Instacart offers advertisers real-time view into performance

Instacart is the latest in a long line of grocery and CPG retail participants to provide advertisers targeted access to its customers.

The on-demand delivery platform is collaborating with e-commerce marketing platform CommerceIQ on an offering called CIQ Advertising for Instacart. The new 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.

[Read more: Report: Instacart enters online search ad market]

CIQ Advertising uses AI to convert business objectives into recommendations and automates the decision-making process with algorithms. The new offering provides a single view of all ad campaigns that are running on Instacart Ads. It also allows users to gain visibility on top performers across campaigns, keywords or SKUs without having to manually drill down into each campaign.

Brands can track advertising performance across different purchase paths on Instacart, such as search, browse, and impulse buy. Leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms, CommerceIQ classifies consumer searches into branded, category or competitor keyword types to understand purchase intent and identifies incremental searches where there are opportunities to drive spend for improved ROI.

On top of this dataset, users can add a rule based on any performance metric, purchase journey or keyword type, and take bulk actions with a single click instead of manually managing the process one campaign or keyword at a time.

An increasing number of retailers have been opening their customer bases to third-party digital advertisers, either through partnerships with retail media platforms or via proprietary networks. Walmart recently rolled out a demand-side platform for suppliers and their media and ad agencies, while Target launched its Roundel ad network in 2019 as a tool for CPG brands. At least four other big-name retailers with a sizable CPG assortment have launched similar digital third-party ad networks in the past year: Family Dollar, Walgreens, Kroger, and CVS.

"CommerceIQ’s integration of the Instacart Ads API bodes well for the fast-growing online grocery segment," said Ryan Mayward, VP of ad sales at Instacart. “As consumers continue to flock to Instacart to take advantage of the breadth of offerings and retailers that we support, platforms like CommerceIQ will make brands more efficient and effective, not only in reaching their target audience, but in ensuring that their e-commerce operation is optimized for success. We are excited to welcome CommerceIQ to the Instacart Ads API partner family."

“CommerceIQ’s e-commerce management platform provides substantial benefits, giving us the ability to understand performance across granular targets, including branded, generic and competitive keywords and apply bulk automations to optimize our campaigns in line with our business objectives,” said Rizwan Akbar, head of e-commerce at CPG brand Pilgrims Pride, an early adopter of CIQ Advertising for Instacart. “Within three weeks of launch, we have seen incremental ad sales and return on advertising spend improve by 53% while reducing our cost per click by 67%. These results are attributed to automations that optimize bids on an hourly basis and according to consumer spend patterns and keyword improvements, among other metrics.”

“We announced our omnichannel offering back in April, and since then we have consistently added capabilities to our platform that reflect our customers’ need for managing their e-commerce business across all retail media,” said Guru Hariharan, CEO and co-founder of CommerceIQ. “We are excited to be able to work with Instacart Ads to drive growth in one of the fastest-growing segments in e-commerce.”