Free Gift Offer and Stock Up and Save Promotions Launch in Canada

At Instacart, we enable our brand partners to reach, engage, and acquire consumers with a suite of different solutions, each designed to achieve specific objectives. We are launching stock up and save promotions and free gift offers in Canada; stock up and save promotions to deliver consumer savings and help brands drive bigger basket sizes and the free gift offer to help brands introduce consumers to their new and innovative products, driving trial and increasing household penetration.

Stock up and save promotions

Stock up and save promotions can help drive trial, encourage conversion and build bigger baskets. Stock up and save promotions use a flexible ‘spend $X, save $Y’ structure. You can customize the terms to fit your specific objectives and portfolio, such as the consumer must spend $30 to save $5 on your products for your stock up and save offer. 

Free gift

The free gift offer enables CPGs to offer consumers 100% off a single item and create a full-sized sampling opportunity for their products on Instacart. You can target your free gift offer to consumers based on whether they are new to brand, new to category, a category buyer but new to brand, or both new to brand and new to category with closed loop attribution reporting.  

To set these up, you’ll define the offer's budget, the number of redemptions, the start date, eligible products, and a targeting option.

The consumer experience

Stock up and save promotions and free gift offers appear directly on the item card for eligible products throughout any surface on Instacart, including the Sales tab. Promotions and free gift offers are only displayed for products with a high likelihood of being in stock at the specific store consumers are shopping from, providing consumers with a smooth shopping experience. 

“We know Canadians are actively looking for ways to save while grocery shopping, and Instacart Promotions offer a flexible, seamless solution that helps brands stand out and connect with consumers.” Chloe Zhang, Kraft Heinz

Kraft Heinz Canada was one of the first to test Instacart promotions layering onto existing sponsored product and display ad campaigns. 

Their stock up and save promotion helped Kraft build bigger baskets and grow cross-category penetration. Orders using the stock up and save promotion had 3x the average sales per order and 2.2x the average categories per order (compared to orders that did not use the promotion) and helped Kraft more than double basket size for customers who had previously purchased Kraft Heinz products. 

Best practices for promotions and free gift offers

We recommend running promotions or free gift offers alongside sponsored product and display campaigns on Instacart to enhance performance. For example, pairing a coupon with a sponsored product campaign can be highly effective. Sponsored product ads increase your product's visibility across department, aisle, and search result pages, while the promotion drives conversions by offering savings to customers.

This creates a strong synergy: the sponsored product ad ensures more consumers see your offer, while the promotion incentivizes those consumers to make a purchase.

Offers also work exceptionally well with display, shoppable display, and shoppable video ad campaigns. You can include a clear call-to-action (CTA) directly in the ad creative, link to a dedicated page featuring products in your offer, and pin products with offers below shoppable ads so consumers can add them directly to their cart. Additionally, by leveraging the advanced targeting options available for display ads, you can ensure your offer reaches the right consumers at the right time as they shop.

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Prior results do not guarantee future performance.

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