video formats for Instagram and Facebook launching this quarter are expected to support continued growth. The company also discussed testing new discovery solutions in the first half of 2026 with a broader rollout planned in the second half, and said CTV is a growing part of the mix with new campaigns reflecting increased enterprise adoption.
In retail media, Criteo said it has supply relationships including 70% of the top 30 retailers in the U.S. and half of the top 30 in EMEA, and expects retail media revenue to return to growth in the fourth quarter as it moves past the two-client scope headwinds. The company said it is enhancing Commerce Max with features such as search conquesting, advanced analytics, deeper insights, and AI-powered optimizations.
Management also noted demand partnerships: Criteo completed its Google SA360 integration in Q4 and cited “600% ROAS” with a leading global CPG brand in early performance, and said its Mirakl partnership continues to expand long-tail demand. The company expects demand partnerships to contribute approximately two points of growth this year across the underlying client base.
On the supply side, Criteo cited new retailer wins including Lidl and JB Hi-Fi, and said auction-based display spend grew 65% in the quarter, with 49 retailers live and eight new additions including Ulta Beauty. It also said that during Black Friday week, on-site display spend powered by Criteo’s technology more than doubled year over year. Shoppable video spend rose 30% sequentially, with management expecting acceleration in 2026. Off-site retail media was described as becoming more strategic and always-on; the company cited a large Commerce Max off-site activation reaching 7 million unique Costco shoppers and delivering more than 2,000% ROAS during Cyber Week.
Outlook: 2026 growth constrained by retail media scope reductions; redomiciliation plans continue
For 2026, Glickman guided for contribution ex-TAC to be flat to up 2% at constant currency, citing the retail media client scope reductions. Excluding the $75 million headwind, underlying contribution ex-TAC is expected to grow high single digits. The company expects the low point in Q1 due to the comparison against a one-time tiered fee recognized in January 2025, followed by sequential improvement through the year and a return to growth in the second half.
Segment expectations included mid-single-digit constant-currency growth in performance media contribution ex-TAC, and a mid-to-high teens decline in retail media contribution ex-TAC at constant currency due to the headwind; excluding the two clients, underlying retail media contribution ex-TAC growth is expected to accelerate into the high teens to 20% range. The company guided to an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 32% to 34% for 2026, reflecting investments in agentic commerce and AI, return-to-office costs, and foreign exchange pressure on euro-based costs, partially offset by productivity actions.
For Q1 2026, Criteo guided for contribution ex-TAC of $245 million to $250 million, down 9% to 11% at constant currency, including an approximate $27 million headwind related to the two retail media clients. It also cited lower spend for U.S. department stores, soft trends in Asia Pacific, and continued softness in ad tech services. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be $50 million to $55 million in the seasonally low quarter.
The company said it ended December with $891 million in total liquidity and no long-term debt. In Q4, it generated $134 million in free cash flow, and in 2025 it repurchased 5.4 million shares for $152 million. The board increased remaining share buyback authorization to up to $200 million.
Glickman also said the proposed redomiciliation to Luxembourg and direct NASDAQ listing are progressing as planned with no material tax impact, with completion expected in the third quarter of 2026 subject to shareholder approval and other conditions. The company plans to pursue a further redomiciliation to the United States as early as the first quarter of 2027.
About Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO)
Criteo is a global technology company specializing in digital performance advertising and commerce media solutions. The company provides a range of AI-driven ad products designed to help brands, retailers, and agencies deliver personalized promotional messages to consumers across web, mobile, and connected TV environments. By leveraging large-scale data analytics and machine learning algorithms, Criteo’s platform optimizes the timing, placement, and creative of ads to drive engagement and conversions.
At the core of Criteo’s offering is its dynamic retargeting solution, which enables advertisers to automatically generate and display personalized product recommendations based on user behavior.
