“This is an area for brands to create a highly curated shopping experience by using everything from lifestyle imagery, hero imagery—you can include promotions and your savings, as well as your own content, like curated recipes.”
The session closed with top takeaways from Brown, Bowerman, and Finster, providing attendees with an agency perspective, brand perspective, and retailer perspective. Be sure to tune into the recording for all the great insights!
- Day One: What’s New and Next for Managing Customer Relationships
- Day Two: Engaging Consumers Online and IRL
- Day Three: How to Embrace a Purpose-Driven Strategy and Staying True to the Brand’s DNA
Walmart
After exploring the three pillars, Marsten dove into which self-serve Instacart ad types and which branding opportunities are best suited for reaching shoppers at each stage of the funnel, from awareness (Brand Pages and Onsite Display) to consideration (Onsite Display) to conversion (Sponsored Products).
The Retail Ecosystem
“A huge winner out of all that is retail media—306% growth. B is going to be spent in retail media by 2025. That is a massive shift in how we have to think about our media dollars, how we connect with shoppers, the roles that retailers play, and how brands have to rethink how they go to market. But it’s not all digital—retail is still really, really important. 81% of sales are still happening in stores. But stores are becoming more digital. Really it’s about understanding the total ecosystem and how these all work, and that’s what today is about.”
Source: https://twitter.com/Adweek/status/1551975584665829388
Source: https://twitter.com/Adweek/status/1551975584665829388
Considering all stages of the funnel—and all self-managed and Managed options currently available from Instacart—Marsten presented a recommended Instacart Ads Campaign Structure worth bookmarking!
Instacart is giving brands the opportunity to carve out their own corner of the app with dedicated Brand Pages, built within Ads Manager. Similar to Amazon Stores, these pages are free to build, help you tell your brand story, live on a distinct URL, and include:
Instacart launched Display ads in Q4 2021, giving advertisers the opportunity to expand beyond sponsored product ads to create awareness, increase consideration, re-engage with former purchasers who haven’t shopped your brand in awhile, and “stay top-of-mind with consumers during everyday shopping moments” on the platform.
Elizabeth Marsten, Group Director, Strategic Marketplace Services, Tinuiti
Suzanne Skop, Director, Agency Sales, Instacart
What’s New and Next from Instacart
Elizabeth Marsten, Group Director, Strategic Marketplace Services, Tinuiti
Suzanne Skop, Director, Agency Sales, Instacart
A Solid Instacart Foundation
Currently in pilot, Instacart Shoppable video ads are 3-30 seconds long. Some key considerations for these ads include:
Tinuiti’s EVP of Commerce, Shaun Brown oversees marketplaces, retail media, and retail operations across all Tinuiti clients working with key retailers and Amazon. He was joined by Julie Bowerman from Kellogg’s, and Diana Finster from Walmart Connect, to explore the myriad ways the retail ecosystem (and by extension, advertising) has evolved, and continues to evolve, over the past few years—due to supply chain issues, changing shopper behavior, cookie deprecation, and more.
Three Pillars for a Solid Instacart Foundation
- Product Coverage & Completeness
- Advertising & Testing
- Sufficient Budget
Instacart Ad Types Go Full-Funnel
Skop shared that Instacart has a goal of shifting from a bottom-funnel transactional buy to an inspirational shop, creating “an experience that allows consumers to find their favorite products that they love quickly, but also inspires them when they might not know exactly what they are looking for.” Some recent and upcoming launches that align with that goal include Display ads, Brand Pages, and last-minute additions services.
Diving specifically into innovations, automations, and accelerations, they shared…
Check out some highlights from each of their engaging sessions below…
She also covered how/where Instacart-managed opportunities can be best utilized across the funnel, including coupons, delivery promotions, and hero banner/aisle offerings.
Brown then turned to Bowerman and Finster for Q&A aimed at learning more about how Kellogg’s and Walmart have adapted to the shifts in the retail landscape from a brand and retail perspective.
Instacart Media Build Based on Common Goals
Skop explored how to optimize your display advertising campaigns for performance, considering different objectives, which lever to pull for those objectives, and the resulting tailored solution.
— Suzanne Skop, Director, Agency Sales, Instacart
— Diana Finster, Head of Agency and Tech Partnerships, Walmart Connect
Shaun Brown, EVP Commerce, Tinuiti
Julie Bowerman, Chief Marketing Officer, Kellogg’s
Diana Finster, Head of Agency and Tech Partnerships, Walmart Connect
