Instacart Ads
Instacart Ads connects CPG brands with high-intent grocery shoppers at the moment of purchase, offering closed-loop attribution and first-party data across a multi-retailer grocery marketplace.
Last updated May 11, 2026 by the ATDb Editorial Team · Connections updated May 25, 2026
- Industry
- Retail Media & Commerce Advertising
- Business Model
- Retail Media / Marketplace Advertising
- Target Market
- Enterprise and Mid-Market CPG Brands
- Employee Count
- 1001-5000
- Funding
- $2.9B
- Revenue Range
- $800M–$1B+ (advertising revenue)
- Stock Symbol
- CART
- Parent Company
- Maplebear Inc. (Instacart)
- API Available
- Yes
Leading grocery-focused retail media network in North America, competing directly with Amazon Advertising and Walmart Connect for CPG ad budgets
Instacart Ads is the retail media division of Maplebear Inc. (Instacart), North America's leading online grocery platform. The advertising business enables consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands and agencies to reach millions of active grocery shoppers through a suite of performance and brand-building ad formats, including Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Display Ads, and Shoppable Video. Because ads are served within an active shopping environment, Instacart Ads benefits from exceptionally high purchase intent signals, making it a compelling channel for brands seeking measurable, closed-loop attribution tied directly to grocery sales. Instacart Ads has grown into a significant revenue driver for the company, contributing the majority of Instacart's total revenue. The platform leverages first-party purchase data from millions of grocery transactions across thousands of retail banners to enable precise audience targeting, including category buyers, brand loyalists, and competitive conquesting segments. Instacart also offers an off-platform advertising product called Carrot Ads, which allows other retailers to power their own retail media networks using Instacart's technology stack, extending the platform's reach beyond the Instacart marketplace itself. In the broader AdTech and retail media ecosystem, Instacart Ads competes with Amazon Advertising, Walmart Connect, Kroger Precision Marketing, and other retail media networks. Its unique position as a grocery-focused, multi-retailer platform — spanning Kroger, Costco, Albertsons, and hundreds of other banners — gives it differentiated scale and cross-retailer shopper insights. Since going public on the Nasdaq in September 2023 under the ticker CART, Instacart has continued to invest in its advertising technology, self-serve capabilities, and measurement tools to attract both large CPG enterprises and emerging brands.
Sponsored Products
Cost-per-click ads that promote individual SKUs in search results and category pages within the Instacart marketplace
Sponsored Brands
Brand-level placements featuring logos, custom headlines, and product carousels to drive brand awareness and discovery
Display Ads
Programmatic and direct display placements across the Instacart app and website, including banner and native formats
Shoppable Video
Video ad units that allow shoppers to add products to their cart directly from the video experience
Carrot Ads
White-label retail media technology platform enabling other grocery retailers to build and monetize their own retail media networks
Instacart Ads Manager
Self-serve campaign management dashboard for advertisers to create, manage, and measure ad campaigns
Audience Targeting
First-party data-driven audience segments based on purchase history, category affinity, and shopper behavior across retailer banners
Closed-Loop Measurement
Attribution reporting that ties ad exposure directly to verified grocery purchases for ROI measurement