What should a grocery brand ask before hiring a retail media agency?

1. Which retailers and jobs are actually included?

Start with the retailers where your products are distributed. Ask the agency to name the paid channels it can manage for your account, then separate those from retailers where it can only review product content or availability.

Get the scope in writing. It should distinguish media planning and campaign work from digital shelf checks, creative production, reporting and support for line reviews. Ask what happens when a new retailer is added. A list of platform names does not establish that every ad format, reporting feature or integration is available to your brand.

At Le Grocerie, the engagement covers retail media strategy and execution, shopper marketing support, digital shelf work, performance analysis, and planning for line reviews. Brokerage and Amazon marketplace as a standalone practice are outside the published scope. See the service.

2. What must be ready before the first campaign or account change?

A sensible starting checklist is concrete:

• The products and UPCs being advertised, with current product information and images.
• The retailers and locations where those products are distributed and available.
• Account access, with billing and permissions understood.
• Available campaign and sales history, including any gaps.
• Your promo calendar, creative requirements, budget and agreed goals.
• The margin and repeat-purchase assumptions behind the plan.

If the brand or retailer account is new, ask how the agency will establish a baseline with limited history. The answer should identify what is known, what must be checked, and which decisions can wait for more data.

For Instacart Sponsored Products, campaign diagnostics can distinguish insufficient budget from other issues. Instacart's missed-auction budget estimates do not account for every cause, including low bids or missing product images. Increasing the budget is therefore not a complete diagnosis. See Instacart's performance guidance.

3. Who owns the accounts, media billing and work?

Ask whose name is on each account, whose card pays the platform, and how access is removed if the engagement ends. Make sure you can retain the campaign history and agreed work product without rebuilding the account.

Le Grocerie's published terms keep the ad accounts with the client. The platforms bill the client's card, media has no markup, and the client owns the files produced. The agency is added as a user. See the account ownership and terms.

4. What does the fee cover?

Separate the agency fee from the media budget. Ask whether creative is included, how many units are in scope, what reporting is delivered, and whether adding a retailer changes the agreement.

Le Grocerie charges 10% of managed retail media spend for brands spending over $30,000 a month. Below that, the engagement is scoped on the first call. Creative for the agreed placements is included, with quantities set in the proposal. The initial term is three months, followed by month to month. See pricing and included work.

That is a specific offer, not a market benchmark. Compare the work and access you receive alongside the fee.

5. Can I understand the reporting without trusting a single headline number?

Ask to see the structure of a report before you sign. A blank template is enough to test whether it will answer your questions; it does not need another client's data.

Definitions differ. Instacart Sponsored Products documents a 14-day click window for attributed sales and a 26-week purchase lookback for new-to-brand sales. Its Ads Manager performance metrics use Pacific Time and update within 24 hours, subject to delay notices. A new-to-brand metric therefore does not mean that the buyer has never purchased the brand. See Instacart's measurement definitions.

Criteo Commerce Max Offsite supports configurable attribution windows and product matching. Its documentation also describes a reporting delay. Ask to see the settings actually used in your account before comparing its ROAS with another platform's. See the Commerce Max Offsite attribution documentation.

ROAS is attributed sales divided by ad spend. It is not the same as profit or proof of additional sales caused by the ads. Total retailer sales can add context, but a change in a blended ratio alone cannot establish the cause. Ask what evidence would be needed for an incrementality claim. Walmart Connect, for example, presents attribution and incrementality as separate ways to evaluate results. See Walmart Connect's measurement overview.

6. What will you check on the digital shelf, and how?

Ask for the method behind the phrase. Product images, missing details and observed availability can be reviewed directly. A platform's category share metric may require authorized account access and may represent a different population.

Instacart defines share of digital shelf using category impressions and includes paid and organic placements. That is not interchangeable with a screenshot of one product's position for one search. See Instacart's share of digital shelf definition.

A useful shelf review states the retailer, date, location or delivery area where relevant, products and search terms checked. It separates what was observed from information the agency still needs. Ask who receives the resulting fixes and how completion is checked.

7. How are category conflicts handled?

Ask whether the agency works with competing brands, how it defines a conflict and when it tells you. Do not rely on a general assurance about confidentiality when what you want is a clear account policy.