Instacart Ads

Leading retail media network in online grocery with significant first-party shopping data

Instacart Ads (also known as Instacart Advertising or Carrot Ads) is the retail media advertising platform of Instacart, one of North America's leading online grocery delivery and pickup services. The platform enables consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands and retailers to reach shoppers with targeted advertising at the point of purchase across Instacart's marketplace, which serves millions of active users. Instacart Ads offers various ad products including sponsored product listings, display ads, shoppable video ads, and brand pages that allow advertisers to influence purchase decisions when consumers are actively shopping for groceries. As a retail media network, Instacart Ads has become a significant player in the rapidly growing retail media sector, competing with platforms like Amazon Advertising, Walmart Connect, and Kroger Precision Marketing. The platform leverages first-party shopping data and purchase intent signals to deliver highly targeted advertising opportunities to brands seeking to reach consumers in a high-intent shopping environment. Following Instacart's IPO in September 2023 under the ticker symbol CART, the advertising business has been identified as a key growth driver, with the company reporting that advertising and other revenue streams are becoming increasingly important to its overall business model.