Instacart Ads Expands to Canada

San Francisco-based Instacart announced it is expanding its advertising business globally. Instacart Ads is now in Canada giving CPG brands and media agencies the ability to tap into Instacart Ads and engage with Canadian consumers as they search and discover products, the company said in a May 17 statement.

The company, which recently expanded its Instacart Ads Initiative for women-owned CPG brands, said Instacart Ads’ sponsored product offering allows brands of all sizes to improve discoverability across the Instacart marketplace on a cost-per-click basis.

“Expanding our ad offering to the Canadian market equips both regional brands and global advertisers with the media solutions they need to reach consumers where they’re shopping across North America,” said Ryan Mayward, VP of ad sales for Instacart, in a statement. “ With our expansion to Canada, we’re deepening our CPG brand relationships and offering even more brands the tools to help them inspire consumers and grow their businesses.”

Instacart said it offers ad services for more than 5,000 CPG brands and that it now has partnerships with the "top five grocers in Canada," making it available to approximately 90% of Canadian households across all 10 provinces. The company said it has partnered with Canadian retailers Metro and Giant Tiger.

“Danone, Unilever, Purina and WPP’s GroupM are among the first partners leveraging sponsored product in Canada with successful campaign results,” Instacart said.

“Our partnership with Instacart is one of our areas of focus this year,” Laura Dobson, digital commerce senior team lead for Unilever, said in a statement.

“We have worked collaboratively on testing and learning strategies to support many of the purpose-driven brands in our diverse portfolio and have seen early successful results in the Canadian market,” Dobson said. “The insights we’re able to gather with the Instacart Ads platform are particularly helpful in making business and media investment decisions as we continue to innovate.”

“Since we started piloting Instacart’s sponsored product ads in Canada late last year, we continue to see strong results across several of Danone’s portfolio brands in the region,” said Arthur Sylvestre, director of media, digital and e-commerce for Danone, in a statement.

Sylvestre said that consumers are looking for healthier, responsibly-produced food and beverage options and that Instacart provides a channel to reach consumers right where they’re shopping, helping them discover Danone brands and products that meet these needs.

“With our Instacart campaigns, our brands have driven growth that outpaces their categories and positive category share impact,” Sylvestre said. “We’re looking forward to working with Instacart’s advertising offering in Canada as it continues to grow.”