Instacart enables shoppable YouTube ads for CPG brands
Instacart is extending its first-party retail media data to YouTube.
Building on an existing Google Shopping Ads collaboration, Instacart is enabling select brand partners to run shoppable YouTube ads. Clorox and Publicis Media are among Instacart’s first partners to pilot the capability.
Pilot partners’ shoppable video campaigns on YouTube will leverage Instacart’s first-party data to identify and reach high-intent consumers and receive closed-loop measurement. Viewers can click directly from these YouTube ads to an Instacart product page to purchase the featured items for same-day delivery.
In May 2020, Instacart rolled out a self-serve ad service called Instacart Ads which brands and agencies can use to purchase search ads, set goals and advertising budgets, and manage bidding.
“We’re proud to continue bringing our world-class advertising capabilities to more platforms and unlocking innovative new touchpoints to connect brands and consumers,” said Fidji Simo, CEO and chair of Instacart. “By expanding into shoppable YouTube ad formats, we’re merging the power of video creative with our valuable first-party data and seamless shopping experience. Today’s announcement marks an important next step to make grocery shopping effortless by helping consumers more easily go from discovery to purchase.”
“Clorox has been a longstanding Instacart Ads partner,” said Tiffany Tan, senior director, e-commerce growth accelerator. “We’ve been quick to test new pilot offerings, including Instacart’s shoppable video ads on their platform, because we see the value of retail media to reach our target consumers. We are excited to pilot these new Instacart-powered shoppable YouTube ads off Instacart to test and learn alongside the Instacart team. Instacart’s first-party retail media data layered on top of our video creative will help us create engaging, shoppable ads to better reach, inspire, and drive purchases from YouTube.”
"Retail media networks are a meaningful channel for our CPG clients because of their high-intent audiences at the point of purchase," said Joel Lunenfeld, CEO at Publicis Media Exchange (PMX). "We look forward to piloting these new shoppable ads to help our clients power greater connected commerce experiences for their customers and reduce the path to purchase."
Instacart serves CPG advertisers
In other CPG advertising initiatives, Instacart began piloting shoppable CPG ads in spring 2022. In February 2023, the company co-launched a QR code-based shoppable ad campaign during the NFL football playoffs with the Anheuser-Busch Michelob Ultra brand.
And in October 2021, Instacart collaborated with e-commerce marketing platform CommerceIQ on an offering called CIQ Advertising for Instacart. The service, which includes an API integration, enables CPG brands to obtain real-time visibility across all their campaigns on the Instacart Ads self-serve ad platform, as well as leverage CommerceIQ artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to automatically optimize Featured Product ads on Instacart in bulk.
In January 2022, the company released a collection of advertiser solutions, including brand pages and a suite of display applications designed to maximize brand reach and consumer awareness for CPG brands. The new products are designed to enable advertisers to run a full-funnel marketing strategy throughout the entire consumer shopping journey on Instacart – from awareness to consideration to purchase.
Headquartered in San Francisco, Instacart partners with more than 1,400 national, regional and local retail banners to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 80,000 stores across North America on the Instacart Marketplace.