Published on: May 7, 2026

India, May 07, 2026 – Criteo (NASDAQ: CRTO) today reported first quarter 2026 earnings, delivering a solid start to the year while making meaningful progress across its strategic priorities.

As AI reshapes how consumers discover and purchase products, the company is advancing its position at the center of this transformation, leveraging its scaled commerce intelligence, AI-driven decisioning, and global reach to connect brands, retailers, AI platforms, and consumers across an increasingly dynamic ecosystem. With continued momentum in AI-assisted commerce, cross-channel performance marketing, and retail media, Criteo is building a scalable foundation for long-term growth.

“We delivered a solid start to 2026 with disciplined execution and meaningful progress against our strategy,” said Michael Komasinski, Chief Executive Officer of Criteo. “While the near-term outlook reflects a more challenging environment, we are advancing our AI roadmap, strengthening our commercial organization, and scaling our AI-driven solutions across Performance Media and Retail Media. We remain confident in our path to reacceleration and the opportunity ahead.” 

Delivering on AI-Assisted Commerce 

Criteo is accelerating the shift from AI innovation to real-world execution, bringing agentic AI into live commerce environments and forging an industry-first partnership with OpenAI.

This early momentum highlights how Criteo is emerging as a strategic partner and as the commerce intelligence and infrastructure layer that enables every part of the commerce ecosystem to capitalize on AI-assisted shopping:

• AI Platforms: Integrated demand into ChatGPT’s advertising ecosystem, unlocking a new, high-intent discovery channel for brands. More than 1,000 brands are live, with early expansion across international markets underway.

• Retailers and Ecommerce Brands: Testing two new AI-powered experiences with leading brands: Conversational Ads, where consumers describe what they’re looking for and receive tailored recommendations directly within the ad unit, and Sponsored Products within onsite retailer chatbots, unlocking new retail media monetization opportunities across AI-driven shopping.

• Both capabilities are powered by Criteo’s Agentic Recommendation Service.

• Agencies: Made its platform more scalable and easier to use through agentic workflows, including adoption of its MCP server by partners like dentsu, where campaigns can now be activated from a simple plain-text brief.

Driving Growth Through Cross-Channel Performance and AI-Powered Self-Service

Criteo is scaling its platform to deliver unified performance across the full consumer journey, helping advertisers activate, optimize, and grow across channels. Highlights include:

• Self-Service & Scale: Expanded its addressable market with the launch of Criteo GO, its AI-powered self-service platform, with strong early adoption. More than two-thirds of campaigns from small clients in the U.S. run through GO.

• Cross-Channel Performance: Advertisers that run cross-channel campaigns spend up to 3x more, reinforcing the value of an integrated approach and positioning GO as a multi-year growth driver.

• Expanding Channels: Built momentum across key environments, with strong growth in social, expansion into high-impact video formats, and a new partnership with Roku to bring commerce audiences to CTV. Criteo also plans to integrate CTV into GO later this year.

Demonstrating Retail Media Resilience and Long-Term Strength

Criteo continues to reinforce its leadership in retail media, delivering strong underlying growth while advancing innovation monetization and yield optimization. Highlights include:

• Sustained Demand: Media spend grew 30% year over year as advertisers continue to prioritize retail media to drive performance and sales.

• Durable Retailer Relationships: Garnered strong retention across the retailer base, supported by multi-year renewals with partners including ASOS and expansion with retailers like DoorDash in Canada and Hyundai Department Store in APAC.

• Monetization & Yield Optimization: Introduced AI-powered Page Intelligence, an optimization layer that helps retailers balance organic and sponsored content, maximizing monetization in increasingly dynamic, AI-led storefronts. Auction-based display, now live with more than 60 retailers, remains the fastest-growing format, alongside rapid adoption of shoppable video.

Q1 2026 Facts & Figures

These first quarter results reflect the resilience of Criteo’s business model and continued disciplined execution as the company invests in AI innovation and long-term growth.

• $425 million in revenue and $250 million in Contribution ex-TAC (net revenue) in Q1 2026.

• More than $1 billion in media spend for the first time in Q1, underscoring strong demand across Criteo’s global commerce media platform.

• Retail Media Contribution ex-TAC of $41 million, with underlying growth of 24% year over year across its underlying client base.

• Performance Media Contribution ex-TAC of $210 million, reflecting continued momentum in cross-channel activation despite near-term macro headwinds.

• Adjusted EBITDA of $65 million, demonstrating continued financial discipline while investing in AI and growth initiatives.

Read more: 84% of Indian Consumers Prefer Fewer, Relevant Ads, Even if it Means Sharing Their History: Criteo Report