Ads Manager is a self-serve platform that lets advertisers create and manage campaigns, track campaign performance, and export metrics.
Ad placements and ad types
Display ad products and shoppable video ad placements measure clicks and impressions. Each ad placement contains different ad types.
Display ad products include—
Shoppable video placements only contain shoppable video ads.
Ads can appear on the following platforms—
- Instacart website (desktop and mobile)
Instacart app (mobile only)
Storefront (desktop and mobile)
Storefront Pro (desktop and mobile)
Measurement methodology
Ad impressions
We measure the following impression metrics—
Viewable video ad impression
| Impression types | What qualifies as an impression |
Gross ad impression* *For Display & SP only | The Display or Video ad creative or Sponsored product ad title starts rendering on a device. (Aligns to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Media Rating Council’s “begin to render” definitions.) |
Gross video impression | A user presses play and the video loads and starts playing on a device. (Aligns to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Media Rating Council “begin to render” definitions.) |
Sponsored product gross impression | Either the image or product title starts rendering for a user.
|
Viewable impression | 50% of the pixels of the ad container are within the client viewport for at least 1 second. |
Viewable video impression | 50% of the video player is on the screen and the video plays for 2 continuous seconds. The ad container may be bigger than the video player. For ad formats where video is the main component, we measure the video player within the ad container. |
All of these impression metrics are accredited by the Media Rating Council. Learn more about Media Rating Council accredited metrics.
Clicks
We use first-party click measurement and reporting. Clicks on Instacart ads won’t redirect the user offsite.
| What qualifies as a click | What doesn't qualify as a click |
Clicks resulting in actions (ex: adding to cart, opening a modal, etc.)
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We allow multiple clicks per impression. This means that users can click on the ad multiple times within an impression staleness window and we measure all the clicks.
The following Sponsored Product, Display Banner, Shoppable Display, and Shoppable Video click metrics are MRC accredited—
Gross Clicks
Net Clicks
Click through rate
Cache-busting techniques
Instacart assigns each ad request and event a unique identifier. Instacart properties prevent caching via cache-control headers and no-expiry windows for ad requests and ad events.
Offline measurement
The Instacart app, website, and Powered by Instacart websites don’t work offline. We don’t measure ads offline.
Auto-refresh
Instacart doesn’t auto-refresh pages. We use modals to show additional information, but won’t refresh the page under the modal.
Auto-play
Instacart auto-plays video ads when the video player is 50% of the screen. We auto-stop the video when the video player exits the client viewport. Videos play without sound by default.
Data logging and processing
How collection works
Users initiate clicks and impressions on the following platforms—
Instacart website (desktop and mobile)
Instacart app (mobile only)
Storefront (desktop and mobile)
Storefront Pro (desktop and mobile)
Our servers process these events and flag them as valid or invalid for reporting and billing.
Advertisers view aggregate event data directly in Ads Manager. Retailers view aggregate event data in the Retailer Partner Portal.
Ad blockers
Ad blockers may block on-screen measurement and creatives for all ad products. We don’t count impressions or clicks from users with ad blockers.
Business partner qualifications
Instacart handles the following tasks in-house—
Inventory
Pricing
Serving
Measurement
Logging
Reporting
Content review
We outsource to third-party partners for the following tasks—
Client rendering
Event emission
Instacart and third-party partners don’t purchase traffic or generate invalid traffic.
Consumers, advertisers, and retailers agree to our terms of service and privacy policies. Instacart reviews each ad before it runs. We may terminate a user, advertiser, or retailer if they violate our terms of service.
Internal and partner traffic
Employee accounts, Ads Manager accounts, and test accounts don’t count toward traffic, impressions, or clicks. Invalid traffic filtration isn’t performed pre-bid. Instead, we filter for invalid traffic after we measure impressions and clicks.
Invalid impression and click detection and filtration
Instacart processes event data daily, and takes the following measures to identify and prevent invalid traffic from bots, bad actors, spiders, scrapers, etc.—
Use credible data sources from IAB and Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) to help identify traffic from known sources of invalid traffic.
Consistently review our thresholds and methodologies and update them to work with new invalid traffic patterns and sources.
Implementing each new methodology using a 14-day lookback period.
Instacart detects anomalous account patterns and blocks those account impressions and clicks from reporting and billing. We investigate and, if necessary, remediate if account-level actions affect an advertiser.
Decision rate
Instacart collects sufficient information to determine an invalid traffic decision rate for 100% of Instacart traffic.
Data re-issue and ad refund
Instacart investigates data issues, remediates the impact on advertiser data or spend, and notifies as necessary. We issue ad refunds or credits on a case-by-case basis. Our Customer Experience team notifies affected advertisers.
Data retention policies
Instacart retains aggregate impressions and click data for a minimum of 3 years from the event. This policy is subject to change with or without notice.