This article first appeared on GuruFocus .
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Media Spend:$1.2 billion, up 9% year-over-year.
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Revenue:$416 million for Q3 2026.
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Contribution ex-TAC:$240 million, down 15% at constant currency; includes $4 million FX headwind and $20 million impact from retail media client scope changes.
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Performance Media Revenue:$365 million.
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Performance Media Contribution ex-TAC:$189 million, down 13% at constant currency.
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Retail Media Revenue:$52 million.
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Retail Media Contribution ex-TAC:$51 million, down 23% at constant currency; underlying client base grew 10% excluding $20 million scope-reduction impact.
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Retail Media Media Spend:Up 22% year-over-year; brands on platform reached 4,700.
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Adjusted EBITDA:$65 million, ahead of plan.
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Adjusted EBITDA Margin:27% for the quarter.
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Non-GAAP Operating Expenses:$153 million, down 3% year-over-year.
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Depreciation & Amortization:$29 million.
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Share-Based Compensation:$9 million, down 39% year-over-year.
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Income from Operations:$21 million.
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Net Income:$6 million.
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Diluted EPS:$0.11; adjusted diluted EPS $0.43.
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Income Tax Provision:$16 million, including $6 million one-time redomiciliation impact.
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Operating Cash Flow:$57 million in the quarter.
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Free Cash Flow:$21 million in the quarter; trailing 12-month free cash flow $134 million.
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Cash & Debt:$275 million in cash, no long-term debt.
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Share Repurchases:$4 million in the quarter; $65 million year-to-date; $156 million remaining under authorization.
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New Channels Mix:CTV, AI platforms and social represent 13% of commerce growth campaigns, up from 6% a year ago.
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Social:Approximately 20% growth in both media spend and number of campaigns year-over-year.
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Go Self-Service:Serves about one-third of commerce growth customers and ~10% of commerce growth revenue; more than half of small clients globally use Go Campaigns.
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Full-Year 2026 Outlook:Contribution ex-TAC expected to decline 10%12% at constant currency; adjusted EBITDA margin ~30%; operating cash flow conversion ~85%; free cash flow conversion ~35% of adjusted EBITDA; capex ~$180 million; effective tax rate in high 30% range.
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Q4 2026 Outlook:Contribution ex-TAC of $292 million$298 million, down 9%11% at constant currency; adjusted EBITDA of $105 million$111 million.
Release Date: November 04, 2026
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript .
Positive Points
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Criteo SA ( NASDAQ:CRTO ) is expanding its CTV offering globally, with launches in Brazil and Mexico by year-end and major markets in 2027, and is on track to double its Q3 CTV run rate in Q4.
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The OpenAI integration has grown from 7 to 89 countries, and campaigns like Turkish Airlines saw a 183% increase in site landings, indicating strong potential in AI platforms.
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New business pipeline is up 72% year-over-year, with agencies representing over half, and new business spend grew 13% year-over-year, with enterprise client spend doubling.
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Retail media underlying contribution ex-TAC grew 10% excluding client scope reductions, with media spend up 22% and brands on the platform reaching 4,700.
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Criteo SA ( NASDAQ:CRTO ) maintains strong cost discipline, with non-GAAP operating expenses down 3% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA margin at 27%, ahead of plan.
Negative Points
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Criteo SA ( NASDAQ:CRTO ) reported a 15% decline in contribution ex-TAC at constant currency, with performance media down 13% and retail media down 23%, impacted by reduced spending from large enterprise clients and client scope reductions.
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The US market remains the most challenged, and discretionary retail categories like fashion declined 14%, with travel decelerating after strong growth.
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Retail media growth slowed to 10% from 20% in the prior quarter, due to tougher comparisons and delays in display rollouts with larger retailers pushing into 2027.
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Full-year 2026 guidance remains cautious, with contribution ex-TAC expected to decline 10-12%, and no immediate benefit assumed from sales execution improvements.
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Foreign exchange headwinds are increasing, with Q4 contribution ex-TAC expected to face up to $4 million negative impact, $2 million more than prior guidance.
Q & A Highlights
Q: With open opportunities up 72% year-over-year and agencies representing more than half the pipeline, how does Criteo convert this top-of-funnel momentum into sustained improvement in 2027? A: CEO Michael Komasinski said the company is stabilizing spend from large enterprise clients while investing in new talent, better processes and go-to-market materials to drive new business. New clients require a couple of months of ramp time for data integrations and bidder tuning, but he expects new business to ramp in the first half of 2027, creating a more normal balance of existing-client ups and downs offset by new business growth.
Q: As agentic AI shopping gains traction, is retail media at risk of disintermediation? A: CEO Michael Komasinski said Criteo does not see it that way. Horizontal agents like ChatGPT serve discovery use cases, but consumers ultimately transition to retailer-owned vertical agents for basket building, evaluation and transactions, driven by fulfillment, customer service, payment trust and the shopping experience. As retailers build these vertical solutions, Criteo can bring retail media formats into those new surfaces, as it has started doing with Albertsons and additional retailers.
Q: What are Criteo's expectations for the ramp of ChatGPT ads in 2027, and are AI ad formats still experimental budgets? A: CEO Michael Komasinski said ChatGPT has been Criteo's fastest-growing partnership and channel, expanding from seven countries last quarter to 89 today, with 3,600 clients having been on and off the platform. Clients currently test, evaluate and return, so the focus is on getting them always-on and scaling budgets. New functionality such as custom audiences, which leverages Criteo's commerce graph, should give clients confidence to scale, and he expects ChatGPT ads to be a meaningful contributor to growth in 2027.
Q: With many partners now working with OpenAI, does that create conflicts or complement Criteo's position? A: CEO Michael Komasinski said the partnerships are generally complementary because they bring advertisers and demand that does not overlap with Criteo. More demand partners improve auction density and performance through the flywheel effect, which benefits everyone. Criteo adds value through audience fidelity, smart prompts and creative variations on the input side, and cross-channel measurement and optimization on the output side.
Q: What investments are needed to scale CTV into a more material business, and how does Criteo differentiate in performance CTV against competitors like Walmart's Vibe and Amazon? A: CEO Michael Komasinski said Criteo has now tuned its bidder and built the right campaign structure and workflow, and its differentiation is the commerce graph and high-fidelity audiences, which win in head-to-head contests. Investment will focus on campaign features, geographic expansion and adding supply partners as demand grows. Versus Walmart's first-party graph, the Criteo shopper graph sees more transactions across more categories and a broader retailer base, making it higher fidelity for building audiences.
Q: Is Criteo seeing any impact from Apple's Safari changes in iOS 27, and how does this compare to prior privacy shifts? A: CEO Michael Komasinski said Criteo is not currently seeing any direct impact on ad serving from Apple's latest changes, reflecting long-standing investment in privacy-safe technology and durable addressability built during the privacy sandbox era. Channel diversification across social, OpenAI and CTV puts Criteo in a fundamentally different position than a couple of years ago, and it believes it is much more diversified and ready for such changes.
Q: What is Criteo seeing in performance media spending through October, particularly in discretionary retail and travel? A: CFO Connor McGogney said Criteo is not seeing a bounce back in growth but is seeing no further deterioration in large-client and core performance media business. Fashion was a particularly challenging category, down about 14% in the quarter. Bright spots include stabilization and a growing new business pipeline, but the business remains muted in Q3, supporting a cautious outlook for the rest of the year.
Q: Why did underlying retail media growth decelerate from about 20% in Q2 to 10% in Q3, and is the segment maturing? A: CEO Michael Komasinski said the market is maturing and changing, but Criteo is adapting and he remains bullish on 2027 growth. Drivers include Page Intelligence, sponsored recommendations in retailer AI assistants, on-site display where Criteo is live with 95 retailers but still has share-of-volume upside, off-site including retail media in OpenAI, and demand tools like conquesting and Commerce Max. CFO Connor McGogney added that Q3 faced tougher comparisons to large retailer launches in Q3 of last year.
Q: What is driving the softer Q4 retail media outlook? A: CFO Connor McGogney cited three factors: tougher year-over-year comparisons without the benefit of last year's large retailer launches, delays at a couple of larger retailers pushing auction-based display rollouts into 2027, and a modestly slower start in October with some retail media clients, which Criteo expects to pick up in the back part of the quarter. He remains very bullish on retail media.
Q: How is Google's accelerated rollout of AI Overviews and AI Mode affecting open web supply and results? A: CEO Michael Komasinski said there is some pressure on lower-intent traffic and long-tail publishers, but engagement from high-intent users on high-quality publishers remains strong. Criteo has access to broad, diversified, high-quality supply and sees no shortage of opportunities to engage users on the open web.
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript .
