More and more users and marketers have begun using Instacart featured products within the last year, especially in 2020, much of it due to COVID-19. Instacart is an online shopping platform that delivers groceries to your door. Personalized shoppers grab your order from stores that carry your list, including such brands as CVS Pharmacy, Wegmans, and Costco.
The store has rapidly increased its business within the past few months. In March, online grocery store shopping went from 11% to 37%, a huge profit leap by any standard.
Observing the marketing aspect of this online store, we can see many benefits now that Instacart uses Pacvue for self-serve advertising to get their products to the mass market.
Pacvue hosts advertising features for giants like Amazon and Walmart, and when Instacart and Pacvue work together, they provide quite a few features. We’ll cover these features
Instacart Utilizes a Self-Serve Platform
Instacart initially launched a self-serve advertising platform to compete with other media outlets and growing digital retailers, which includes some of the following:
- Amazon
- CVS Pharmacy
- Kroger
- Target
- Walmart
Big companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and PepsiCo are among the brands that have tested the ad platform in the past few months and found it useful. Its marketplace ads include banners, coupons, and delivery promotions.
Marketers who are beginning their advertising campaigns must set up an account through Instacart. This allows marketers to use measurement tools to track movement through the website.
The platform also helps marketers reach shoppers that are ready to buy groceries and complete their household shopping. Since the pandemic, marketers have focused on branded products with an online presence for customers who may have missed them.
Where Do Instacart Ads Appear?
Instacart also offers feature product advertising. Customers see these ads when they search for related keywords using the Instacart app. They can even search the home page or different departments, browse item details, and check a personalized section.
Online shoppers usually browse several times before making a purchase. This is a form of research, to decide whether they will purchase items online or in stores, if at all. Since Instacart knows this, there are several opportunities for featured advertisements like the above to reach the desired audience.
If someone is looking for a quality brand of Ketchup with certain ingredients, the person might type a few different keywords. Heinz Ketchup might pop up for each one at the top. As the customer continues searching, they’ll be more likely to purchase Heinz as it becomes more apparent as the top result.
This feature is similar to Amazon, where the conversion is more likely to happen when the advertisement appears at the top of the search.
Instacart Featured Products Use Keyword Bidding
Instacart uses auctioning and bids for specific keywords, where the auction is won based on a combination of the CPC bid and relevance. If you target “chocolate chip cookies,” the keyword bid would only be applied to the exact phrase, and it wouldn’t be used to variations like “chip cookies” or “chocolate chips.”
They Even Make Sure Your Keywords are Competitive
Instacart is similar to Amazon in how they operate the keyword auction model. When marketers are bidding, they’re only paying $.01 more than their competition. This setup works for those who want to remain competitive in advertising without going over budget.
Instacart rates keywords based on the advertiser’s probability of winning them for the campaign. The system can be viewed in real-time, so you can see the bids change and know if you’ve come out on top.
- Green, a high probability of winning at least 50% of placements
- Yellow, also a high probability of winning at least 25% of placements
- Red, there is no chance of winning any placements
How To Get Started with Instacart
There are four easy and important steps for getting set up with a campaign Instacart:
- Learn How to Structure Your Campaigns: There is no SKU limit when you create a campaign. However, there is a keyword limit of 1,000 per ad group. You can also have multiple ad groups in the same campaign.
- Set Your Budget: Be conscious of your budget. This is best achieved when you select a date for the campaign and monitor spending within the limit you set.
- Exclude Certain Keywords from Campaigns: Monitor which words are serving you best in each campaign. If the keyword isn’t doing as well as you hoped, you can lower the bid value to a minimum and focus your efforts elsewhere.
- Get started ASAP: Instacart has grown exponentially in the last year due to the pandemic, and more shoppers are moving to the platform daily. Taking advantage of this popularity is important to stay ahead of the game and showcase your brand’s voice.
Have you tried Instacart’s self-serve advertising? Let us know what you think about the online platform, and if you plan to use it for future marketing campaigns
