Introducing Out-of-Aisle Impressions: A Game-Changer for CPG Brands

Instacart has launched a new upper-funnel metric called out-of-aisle impressions %. This new measurement helps brands understand their extended advertising reach on Instacart to complementary aisles when brands run recipes and occasions ads. It is another innovation that Instacart has launched for our brand partners to better measure their progress. Out-of-aisle impression reporting will be rolling out to all brand partners in the coming months.

What Are Out-of-Aisle Impressions?

As the name suggests, an out-of-aisle impression is an ad impression that occurs outside of the advertised product’s aisle. Specifically, Instacart compares the super category of the product to the super category of the aisle and, if they’re different, counts the impression as out-of-aisle^*. These impressions can occur when brands run inspiration ads — recipes or occasions ads that group collections of complementary products together to encourage discovery. 

With recipes, brands advertise their products as part of a recipe for a completed dish, surfacing in new moments and aisles to reach consumers browsing for complementary products. Recipes can encourage discovery and advertise products in novel ways — a recipe for charcuterie could link figs with salami and cheese so that as consumers shop for salami, they discover the advertised figs. 

Similarly, occasions link complementary products together in an advertisement. But rather than center around a recipe, these ads collect related products for specific moments such as spring cleaning, Mother’s Day, or July 4th. So a consumer shopping for flowers could see a Mother’s Day occasions ad and discover some chocolates and other related products.

Why This Matters for CPG Brands

Launching out-of-aisle impressions in Ads Manager, the self-service tool brands use to manage their ad campaigns, provides several benefits to brands. With it, brands can now— 

1. Understand the exposure of their inspiration ads beyond their products’ traditional shopping aisles on Instacart.
2. Learn how they are extending their brands’ reach to complementary aisles to give a fuller picture into how their ad campaigns drive discovery.
3. Make better informed decisions on their tactics. With this new metric, brands can identify new opportunities and tailor their strategies accordingly.

Real-World Applications

Several brands have already seen the benefits of out-of-aisle impressions during the pilot phase. 

“We ran recipe ads on Instacart to highlight Bob's Red Mill products to consumers outside of our traditional category targeting and saw great success,” said Lori Shaw, Digital Sales & Marketing, Bob’s Red Mill. “We drove 85% out-of-aisle impressions during our Holiday campaign and 62% out-of-aisle impressions on a product-specific focus for Almond Flour. Being able to measure the out-of-aisle impressions was a game-changer for us in how we test and learn with recipe ads.”

“The out-of-aisle metric is significant. It demonstrates that our recipe campaigns are creating incremental value by engaging consumers beyond the pasta aisle,” said LaKisha Harris, Manager, Shopper Marketing at Barilla. “This metric provides a unique advantage across the digital shelf.”

Conclusion

At Instacart, we provide our brand partners with a suite of ad formats, tools, and analytics to enable them to drive positive outcomes for their businesses, including innovative formats like inspiration ads that encourage out-of-aisle discovery. The reporting and analytics we provide form a key part of what we offer. Brands need trusted, transparent measurement solutions in order to understand what worked, formulate plans, and make projections. 

The launch of out-of-aisle impressions marks another step in this journey. It provides brands with a key metric for gauging the impact of their inspiration ads and understanding the size of the opportunity for their brand outside of their traditional aisles. 

For more information on how to leverage out-of-aisle impressions for your brand, please contact your Instacart account representative.

^*Our system may use categories instead of super categories in certain cases. These are based on Instacart ads taxonomy.