Instacart is one of the few places a food or beverage brand can reach shoppers across dozens of grocery chains with one campaign. It’s also one of the easiest places to waste money, because one broad campaign can quietly eat your budget.
We manage Instacart for brands trying to win the cart at retail, across beverage, personal care and home care. Below is the structure we use and what the numbers have taught us.
Why Instacart works for CPG
- One campaign, many retailers. If you’re in several grocery chains, Instacart reaches shoppers at all of them.
- New buyers. Across our accounts, 75% to 95% of attributed buyers are new to the brand.
- Shoppers are already in the aisle. They’re building a cart, not scrolling.
The structure we use
- Brand defense. Bid on your own brand terms so competitors don’t take the click. Cheap and usually your highest return.
- Competitor conquesting. Bid on competitor brands and close substitutes. This is where most new-to-brand buyers come from.
- Generic and category terms. “Oat milk,” “face wash,” “sparkling water.” Biggest reach, lowest return. Keep these tight.
- Discovery tests. A small budget on new keywords. Move winners into your main campaigns.
For one plant-based beverage brand, we rebalanced spend to roughly 75% sponsored products, 15% shoppable display and 10% shoppable recipes, at about $80 a day.
What the numbers have taught us
One product line can sink the account.
For the same beverage brand, overall return had slipped to about 0.85-0.9x. The cause: one product line was taking more than 80% of spend at 0.75x. Its competitor campaigns were running 1.94x and brand defense 2.16x. The account wasn’t broken; the budget was in the wrong place. Rebalancing brought it back to about 1x, with the better campaigns carrying more of the load.
Broad campaigns hide waste.
In another account, one category campaign took 71% of spend at 0.9x. We cut it to a fraction of its budget. The remaining campaigns ran 1.9x to 2.5x, with 93% to 95% of buyers new to the brand.
High ROAS doesn’t mean scale.
For a home care brand, a tightly targeted category campaign hit 4.8x, but it would only spend $2 to $5 a day. Great number, no volume. You need campaigns that can actually absorb budget.
Small launches start slow.
That home care brand’s first month returned 1.17x on about $1,200 in spend, with 77% of buyers new to the brand. Through about three months, it reached 1.6x on about $3,200 in spend and 384 units. Give new items time to collect data before you judge them.
Promotions: what worked and what didn’t
- A promo doesn’t have to hurt your baseline. In one account, a promotion took daily sales from about 2 units to 6. After it ended, sales held at 2, not below.
- Check what promo types the retailer allows. A straight “$2 off” promo for the home care brand got zero redemptions. The format available for that retailer was a spend threshold, like “spend $10, save $2,” which is harder to hit with a single item.
- Retailer events matter. Sales events can absorb far more budget at a strong return. Plan for them. Our retail media guide covers how to build budget around a retailer calendar.
Mistakes we see most
- Letting one broad campaign take most of the budget
- Judging results in the first few days. Attributed sales keep filling in for 7 to 14 days.
- Leaving sales-event settings on after the event ends. Left on, they can burn budget at a loss.
- Spending on products that are out of stock in key stores
- Running Instacart without a clear return floor tied to your margin
FAQ
How much should I spend on Instacart Ads?
Many of our accounts start between $30 and $100 a day and scale what returns above break-even. Set your floor from your margin, not a benchmark.
What’s a good ROAS on Instacart?
It depends on your margin. Across our accounts, well-structured campaigns run about 1.5x to 2.5x, brand defense higher. Expect lower numbers in the first weeks.
Do Instacart Ads bring new customers?
Yes. In our accounts, 75% to 95% of attributed buyers are new to the brand, especially from competitor campaigns.
Can I run coupons on Instacart?
Yes, but check the formats your retailers allow. A spend threshold offer behaves very differently from a straight dollar-off.
Want a second set of eyes on your Instacart account? We’d love to partner with you. Book a consult
