API Partner Program — Take your advertising campaigns to the next level

In this article we introduce our API Partners, the services they offer, and the benefits they provide to our brand partners.

You may have heard of traditional advertising agencies that work with brands on the creation, optimization, and management of their ad campaigns. But there’s a new type of agency in town. We’re excited to tell you about our new Ads API Partner program.

Our partners have built campaign management and optimization applications leveraging the Instacart Ads API. Their tools can offer additional functionality, efficiency and optimization techniques for brand advertisers. At a high level, an API Partner sends a request to the Instacart Ads platform, for example Update my keyword bid by 10%, and receives a response that makes that request possible. Think about a waiter (ie. API call and response) linking the kitchen (ie. Instacart Ads Platform) to the diner (API Partner application or tool).

At Instacart Ads, we have formed partnerships with industry-leading providers in the ecommerce advertising space that each provide diverse service offerings and solutions. Today, we work with: Pacvue, Flywheel , Perpetua, Quartile, Stackline, Tinuiti, Skai (formerly Kenshoo + Signal Analytics), Marin Software, Ideoclick, Search Nurture, CommerceIQ, and Nimble Ads.

The Instacart Ads solution

We offer a full suite of advertising products that animate the entire customer journey — from search through purchase. Our flagship offering, Featured Product, allows our partners to secure premium digital shelf space and show products to consumers as they browse, discover, and search within Instacart. Other offerings include Category Heroes, Coupons, Emails and Delivery Promotions.

While some brands elect to manage their advertising initiatives through the Instacart Ads Manager directly, others choose to work with an API Partner.

Why work with an API Partner?

API partners bring specialized expertise and industry know-how, leveraging lessons learned from developing and executing successful advertising strategies for both Instacart marketplace and the other leading marketplaces.

While some partners offer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for self-serve campaign management, others offer managed service offerings, where the API Partner provides not only the application, but also the technology, expertise, and resources to set up, manage, and optimize ad campaigns.

Our API Partners enable brands to ‘level up’ their expertise immediately and hit the ground running. Even for organizations with that level of knowledge, API Partners play a valuable role — often resources are stretched thin with omni-channel marketing efforts and can benefit from the resource boost partnering with an API Partner brings.

Outside of the initial campaign creation, our API Partners help with the day-to-day work of optimizing campaigns.

Additional benefits our API Partners deliver

1. Reduce workload. By providing both additional tooling and staffing, API Partners can take the brunt of the hands-on work required to get the most out of ad campaigns on the Instacart marketplace.
2. Unlock additional optimizations. There are actions brands can take through the self-service tools we have provided to optimize their ad campaigns — adding keyword overrides, adjusting bids, updating UPC coverage, increasing budgets — that are not practical to perform at the scale and frequency a tool can. Software solutions can monitor ad performance, run calculations, and make countless adjustments every minute of every day according to a set of instructions or parameters in a way that’s not feasible or scalable done manually.
3. Provide additional reporting and data visualizations. With a narrowed lens focused on their clients’ requirements, API Partners can hone in on data visualizations their clients find useful and build them out with the data returned by Instacart Ads APIs.
4. Enable holistic views and approaches. By using technology that leverages data streams from multiple ecommerce sites and marketplaces, API Partners are uniquely positioned to paint the bigger picture of a brand’s ecommerce advertising efforts without the need for cobbling together the data from disparate solutions and accounts.

Contact our partnerships team today for more detail on our API Partners and how they can help optimize your Instacart advertising initiatives.

More information on our API Partners

1. Pacvue. Pacvue is the enterprise platform to manage eCommerce advertising, combining holistic performance data with the tools needed to take recommended actions. Built by eCommerce veterans and supported by the expertise of industry practitioners, Pacvue empowers advertisers to win in the future of eCommerce.
2. Flywheel. Flywheel is a collection of practitioners who have solved the digital economy’s most challenging problems. Their managed service team in combination with in-house tech stack allows them to cull insights to better inform client strategy, creating additional value and superior results.
3. Spotlight. Spotlight is a revenue-first ecommerce retail and media partner for DTC, challenger and enterprise brands alike, who have prioritized accelerated growth on ecommerce platforms like Instacart. Combining deep operational experience with leading-edge, proprietary bidding and SKU management technology, they enable our clients to scale their ecommerce business with speed and agility, putting their products center stage.
4. Perpetua. Perpetua is building the growth infrastructure for eCommerce which includes optimization and reporting technology for the world’s smartest eCommerce businesses. In the platform, advertisers create goals based on strategy and leverage Perpetua’s AI-powered ad engine to execute tactically.
5. Quartile. Quartile is a new way to manage your retail media and e-commerce advertising. They provide an e-commerce-focused ad platform that optimizes campaigns for sales and overall return on investment with cutting-edge machine learning technology.
6. Stackline. Stackline combines e-commerce management, analytics, and marketing automation into a single offering that helps brands launch, manage and optimize online retail.
7. Tinuiti. Tinuiti connects brands to their audiences with Performance Driven Digital Marketing solutions where it matters most. The team specializes in connecting brands to their customers during the most critical moments in their digital journey.
8. Skai (formerly Kenshoo + Signal Analytics). Kenshoo and Signals Analytics have rebranded to create Skai™ — the engine for full-circle intelligence, deeper customer connections and insights-driven success, from concept to commerce.
9. Marin Software. MarinOne delivers customers, revenue, and ROI for digital advertisers. Ready for the most demanding users, customers come to Marin for measurable performance improvements, reliability, and scalability.
10. Ideoclick. Ideoclick is a leading ecommerce services growth partner. With human expertise, cutting-edge technologies, and industry-leading results we transform ecommerce Marketplace performance for our clients.
11. Search Nurture. Search Nurture creates powerful digital marketing campaigns with insights, transparency, and customized strategies to grow your business.
12. CommerceIQ. CommerceIQ leverages machine learning, analytics and automations to optimize the e-commerce channel across supply chain, marketing and sales operations functions to win the consumer at the moment of purchase and drive profitable market share growth.
13. Nimble Ads. Nimble Ads is a fast, agile and customizable platform where advertisers can leverage our proprietary machine learning algorithm to drive the best possible outcome across marketplaces.

Instacart

Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.