Instacart Lets Brands Target Ads Off-Platform Through Google Shopping Campaigns

The Google partnership continues its strategy to let brands target Instacart ads off-platform, said CEO Fidji Simo. Last year, the company announced partnerships with Roku and The Trade Desk.

“Instead of you placing an ad on Google and not really being able to know who the ad is going to reach,” Simo said, “we’re able to target that product to people who haven’t purchased your product before and really improve the results if your goal is to reach new people.”

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Early tests are seeing success. For one consumer-packaged-goods pilot campaign, more than one-half of people who purchased via the Instacart ads on Google Shopping were new to the brand, meaning that they hadn’t bought one of the brand’s products in the past six months. Danone, Kraft Heinz and Publicis Media have signed up to target ads on Google Shopping Campaigns.

The news comes at a time of growth for Instacart and the retail media business as a whole. Instacart went public in September 2023, and in November, it reported $222 million in third-quarter advertising revenue, a 19% jump from the prior year, which also accounted for nearly one-third of Instacart’s total revenue that quarter.

The partnership with Google lets Instacart flex its attribution and targeting abilities as a digital native. The company’s digital prowess is undercut by its unusual place in the media plan; neither fully a media company nor fully a commerce enterprise, its budget is less certain than newly digital retailers that have always received shopper marketing budgets, sources told Adweek.

Instacart ads off-platform

Instacart ads have been a fixture on Google before—just search for toothpaste or soap on Google, and you might see sponsored links to buy those products on Instacart.

Before this partnership, Instacart was paying for those ads out of its marketing budget to encourage people to download the Instacart application or use the Instacart website. The ads were being targeted against Google’s data and without Instacart’s shopper signals.

Now, advertisers can use Instacart’s data to not only target a customer who bought their product once or twice on Instacart, but also track whether they clicked on the Google ad and made a purchase, theoretically offering perfect closed-loop attribution.

The partnership not only strengthens the precision of targeting and measurement on Google, but also creates new surfaces to find customers.

“At some point, inventory becomes constrained on-site,” said analyst Andrew Lipsman, who recently launched a consultancy focused on commerce and advertising. “[Instacart] is at a place where offsite has to become a bigger part of the strategy.”

Still, the partnership will not give Instacart the full reach of Google, as the focus is on people who already have Instacart accounts.

“If you buy, I would recommend buying with a purpose that you know can be delivered to you within the data set Google is reporting,” said Courtney Crossley, vice president of commerce media at Mars Agency, adding that buyers should be careful to only think of their Instacart shoppers when designing an Instacart campaign on Google. “Throwing some money at it and having it run with minimum manipulation is a way to be less happy with the results.”

Getting space on the media plan

Instacart has a high-performing, mature ads platform, having been in the media business since 2019, Lipsman said, adding, “I would almost put Instacart as second most mature after Amazon.”

Still, the brands that buy Instacart ads are those that are already using it as a major driver of sales.

“If you’re not an Instacart advertiser, I don’t know how much [brands] see Instacart as a channel,” said Briana Finelli, head of commerce, U.S., at WPP-owned Wavemaker, adding, “I assume most companies that sell product on Instacart are advertisers at this point.”