Rapid-delivery grocery retailer Gopuff has rolled out a new in-house ad platform that seeks to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver highly targeted ads to shoppers.
Gopuff previously had been using third-party platforms to power its ad network and to enable brands and agencies to run their campaigns, a spokesperson for Gopuff told Supermarket News. By bringing the ad platform in-house, Gopuff has been able to create custom tools and capabilities designed specifically for its partners and for the Gopuff platform, the spokesperson said.
Features of the new Gopuff Ads Platform include tools that allow brands and agencies to build, manage, and measure their ad campaigns, the company said.
The platform considers more than 1,000 real-time variables, including shopper behavior, their previous purchases, time of day, and localized product popularity to serve up relevant ads to customers in less than 50 milliseconds, Gopuff said. The company also has 10 years of historical data to help refine its targeting capabilities.
In beta tests of the new platform, brands have seen a 25% increase in click-through rates and a 24% increase in conversion, Gopuff said. In addition, the company said advertisers are seeing an average of 30% lower cost-per-click by using a more targeted approach.
“We believe everyone wins when we match the right advertiser to the right customer at the right time,” said Daniel Folkman, senior VP of business at Gopuff. “It’s what makes ad placements feel like content."
The tools that the Gopuff Ads Platform is offering include objective-based buying, which seeks to help advertisers tailor their messaging based on their specific goals, such as increasing household penetration, re-engaging with lapsed buyers, or converting new customers.
The platform also includes a new bid-automation option that can automatically adjust a brand’s bids for ad placement in real time based on the potential for conversion. It increases bids for highly relevant shopping queries that are more likely to convert to sales, and it decreases bids for less impactful placements, the company said.
Brands can also access and analyze campaign performance metrics across different audience segments. For example, an advertiser can determine whether new-to-brand consumers are more likely to convert on offers of single-item SKUs or multipacks.
Gopuff’s new ad platform comes as retailers have been investing in providing more robust retail media networks (RMNs) for their supplier partners to better target customers with relevant offers, both online and in-store. A recent report from consulting firm Deloitte predicted that 64% of retailers would implement a retail media network in 2024. The report also noted that 92% of retailers that have implemented an RMN have combined in-house and third-party capabilities.
