1.
1
Session 2: Getting Started Marketing on Instacart
THE NEW COMMERCE
CONFERENCE
WELCOME TO

2.
2
https://bit.ly/32hWHeW
THIS PRESENTATION ORIGINALLY
AIRED AS A WEBINAR.
THE RECORDING IS AVAILABLE HERE:

3.
What is the New Commerce Conference?
• Digital commerce thought-leadership to
prepare marketers for the changing world of
commerce.
• Insights, tips, & recommendations to better
understand today’s consumer and maximize
online & in-store sales.
• Expert perspective from industry trailblazers.
The New Commerce Conference
Schedule: 1 – 2:30 pm ET every Weds.
Next Up:
October 14th:
• The Age of Omni-Commerce & What It Means
for Marketing Strategies (presentation)
• Less Silos, More Symbiosis: Omni-Channel
Strategies to Drive In-Store & Ecomm Sales
(panel)
Register: https://www.catalystdigital.com/the-
new-commerce-conference/
3

4.
Hosted By
4
CatalystDigital.com

5.
Housekeeping & FAQs
5
Will recording be shared?
Yes!
Will slides be shared?
Yes!
How do I ask a question?
Type your question in the "[Enter question for staff]"
field. Only the presenters see the question. Questions
will be addressed at the end of each session.
Other questions?
Email info@catalystdigital.com.

6.
GETTING STARTED MARKETING ON
INSTACART

7.
• The state of online grocery
• Instacart: The user experience
• Instacart: The advertising & data offering
• Planning considerations
• Maximizing performance
• Audience Q&A
Agenda
7
SPEAKERS
Melissa Burdick,
Co-Founder & President,
Pacvue
Suzanne Skop,
Director,
Agency Partnerships,
Instacart
Kerry Curran,
Executive Director,
Marketing & Growth,
GroupM Services & Catalyst
Meghan Lavin,
Director of Marketing,
Catalyst
Chris Narduzzo,
Sales Director
Pacvue

8.
8
Why Instacart & Why Now
THE STATE OF
ONLINE GROCERY

9.
of internet users will make at
least one online grocery order
through a digital channel in
2020
Online Grocery is Booming
9
https://content-na1.emarketer.com/nearly-half-of-internet-users-have-purchased-
groceries-online
53%

10.
Instacart Quickly Adapted to Meet Consumer Needs
10
500%
Increase in order
volume
35%
Increase in average
basket size
15x
Number of Care
agents
1500+
New pickup locations
100+
New or expanded
partners (400+ retailers)
4k+
New stores (30K stores)
2x+
Number of shoppers
(500K shoppers)
Consumer Growth Retailer Growth Operational Growth
Stats reflect growth during first half of 2020
Source: Instacart

11.
Instacart’ customers are moms, dads,
busy heads of households, seniors,
students, and more.
• Instacart’s customers are primarily female (82%)
between the ages of 25-44 (48%) and 55-75 (32%)
• Nearly 40% of customers are parents (37%)
• More than 50% of customers have full-time jobs
(57%)
• Nearly 15% of customers are retired (13%)
Instacart is for Everyone
11
Source: Instacart

12.
63% of Instacart users plan to
use the service more in the
future.
12
Source: Catalyst & Kantar: The State of Ecommerce Landmark Study, 2020

13.
Quick Pivots to Capitalize on Demand
• Rapid growth in online grocery has
required reprioritization of
marketing efforts to take advantage
of shifting demand
• Opportunity for brands to redeploy
budget and re-evaluate their online
grocery strategy to capture and
own market share

14.
Tossing Legacy Grocery Strategies
• Online grocery platforms are
different from a grocery store
planogram
• Getting shoppers to build online
baskets is more challenging since
they are not walking through the
store to find key products
• Brands are trying to understand
online shopping behavior to
influence brand consideration

15.
A Unique & Timely Opportunity For Brands of all
Shapes & Sizes
• Low CPCs (compared to other ecommerce
platforms)
• Opportunities for advertisers above/beyond
traditional grocery & CPG:
• Alcohol & spirits
• Health & beauty brands (Instacart recently
added Sephora to its marketplace)
• OTC
• Household categories
• Opportunities for advertisers with highly perishable
products who have not had a strong ecommerce
position in the past.

16.
Brands who invest early will have the advantage of
increased visibility in their category, and the opportunity
to establish a customer relationship on the platform and
earn that customer’s loyalty.
Rachel Dalton, Director Ecommerce & Omnichannel Insights, Kantar
Source: Catalyst & Kantar, The State of Ecommerce 2021, Original Research

17.
17
INSTACART:
THE USER EXPERIENCE

18.
Instacart Confidential
How Does Instacart Work: Placing an Order
18
Enter your zip code & select a
retailer in your neighborhood
Shop that retailer & add
items to your cart
Select a Time
for Delivery
Place order
& pay
Delivery fee waived with an Instacart Express membership
$3.99
$3.99
$3.99
$3.99
$3.99
$3.99
$3.99
$3.99
$3.99

19.
Instacart Confidential
How Does Instacart Work: Delivering an Order
19
Instacart shopper picks items from
selected store & communicates
with the customer
Instacart shopper pays for items in
store with an Instacart
credit card or Apple or Google Pay
Instacart shopper delivers
to your doorstep or use
contactless delivery
Some items were not at Safeway. Instead,
I found these replacements!
Wasa Sourdough Swedish Crispbread

20.
Instacart Confidential
How Does Instacart Work: Adding Items to Cart
20
• Over time, consumers become more reliant on their personalized list of previously purchased items
• By a customer’s 10th order, conversions increasingly come from the “Your Items” aisle

21.
21
INSTACART:
THE ADVERTISING
& DATA OFFERING

22.
Instacart Confidential
Keys to Winning in Online Grocery
22
Prepare for a non-linear customer decision
journey
Don’t rely on in-store activations to translate
online & prepare to build for digital shelf space
Build online content
Bring the store into the customer’s home
Deploy an “always on” strategy
Ensure you get in front of customers new to this
channel

23.
Instacart Confidential
Instacart Product Offering
23
Featured Products Hero BannerDelivery Promotions Coupons

24.
Instacart Confidential
Featured Product: Benefits
24
Ensure your products are displayed where customers are looking
Top Rows = Prime Shelf Space
More than half of conversions from search
take place in the first row
Search is Foundational
Nearly 20 searches happen per order

25.
Instacart Confidential
Featured Product: Consumer Experience
25
Put your products in front of customers throughout the entire shopping experience
Home Page Department Search
Note that this view is zoomed out
Item Details Post Checkout In “Your Items”
While Browsing While Searching Personalized After Ordering

26.
Instacart Confidential26
Featured Product: Benefits
Efficacy Against Goal: Featured Product
Sales Growth
Category Share
Generate Trial
Consumer Awareness
Events
Price Maintenance
Featured Product is the best tactic to grow your
category share:
• Secure prime shelf placement to increase
exposure & drive conversion of your products
• In Search, stand out from thousands of items
& boost your results to the top of the digital
shelf (More than half of conversions from search
take place in the first row)
• Only pay for results due to cost-per-click pricing

27.
Instacart Confidential27
Delivery Promotion: Consumer Experience
Offer customers free delivery if they purchase $x of your brand
Your own curated department landing page to encourage basket
building that can be accessed via...
• Instacart’s Homepage
• Relevant departments while browsing
• Full screen takeover when you add an item
• Full screen takeover at checkout
Customers can stack promotions to increase
savings ($5 off for each additional promotion
redeemed)
Buy $10.81 more, get Free Delivery*

28.
Instacart Confidential28
Delivery Promotion: Benefits
• Delivery Promotions are promotions that drive
consumers to build their basket
• Instacart baskets are as much at 60% bigger
when a customer redeems a Delivery Promotion
• Tactic can be used to drive Sales volume
• Delivery Promotions can be used to promote a theme:
• Like the end cap in the grocery store, Delivery
Promotions can be used to build brand equity &
as a way to suggest trial (e.g., New Year New You)
Efficacy Against Goal: Delivery Promotion
Sales Growth
Category Share
Generate Trial
Consumer Awareness
Events
Price Maintenance

29.
Instacart Confidential
Coupons: Consumer Experience
29
• Customers can shop from the coupons homepage, within a department, or within a search
• Coupons can be single or 2-unit

30.
Instacart Confidential30
Coupons: Benefits
• Opportunity to bring an existing offline coupon strategy
online with Instacart coupons
• Two types of controls that can support an existing
coupon strategy:
• If TPR or other offer is passed through via the
retailer, the Instacart coupon is automatically
suppressed
• If a customer redeems a coupon, that specific
coupon isn’t visible again for 30 days
Efficacy Against Goal: Coupons
Sales Growth
Category Share
Generate Trial
Consumer Awareness
Events
Price Maintenance

31.
Instacart Confidential31
Hero: Consumer Experience
Department banner with custom creative that directs customers to a promotion page

32.
Instacart Confidential32
Hero: Benefits
• Bring your key UPCs together in one place for a
curated shoppable experience
• Create awareness around a specific event or
brand campaign
• Opportunity to take over a department & can be
used to target customers outside of your category
Efficacy Against Goal: Hero
Sales Growth
Category Share
Generate Trial
Consumer Awareness
Events
Price Maintenance

33.
Instacart Confidential
Recommendations for Getting Started
33
Start with Featured Product:
• Prioritize winning share &
quickly gaining more sales by
covering all UPCs
• Easiest to quickly set up a
campaign
From there, add in more
campaigns to take advantage of
the synergies of running multiple
campaigns at once:
• Ex: Featured Products that
also have a Coupon

34.
Instacart Confidential
Coupon + FP Promote Trial in Ice Cream
34
New Customer (1st basket) Purchases w/FP + Coupons
Ice Cream Product
Running FP & Coupon
Running FP only
NewCustomerPurchases

35.
35
INSTACART:
INSIGHTS & ANALYTICS

36.
Instacart Confidential
Instacart Provides Custom Closed Loop Reporting
36
Year End vs YAGO $ Sales Unit Sales Deliveries
Spend per
Customer
Units per
Customer
Deliveries per
Customer
Spend per
Delivery
Units per
Delivery
Current $45.6M 10.3M 6.2M $21.46 4.9 2.9 $7.34 1.7
Year Ago $23.8M 5.2M 3.2M $19.94 4.4 2.7 $7.33 1.6
% Change 91.5% 96.5% 91.2% $1.52 0.5 0.2 $0.01 0.1
Featured Product & Delivery Promotion Spend
Sales on Instacart

37.
Instacart Confidential37
Data & Insights: Recent ICIP Launch
How it’s delivered:
• Equitable tiering structure that rewards working media
investment with greater access (no wasted dollars)
• Automated reporting
• Consultative services for top tiers
• Organized across all vectors of Instacart's platform
(assortment, distribution, sales, customers, and
baskets)
The Instacart Customer Intelligence Platform is the only capability to educate consumer brands
about the largest ecommerce grocery data set in the US

38.
38
What’s Next
INSTACART ROADMAP

39.
Instacart Confidential
Advertising Focus Areas for 2021
39
FP Campaign
Optimization
Tools
New Controls
for Existing
Products
1 2
Addressing
Unmet Need
with Product
Innovation
3

40.
40
Setting Your Brand Up for Success
INSTACART:
PLANNING
CONSIDERATIONS

41.
• Reset expectations; online and in store
grocery are not the same
• Identify the right stakeholders and integrate
internal teams for collaboration
• Ensure adequate inventory levels for online
sales
Brands Need to Adopt a New Mindset & Infrastructure
41

42.
When it comes to
Instacart, the savviest
brands are hard at work
figuring out how to win
the first basket.
Pre-loaded shopping lists
drive repeat purchase
42

43.
43
First Basket Influences
40% of online purchasers use search at the time of purchase
41% said PDPs had the biggest influence on their purchase
30% say search has the biggest influence on their purchase

44.
Integrated Search Strategies Drive Scale
DRIVING
ONLINE
SALES
Upper Funnel:
SEO Strategy is brand
focused, to increase
market share
Lower Funnel:
SEO strategy is
product focused to
increase ROI
Paid Search:
Focused on targeted
exposure and
efficiency
Integration:
Tying paid and
organic strategies to
drive the flywheel
44

45.
• Rank at top of the search results in every major category
• Improve competitive landscape and performance
monitoring
• Incorporate SEO strategies into PDPs
• Leverage PIM to allow for frictionless content updates
directly to Instacart
• Add content for as many relevant fields as possible
• Leverage competitor and market trends data with social
listening to better understand audience demand on
Instacart
• Write compelling and useful copy for your PDP to be
educated store clerk to help aid buying decisions
• Ongoing content health monitoring and improvement
• Integrate keyword and product performance data in
Featured Brands and PDPS
Opportunities for Instacart Marketing
45

46.
Keyword Strategy
46
Keyword Targeting
Ability to target users across different steps in the decision-making process
“Tailgate”
“Party”
“Afterschool Snack”
“Chips”
“BBQ Chips”
“Lays BBQ
Chips”
• Influence relevant audiences earlier in
the funnel by centering around their
needs, rather than specific products
• Bid on high search volume terms that
are high intent but brand agnostic
• Go on the offensive and conquest
competitor keywords to steal market
share

47.
Ongoing Optimization for Organic Results
Ongoing keyword research
• Spot Checking UPC’s
• Competitive Monitoring
• New Keyword Additions
• Update UPCs
• Keyword Testing
• New Promotions/ Deals Prep
• Competitor Monitoring
Instacart offers 11+ text fields and 6+ image fields that can be populated with wine detail data to
aid in visibility, relevance, and conversion
Copy updates
• product listing title
• key product features
• product description
• images
• backend search terms
• text match relevancy
Product details
• Wine Varietal & Vintage
• Marketing Info
• Lifestyle
• Country, Region of origin
• State
• Flavor
• Scent
47

48.
• Depending on product category, (Front/Back,
Top/Bottom) imagery may not be sufficient
• Consider using infographics or creative means of
conveying product value to differentiate similar
products
• In mobile, images are more prominently displayed.
Incorporating Media that Conveys Product Value
48

49.
Expanding Keyword Targeting for Featured Products
• Conquesting – Competitor keywords and product pages
• Brand – Owning our own product display so no one else can. Usually high ROAS but obviously
less incremental
• Non-Brand – Broad, scalable category keywords. 60% or so of the budget usually gets spent here
• Misspellings – Lower cost, expanded reach
• Conquesting – Competitor keywords and product pages
• Cross-product – Inter-category keywords
• Events – Heavy up budgets for holidays, special events (ex. Cinco de Mayo)

50.
Test and Learn for Success
Clear Evaluation
Be clear on test objectives,
evaluation criteria & possible
outcomes
Risk Estimation
Accurately predict deviation
from existing performance to
weigh opportunity cost
Scale of Opportunity
Map out use case / impact to
other channels, campaigns and
brands within the portfolio
Manage variables
All tests should have a control,
limit the number of variables
and achieve statistical
significance
Fail Quickly
Budget and time allocated
should be limited to what is
required for stat sig; maximizing
the number of possible tests
Communicate
Ensure testing plans and
results are communicated
quickly across the brand
organization, channel leaders
and agency partners
50

51.
$4.16 ROAS
Instacart Success
51

52.
52
Maximizing performance
INSTACART 101

53.
Solutions to Help Optimize Performance
53
Customizable Reporting
View at an aggregate level, or use tags to
break down by product
Campaign Optimization
5 levels of automation tailored towards goals
& keyword research based on performance
Change Log
Event-based log to measure impact
of changes​

54.
Instacart UI vs Pacvue
54
Instacart Native UI Pacvue UI
Customizable dashboard report ✓
Scheduled reports ✓
Bulk keyword/item/campaign changes ✓
Metric based filters ✓
Featured Product Campaigns ✓ ✓
AI Optimization ✓
Daypart capabilities ✓
Change history log ✓
Share of Voice data ✓
Keywords Analytics tool ✓
Platform bidding modifiers ✓ ✓

55.
First Mover Advantage
55
Cheap Clicks
Competitor CPCs as low
as $0.15-0.20
Shopper Lists
By customer’s 10th Instacart
order, 25% of all conversions are
from Your Items list
Organic Visibility
Long-term benefits of improving how
brand shows up on search results
Platform Expertise
Testing and learning first-
hand on platforms

56.
Recommendations
56
Leverage Cross-
Platform Data
Amazon and Walmart
data can be helpful in
building keyword
segment lists. CPCs are
currently low – as low
as 10% of what we see
on other platforms.
Act Fast to Get First
Mover Advantage
It is important to get on
shoppers’ past
purchase lists – by a
customer’s 10th order,
25% of all conversions
are from the ‘Your
Items’ aisle.
Utilize Hyper-
Segmentation
Use multiple ad groups
to break out targeting by
product tier and price.
You can have up to
1,000 keywords per ad
group.

57.
Maximize ROAS with Product / Club SKU
Segmentation
57
• For Club-specific SKUs, set bids at maximum
possible within target costs.
• Run through Club SKU campaign budget first,
where you have guaranteed ROAS.
• Club will likely have different competitors than
other retail. Bid aggressively on competitor
terms that are not advertising on Club to
maximize market share. (Pacvue Share of Voice
can help uncover this.)

58.
Hourly Changes to Competitive Landscape
58

59.
Implementing Dayparting
59

60.
Using Default Bids to Negatively Target
60
cookies
chocolate cookies
low-fat cookies
Oreo cookies

61.
How to Get Started with Instacart Campaigns
61
31 542
Structure campaigns
by product segments
and price tiers
Use your top-
performing search
queries, not
keywords, from other
platforms
Set a bids at a high
“green” bid strength
for the most
important keywords
Set low default bids
for the keywords you
want to exclude
Refine with
dayparting and bid
modifiers to reach
conversion goals

62.
Case Study: Personal Health & Wellness Brand
62
In the first month of using
Pacvue for Instacart:
4x increase in ROAS
38% higher
conversion rate
56% lower CPCs

63.
63
Kerry Curran
Kerry.Curran@GroupM.com
Q&AINFO@CATALYSTDIGITAL.COM
Suzanne Skop
Suzanne.Skop@instacart.com
Melissa Burdick
Melissa@pacvue.com
Chris Narduzzo
ChrisN@pacvue.com

64.
The New Commerce Conference
October 14th, 1pm – 2:30pm ET
The Omnichannel Imperative
• The Age of Omni-Commerce & What It Means
for Marketing Strategies (presentation)
• Less Silos, More Symbiosis: Omni-Channel
Strategies to Drive In-Store & Ecomm Sales
(panel)
• Speakers: Georgia-Pacific, Urban Skin Rx,
Criteo, & more
Register: https://www.catalystdigital.com/the-
new-commerce-conference/
Next Up:
64
Women in Ecommerce
November 12th, 4pm – 6pm ET
Uniting ecomm’s movers & shakers for a night
of conversations, connections, & more
• Panel discussions featuring Pacvue, General
Mills, Kimberly-Clark, Walmart Media Group,
Walker Edison Furniture, & more
• Virtual networking
Register: https://www.catalystdigital.com/women-
in-ecommerce/