Shoppable Paid Media by SmartCommerce: Turning Every Click Into Retail Action
Paid search and programmatic ad spend keeps climbing.
According to Basis, US programmatic display spending is expected to top $220 billion in 2026, up 17% year over year, as paid search continues to hold the largest share of global digital ad spend.
But investment is only the first step.
Basis research shows the scale of the problem: programmatic waste and inefficiencies cost advertisers an estimated $26.8 billion in 2025 alone. That is media dollars spent on impressions that never reach the right shopper, the right product, or the right retailer.
The takeaway is simple: media investment only pays off when the moment after the click is as strong as the moment that earned it.
Now brands need a better way to turn that investment into action.
The Gap: Paid Media Needs a Commerce Path
A shopper searches. A shopper sees a display ad. They click.
That click should not be the end of the media experience. It should be the start of a clearer path to purchase.
But too often, the path from paid search and programmatic engagement to purchase is still disconnected, hard to measure, or too many steps away from where the shopper can actually buy.
That is the gap Shoppable Paid Media by SmartCommerce is built to close.
What Shoppable Paid Media by SmartCommerce Does
Shoppable Paid Media gives paid search and programmatic a job beyond the click.
With SmartCommerce technology behind the campaign, brands can move shoppers from a search result or display impressions into retailer paths built around the products in the campaign.
That means paid media can do more than capture demand. It can create a shorter, more measurable path to purchase.
With Shoppable Paid Media, brands can:
Connect clicks to the right retail path, including retailer choice, PDP traffic, direct-to-cart, or a location-aware where-to-buy path
Reduce wasted media spend by routing shoppers toward relevant, in-stock options instead of dead-end pages
Optimize across retailers with retailer ranking and campaign-specific paths
Measure what happens next, with performance data on products, retailers, channels, and campaigns
The media experience stays with the brand, agency, or media partner. SmartCommerce powers the commerce path behind it.
Why It Matters
Paid search and programmatic are being asked to do more than drive traffic.
Brands, shopper teams, ecommerce teams, sales teams, and agencies all need clearer signals that media-driven demand is moving closer to purchase.
Shoppable Paid Media helps create that connection.
For shoppers, it reduces the steps between intent and purchase.
For brands, it connects paid media investment to product engagement, retailer selection, availability signals, and cart activity.
For agencies and media partners, it makes paid campaigns more actionable without changing how the media is planned, bought, or activated.
Proven in Market
SmartCommerce’s role in paid media commerce activation has already been recognized through a campaign with Kargo and Attain for Mondelez.
The campaign connected Display and CTV media experiences with Click2Cart® path-to-purchase technology and verified purchase measurement.
The results showed what can happen when paid media has a commerce path behind it:
$26 ROAS on Display
10% new buyer lift on Display
11% conversion rate on Display
450K+ completed carts across Display + CTV
The Future of Paid Media Is Connected to Cart
Modern commerce does not happen in one place. Consumers are discovering products across paid search, programmatic display, streaming media, retail media, social platforms, and emerging shopping journeys.
For brands, the opportunity is clear: make those discovery moments easier to act on.
Shoppable Paid Media by SmartCommerce helps brands shorten the path from paid search and programmatic engagement to purchase, giving shoppers a faster way to take action and giving brands a clearer way to connect media investment to results at retail.
Paid media already has the demand.
Now it can have a path to cart too.
See Shoppable Paid Media in Action
Make your next paid search or programmatic campaign easier to act on.
See how Shoppable Paid Media by SmartCommerce helps connect clicks and impressions to shoppable, measurable purchase paths.