Instacart extends advertising reach with new partnership
Instacart continues growing its presence as a targeted advertising platform for CPG brands.
The grocery technology company is teaming up with e-commerce optimization firm Ascential to early access to new advertising products and pilots, co-marketing, and educational and developmental initiatives. Delivered through Ascential’s managed Internet marketing solutions Flywheel Digital, Lions, and WARC, the partnership will feature joint marketing initiatives including value-added services to Ascential’s customers throughout the fourth quarter of 2022.
Specifically, Ascential customers will receive early access to Instacart Ads pilot programs, new features, and product capabilities. Ascential and Instacart will co-host joint webinars, case studies, and co-branded activations throughout the remainder of 2022.
In addition, Ascential employees will receive priority access to Instacart training and accreditation programs, and Ascential and Instacart leadership teams will work together by engaging in quarterly top-to-top meetings, quarterly business reviews, and office hours.
Instacart expands advertising functionality
For the past two years, Instacart has been making inroads as an advertising platform. In May 2020, the company 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.
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.
And in May 2022, the company released shoppable video ads and enhanced shoppable display ads. Shoppable video ads provide seamless add-to-cart functionality for customers viewing the ads on its site. Shoppable display ads feature brand imagery integrated with direct add-to-cart functionality, and are designed to serve as a CPG brand’s contextual “pop-up shop” on Instacart.
Most recently, Instacart acquired Eversight, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based pricing and promotions platform for CPG brands and retailers, and streamlined the ad buying experience in its self-service Ads Manager portal.
“At Instacart, we are harnessing technology to deliver innovations in convenience, personalization, and engagement to our consumers and CPG brand partners,” said Suzanne Skop, director of agency partnerships at Instacart. “Brands choose Instacart because we’ve built a platform with high-intent consumers, an unparalleled scale of retailers, and closed-looped measurement, all of which drives meaningful results for our CPG brand partners. Our partnership with Ascential will extend Instacart’s ad offerings to even more brands to provide them with the valuable insights, tools, and resources they need to win on Instacart.”
“Brands and retailers with the deepest, most recent insights into the digital performance of their products and services will gain an informed edge in the competitive eCommerce landscape of today,” said Patrick Miller, co-president, digital commerce at Ascential and co-founder of Flywheel Digital. "Through this partnership, Ascential will be able to help brand leaders on Instacart stay ahead of the curve when it comes to inspiring and engaging consumers throughout their shopping journey.”
Instacart partners with more than 800 national, regional and local retail brands to facilitate online shopping, delivery and pickup services from more than 70,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America.