How Instacart Has Become a Retail Media Power Since Its IPO

1. The brand’s organic share of voice.
2. The propensity to buy based on branded, generic and competitor keywords.
3. The relevance, which is measured by clickthrough rate and evaluates text similarity with content and ability to convert new-to-brand shoppers.

The machine-learning model continually evaluates these changing factors. It also accounts for ad-driven organic ranking improvements to continuously optimize investment in real-time across keywords.

Ultimately, Instacart played its hand brilliantly in regard to its IPO. The company could have easily been tempted to buy into its own hype based on a high valuation that was undoubtedly inflated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, it has refined its core offering and, more importantly, built up the retail media side of its business to diversify and ensure longer-term success. 

Now, brands that shrewdly use data science principles to power their media buying and drive sales on Instacart have shown they can win with consumers. And that’s a foundation likely to positively drive Instacart’s business for years to come.