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Q4 2021 Walmart & Instacart Benchmark Report

  • January 18, 2022

More advertisers than ever are expanding their eCommerce advertising into new marketplaces. Does your 2022 eCommerce ad strategy include Walmart and Instacart?

Whether you rode the wave of eCommerce growth the past couple of years or are just beginning to experiment with Walmart and Instacart, understanding the differences between these marketplaces and Amazon is critical. How can you leverage Walmart Sponsored Ads? What ROAS can you expect on Instacart?

Read our “Q4 2021 Walmart & Instacart Benchmark Report” for key findings from thousands of advertisers across small, mid-sized, and large brands in every major product category. Discover the trends and key performance indicators during the 2021 holiday shopping season.

Pacvue’s proprietary advertising database provides CPC and other ad data such as:

  • Spend on Walmart Spend Sponsored Product ads increased 27.55% year-over-year in Q4 of 2021.
  • CTR for Sponsored Ads on Instacart decreased 23.68% quarter-over-quarter in Q4 of 2021.
  • Instacart Sponsored Ads CPC increased 13.04% quarter-over-quarter in Q4 of 2021.

Walmart Connect Sponsored Ad Metrics

2021 marked a huge year of growth for Walmart Connect, making it the second-largest online retail media platform in the United States for sellers and brands seeking to expand their footprint beyond Amazon. Read the full report for insights such as:

  • Walmart Connect Sponsored Ads click-through rates grew tremendously in 2021, increasing 200% year-over-year.
  • Sponsored Ads cost-per-click decreased every quarter in 2021.
  • Sponsored Ads return on advertising spend increased 41.7% year-over-year.

Fill out the form to the right to learn what the biggest improvements in performance were for Walmart advertising.

Instacart Advertising Growth Trends

As the global pandemic proved to be going nowhere anytime soon, in addition to the further rise of retail media in 2021, Instacart remained as one of the most rapidly growing marketplaces for consumer-packaged goods (CPG) advertisers looking to get their products in front of consumers.

  • Sponsored Ads CPC increased 13.04% quarter-over-quarter in Q4 of 2021.
  • Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) for Instacart Sponsored Ads increased steadily year-over-year.
  • Spend on Instacart Sponsored Ads fell a modest 8.34% year-over-year in Q4.

As Instacart continues to add additional retailers to its platform, there are more and more opportunities for brands in every category to take advantage of Instacart Ads.

Understand Changing Consumer Buying Behaviors

While Amazon still leads the eCommerce industry, more and more consumers are changing their buying behavior. Grocery and CPG brands have new opportunities on Instacart and Walmart as their reach and advertising opportunities grow. Learn about the effects of major industry changes:

  • Walmart’s merger of Walmart.com and Pickup & Delivery sites opened up more ad placement inventory and improved campaign relevancy for brands.
  • The surge of COVID-19 cases, combined with the holiday season shopping spike, caused ROAS and CPC to increase on Instacart in Q4 2021.
  • Impact of supply chain issues, rising manufacturing and employment costs, and issues with hiring in eCommerce.  

Fill out the form to the right to gain expert insights from Pacvue’s team of Instacart and Walmart advertising experts.


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