Instacart and Roku combine data to measure streaming ads for CPGs

When retail media and streaming combine, it presents new opportunity to more effectively measure the impact of advertising.

The latest evidence comes in the form of a partnership between Roku and Instacart that is designed to help CPG advertisers make ads more relevant to viewers, and potentially unlock increased purchases.

Through the tie-up, streaming viewership data from Roku will be combined with insights from Instacart’s grocery marketplace, which includes more than 1,100 retailers. Both have access to first-party data, which is privacy-safe information gathered through purchases and loyalty programs.

The goal is to determine whether Roku viewers are purchasing goods on Instacart after they see an ad while watching content. In other words, it will aim to quantify the impact of streaming advertising on product sales.

Early results are promising. Results from pilot partners showed that people who saw an ad on Roku purchased more of the advertised products on Instacart than an average customer.

Importantly, streaming can be an avenue for brands to gain new customers. One personal care brand reported 60% of the people who purchased after seeing an ad were new to the brand. It can also lead to multiple purchases. For a beverage brand, new purchases who saw a Roku ad had a 70% higher repeat rate than average first-time brand buyers on Instacart.

The partnership highlights how two growing consumer modes can be complementary: Watching a streaming program and ordering grocery delivery online. With this, it also underscores the growing number of ad dollars flowing into advertising on streaming platforms, known as CTV, and ecommerce marketplaces, known as retail media.

CTV holds out the promise of combining the ability to reach customers while they are watching TV with the targeting and measurement tools of the internet. Bringing retail media data into the fold only bolsters streamers’ access to data that can help advertisers optimize campaigns to effectively reach customers who are most likely to buy a product.

“Our goal is to help marketers get more of what they love in TV,” said Alison Levin, Vice President of Ad Revenue and Marketing Solutions, Roku. “Our partnership with Instacart makes it easier to measure actual return on advertising spend in ecommerce and meet consumers where they are – streaming TV.”

This is the first streaming TV partnership for Instacart, while Roku has also partnered with Best Buy to bring in data that is specific to consumer electronics. Disney and Kroger also recently struck a measurement-focused partnership.

Initially, retail media was defined in part by the fact that the powerful first-party data it leverages is confined to the marketplace on which it originates. These streaming-focused partnerships show that it is quickly evolving to power advertising on other media channels, as well.