Dollar General Corp. just linked its in-store digital ads with offsite channels like connected TV. Advertisers can now run campaigns across both worlds from one dashboard. This move, powered by The Trade Desk and Kevel, promises clearer consumer tracking. Testing starts this June. Mutual clients gain access in Q3.
The discount retailer serves 19,000 stores, mostly rural. Its shoppers skew low-income, value-driven. DG Media Network taps this base for ads. Last year, it generated $170 million in volume—highly profitable. CEO Todd Vasos called it a key margin booster during the March earnings call, as reported by Retail TouchPoints.
Onsite means display ads on Dollar General’s site and app. Offsite covers video, audio, social. Before, these silos forced marketers to stitch data manually. No more. Kevel’s API glues onsite inventory to The Trade Desk’s offsite activation. James Avery, Kevel’s founder and CEO, put it bluntly: “Onsite and offsite have operated as separate worlds, and advertisers have had to piece together performance from disconnected systems. This collaboration with Dollar General and The Trade Desk changes that and creates something fundamentally new.” That’s from a Yahoo Finance article citing the press release.
Austin Leonard, VP and GM of DG Media Network, sees big gains. “This is a meaningful step forward for our brand partners and for DG Media Network. For the first time, advertisers working with DGMN can plan, activate, and optimise reach and frequency across both onsite and offsite inventory within The Trade Desk,” he told Chain Store Age. Campaigns now talk to each other. Targeting. Creative. Measurement. All cohesive.
And this fits Dollar General’s wider pivot. Shares dipped 14% this year amid competition and costs. But Q4 2025 sales hit $10.9 billion, up 5.9%. Same-store sales rose 4.3%, per investor filings. Net income more than doubled to $426 million. Full-year revenue reached $42.7 billion, a 5.2% gain. Digital and delivery from 18,000 stores added 80 basis points to comps, according to TipRanks coverage of the call.
Stores play a role too. The chain plans 450 new U.S. locations in 2026, plus 10 in Mexico. Over 4,000 remodels. A new format—more open, inviting—tested well in 2025 projects. It lifted sales versus standard updates. Customers browse more categories. Treasure hunt style. Vasos: “We have established a robust digital ecosystem… with more than 7 million monthly active users on our Dollar General app and a total of more than 100 million marketable customer profiles.” Again, Retail TouchPoints.
Kevel switched in last May, replacing Google Ad Manager for onsite displays. Criteo handles search and sponsored products. The Trade Desk now sells those displays alongside CTV. At launch, managed service only. Self-service follows testing. Leonard called it one of his “white whales.” Unified frequency management. Journey tracking. Real optimization. Details from Adweek.
Matthew Fantazier at The Trade Desk echoed the shift. “This collaboration represents a meaningful step forward… giving advertisers a more complete view of performance.” Via Chain Store Age. Retail media networks exploded. Fragmentation too. Dollar General aims to cut through. Vasos laid out the strategy in March: “accelerating onsite performance through improved search, sponsored products and a stronger e-commerce experience while expanding our ability to capture emerging offsite spends across social, connected TV and video.” Noted in Marketing Dive.
Q1 2026 earnings loom June 2. Analysts eye comps in low 2% range. Long-term? 120 basis points gross margin gain over three-four years. Half from media. Nonconsumables to 20% of sales by 2029. 15 new brands incoming. But urban traffic lags. Costs rise. Remodel execution key.
Rural dominance endures. App hits 7 million users monthly. 100 million profiles. In-store audio expands via QSIC to 12,000 spots—more ad touchpoints, per Simply Wall St. pOpshelf shrank after cuts, folding into DG Markets. Focus sharpens on core.
This integration? Bold bet on data unity. Advertisers get full-funnel control. Dollar General gets sticky revenue. Watch Q3 rollout. Performance will tell.
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