DoubleVerify Pushes Into Retail Media with Instacart Ads Partnership

DoubleVerify is pushing deeper into retail media, as the company looks to solidify its position as one of the most influential firms in the ad verification and digital measurement space. While the company already covers 90% of the top retail media inventory currently available, executives are looking for more. 

DoubleVerify recently announced a partnership with Instacart to protect Instacart Ads, Instacart’s fast-growing ad business, from ad fraud. 

The deal comes just two years after DoubleVerify’s blockbuster IPO, which valued the company at more than $5 billion. Since then, DoubleVerify has gone on to make a series of high-profile moves, including the 2021 acquisition of Meetrics, a Berlin-based ad company in the same space.

With its new Instacart partnership, DoubleVerify will be enabling media verification across the platform. The partnership leverages DoubleVerify’s technology and data, to verify that Instacart video and display ads are viewable by human beings and are safe from fraud or invalid traffic.

Instacart is among the largest grocery technology companies in North America. As a retail enablement platform, the company has partnered with more than 1,400 retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores. It has emerged as a pivotal player in the technology space, particularly within the grocery and e-commerce sectors, thanks to the company’s ability to harness technology to transform retail during the Covid-19 pandemic. The platform not only caters to evolving consumer preferences for digital convenience, but also presents retailers with new avenues for growth and customer engagement. 

Instacart’s ad business, Instacart Ads, offers businesses and brands the opportunity to promote their products within the Instacart app and website. Advertisers can pay to have their products featured prominently, making them more visible to users, and they can target their ads based on factors like location, shopper behavior, and customer demographics. Instacart Ads works with 5,500 brands, making it one of the largest retail media firms in the grocery sector.

“We are excited to extend DV’s independent measurement on the Instacart Ads platform to ensure that campaigns meet key media quality criteria while maximizing performance for advertisers,” explained DoubleVerify CEO Mark Zagorski in a press release. “Instacart has been a pioneer in online grocery shopping for over a decade, and this partnership exemplifies the leadership, innovation and trust that both companies have built.”

DoubleVerify and Instacart will be working on the technical integration for viewability and invalid traffic verification solutions over the coming months. 

Zagorski believes Instacart advertisers will benefit from DoubleVerify unique quality measurement technology, allowing for greater fraud protection and viewability verification.

Fraud protection and invalid traffic detection have become critical for ensuring that advertising budgets are utilized effectively, and that brands receive actual value for their investments. Fraud detection safeguards against ad fraud, a pervasive issue that can siphon off ad dollars by serving ads to non-human traffic or fake websites, while viewability verification guarantees that ads are actually seen by real, engaged consumers.

“We’re excited to partner with DoubleVerify to provide valuable viewability and IVT authentication to our mutual advertising clients,” wrote Instacart Vice President of Global Advertising Sales Tim Castelli. “As we continue to enhance our advertising solutions, we are committed to delivering measurable value and growth for our brand partners.”