Instacart Ads - statistics & facts
It is all about connections
Instacart has won several prominent partnerships to boost its advertising business, with a focus on the most popular media channel among consumers – digital video. In early 2023, Instacart and Roku announced their cross-platform cooperation would allow advertisers to see if consumers were buying their products on Instacart after seeing an ad for them on Roku. As Roku has been generally considered a walled garden, the partnership was hailed as a ground-breaking development. Roughly a year later, YouTube advertising was enriched by Instacart-powered shoppable ads, allowing video viewers to purchase products directly from Instacart after seeing an ad for them on YouTube. This was the second cooperation with a Google product announced by Instacart in 2024. In early January, Google Shopping ads were made accessible to Instacart's advertising partners. Additionally, starting in August 2024, Ibotta began providing Instacart customers with access to its catalog of digital coupons.A promising player
Instacart is still in the process of building up its ad business, both in terms of importance for its bottom line and finding its spot in the competitive retail media market. In 2023, its ad revenue stood below 900 million U.S. dollars and accounted for roughly three percent of its gross transaction volume (GTV). Industry benchmark Amazon made approximately 47 billion dollars with its ad business worldwide, which made eight percent of its total net sales. Walmart Connect generated 3.4 billion dollars, which in turn only accounted for 0.5 percent of its revenue.In terms of popularity, Instacart has already made it quite far. During a 2024 survey, 45 percent of responding U.S. marketers stated they included Instacart Ads in their ad strategy. That gave the delivery service fifth spot in the popularity ranking, behind Walmart Connect and Amazon, as well as retail media offerings of Target and Kroger. It is, however, likely, that Instacart will keep gaining traction. In a 2023 survey, Instacart was voted the retail media network with the most effective targeting in the U.S. It also ranked in the top five for data sharing capabilities and for return on investment (ROI).