# The Commerce Media Flywheel — Mark Grether, PayPal

S3 E6 · Mar 2, 2026 · 47 min

What happens when a payments company becomes a commerce media platform.

### Show notes

Mark Grether (SVP & GM, PayPal Ads) joins The Middlemen to unpack what happens when a payments company becomes a commerce media platform.

Why do CMOs talk ROAS while CFOs talk market share? What does it mean to build a merchant-first media model? And is “PayPal Ads” too small a label for what’s actually being built?

We cover the commerce media flywheel, cross-merchant data, revenue sharing with SMBs, and why transaction infrastructure may be the next frontier of media.

#### What we cover

- A merchant-first media model
- Building the flywheel inside a non-ad company
- CMOs vs CFOs: ROAS vs market share
- Revenue sharing with SMBs
- Storefront Ads and collapsing the conversion funnel
- Competing with the walled gardens

#### Links from the episode

- [Mark Grether on LinkedIn ↗](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgrether/)  
- [PayPal Ads Overview ↗](https://www.paypal.com/us/advertiser)