First-party retail media benchmarks
Instacart Ads Benchmarks: CPC, CTR and ROAS
RMIQ-managed Instacart campaigns averaged 5x return on ad spend (ROAS). Campaigns on optimized bidding, Instacart's automated option, averaged 2x in the same dataset. Both groups compete in Instacart's sponsored product auctions, and the managed average is 2.5 times the automated one.
This page publishes the numbers behind that gap: what a click on Instacart costs, what click-through rate to expect, and what return is realistic depending on how the account is run. The figures come from live RMIQ client campaigns and are RMIQ's own averages. Nothing here is gated, and no email is required.
The dataset
Instacart Ads benchmarks at a glance
| Metric | Benchmark | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Average CPC | $0.53 | Cost per click, all managed Instacart campaigns |
| Average CTR | 2.11% | Clicks per viewable impression, all managed Instacart campaigns |
| ROAS, managed campaigns | 5.0x | Attributed sales per $1 of ad spend |
| ROAS, optimized bidding | 2.0x | Instacart's automated bidding, same period |
| Scale | 6M+ | Ad impressions per month in the dataset |
Cost per click
What is the average CPC for Instacart ads?
The average Instacart Ads cost per click (CPC) across RMIQ-managed campaigns was $0.53, against $0.90 on RMIQ-managed Amazon Ads campaigns in the same period.
Sponsored products are sold in a second-price auction: the winner pays $0.01 more than the next-best bid, so a click costs roughly what the second-highest bidder was willing to pay. Instacart also weighs each product's predicted conversion rate, so a relevant product can win without the top bid. Four things move CPC around the average:
How many brands bid on the term. More than 9,000 brands advertised on Instacart in Q4 2025, up from over 7,000 a year earlier. In RMIQ's accounts, staples and beverages draw the most bidders, while specialty and emerging categories clear well under $0.53.
Your default bid. Keyword bids on sponsored products are exact match only, and Instacart offers no negative keywords. Your ad group's default bid also covers every browse placement and any keyword Instacart autotargets for your products, so a high default pays full price for loosely related searches.
Promotions. In RMIQ's accounts, bids on a category rise while brands in it run platform promotions, so most CPC spikes line up with the promotional calendar.
Where your products are stocked. Instacart serves ads across more than 2,200 retail banners, and since September 2026 a campaign can run across the whole ecosystem or on a single retail partner where that partner supports it. Scope decides which auctions you enter.
A practical read: if your Instacart CPC sits well above $0.53 and your category is not unusually crowded, look first at the default bid and at the autotargeted keywords riding on it.
Click-through rate
What is the average CTR for Instacart ads?
Instacart Ads delivered a 2.11% click-through rate (CTR) in RMIQ-managed campaigns, about 3 times the 0.70% recorded on RMIQ-managed Amazon Ads campaigns in the same period. It is the widest gap in the dataset.
Instacart's own marketing points the same way: it cites Pacvue's Q4 2024 benchmark report for a CTR twice that of "the next major platform". Two features of the platform help explain the gap:
| Network | Average CPC | Average CTR |
|---|---|---|
| Instacart | $0.53 | 2.11% |
| Amazon Ads | $0.90 | 0.70% |
The ad appears while the basket is being built. An average Instacart order spans items from 11 categories, and delivery is same day, in as little as 30 minutes for convenience orders. A relevant product shown mid-basket is one tap from a cart the shopper will receive within hours.
Swapping brands is built into the product. When an item is out of stock, Instacart preselects a "best match" replacement unless the shopper picks one, and shoppers can name backups. Instacart shoppers are used to accepting another brand, which gives a relevant sponsored product a fair chance at the cart.
Per 1,000 impressions, Instacart returned 3 times the clicks. Per dollar, the same budget buys about 1.7 times as many clicks, because each click costs 41% less. Instacart counts CTR against viewable impressions (at least half the ad on screen for 1 second), and Amazon may count impressions differently, so treat the ratio as indicative.
Return on ad spend
What is a good ROAS for Instacart ads? Managed 5x vs automated 2x
RMIQ-managed Instacart campaigns returned 5x ROAS. Campaigns on Instacart's optimized bidding returned 2x over the same period.
Optimized bidding is Instacart's automated option for sponsored products: you enter a target ROAS, and Instacart picks the keywords and sets the bids to maximize sales or new-to-brand sales. Manual bidding leaves both to you.
The two groups are different brands and products, so read this as a benchmark comparison between different accounts. A controlled test would hold the products constant. Optimized bidding also aims to stay around the target ROAS its owner enters, and Instacart says it works best with a low target. What the gap shows is how far structured, actively managed accounts run above the typical optimized setup.
| Campaign type | Average ROAS | Attributed sales on $1,500 a month of ad spend |
|---|---|---|
| Optimized bidding | 2.0x | $3,000 |
| RMIQ-managed | 5.0x | $7,500 |
| Difference | +150% | +$4,500 a month, or $54,000 a year at the same ROAS |
Averages from this page applied to your number. Your own ROAS will differ.
Why the gap exists
Optimized bidding picks the keywords. You cannot add a keyword, set its bid, or push a poor one down. In a manual campaign every keyword carries its own bid, and a term that does not convert can be bid down to the floor.
One ROAS target, no margins. The algorithm chases sales against the target you set and never sees your margins, so a low-margin product that converts well gets the same treatment as your best one. Instacart itself advises grouping products by price point and margin.
Low targets buy volume. Instacart says low target ROAS values lead to higher spend, higher sales and a higher win rate. That is the right setting for reach, and it pulls average ROAS down.
One SKU, one ad group. RMIQ gives each stock-keeping unit (SKU) its own ad group, keyword list and bids, so each is priced against its own competitors. On Darey Brands' account, each SKU ran as its own campaign.
Budget pacing explains little of the gap, because since November 2025 Instacart's smart budgeting already shifts sponsored product campaign spend toward the hours and days a category sells.
When automated is the right choice
Optimized bidding is a sensible choice for plenty of brands. It fits when:
- The catalog is small enough that campaign structure has little to work with
- Monthly spend is small enough that management fees would consume the gain
- Nobody has time to run the account, and a manual campaign needs regular bid changes
- You are testing Instacart as a channel before committing to it
Optimized bidding needs at least $20 a day of budget. Once spend is large enough to pay for management, the managed benchmark above is the level worth measuring your account against.
For the hands-on version of the switch, see how to move an Instacart account from 2x to 5x ROAS.
Network comparison
Instacart vs Amazon Ads: CPC, CTR and ROAS
In RMIQ-managed campaigns over the same period, Instacart delivered a 41% lower CPC and 3 times the CTR of Amazon Ads, while ROAS landed close on both.
It would be easy to call this a win for Instacart, and on two of three metrics it is. The ROAS figures sit about 8% apart, and the two platforms credit sales differently. Instacart counts purchases within 14 days of a click and splits credit evenly across the ads a shopper engaged with. Amazon Sponsored Products gives all credit to the last click, within 7 days for seller accounts and 14 for vendors. Read the ROAS row as close, and treat neither platform as the winner on return.
The useful conclusion is narrower: Instacart buys attention more cheaply, and both platforms turn it into sales at a similar rate. For most consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands the two work as complements. Amazon carries reach and search demand, and Instacart carries the moment a grocery basket is being filled, at a lower cost per click. The mistake is sizing Instacart at whatever budget is left over. For the structural differences, from match types to attribution, see how Instacart and Amazon differ, and the Amazon Ads network profile.
| Metric | Instacart | Amazon Ads | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average CPC | $0.53 | $0.90 | 41% lower on Instacart |
| Average CTR | 2.11% | 0.70% | 3.0x higher on Instacart |
| ROAS, managed | 5.0x | 4.61x | Close; attribution differs |
Compare your ROAS across networks
Benchmarks for Walmart, Sprouts and Thrive Market are not published in this edition. The underlying export did not cover the full campaign set for those networks, and a partial figure would understate performance. These networks will be added once the data is complete.
Methodology
How these benchmarks were measured
- Source:
- Instacart Ads campaigns RMIQ manages for CPG brands
- Scale:
- 6M+ ad impressions a month, multiple categories and brands
- Period:
- measurement period to be confirmed
- CPC and CTR:
- All managed Instacart campaigns in the period
- ROAS:
- Reported separately for managed and optimized bidding campaigns
- Not published:
- Impressions, clicks, spend and sales in absolute terms
ROAS is reported separately for managed campaigns and for optimized bidding, because the two behave differently enough that a blended figure would mislead. ROAS here is attributed sales divided by ad spend, as each platform reports it.
The managed ROAS figure is a conservative average across RMIQ's managed client base. Individual accounts run both above and below it, and top accounts have exceeded it substantially. The figure published here is the defensible average across all of them.
These are RMIQ client averages. They are not Instacart platform averages or published industry benchmarks, and platform-wide figures from other sources blend every category and bidding setting. Results vary by category, basket size, promotional calendar and competitive density.
The ratios above are the figures that transfer between advertisers. Absolute impressions, clicks, spend and revenue stay confidential, and they would not be comparable to your account in any case.
The numbers on this page may be quoted with a link to this page as the source. For how Instacart Ads works, from formats to attribution, see the full Instacart Ads guide and the Instacart Ads network profile.
FAQ
Instacart Ads benchmarks FAQ
What is the average CTR for Instacart ads?
Across RMIQ-managed campaigns, Instacart Ads averaged a 2.11% click-through rate, about 3 times the 0.70% on RMIQ-managed Amazon Ads campaigns in the same period. Instacart counts CTR against viewable impressions, and its ads appear while shoppers build a basket for same-day delivery, a moment when a relevant product is one tap from the cart.
What is a good ROAS for Instacart ads?
RMIQ-managed Instacart campaigns averaged 5x ROAS, against 2x for campaigns on Instacart's optimized bidding. A managed account returning below 4x usually has a structural problem: too few keywords with their own bids, a default bid set too high, or ad groups that mix products with different margins.
How do Instacart Ads compare to Amazon Ads?
In RMIQ-managed campaigns over the same period, Instacart's average CPC was $0.53 against $0.90 on Amazon Ads, 41% lower, and its CTR was 2.11% against 0.70%. ROAS landed close, at 5.0x and 4.61x, and the two platforms attribute sales differently, so neither wins clearly on return.
What is the average CPC for Instacart ads?
The average cost per click across RMIQ-managed Instacart campaigns was $0.53. Sponsored products run on a second-price auction, so the winner pays $0.01 above the next-best bid, and Instacart also weighs each product's predicted conversion rate. More bidders on a keyword push CPC up; crowded categories such as beverages run higher.
How much does it cost to advertise on Instacart?
Instacart sets no minimum spend for sponsored products: you choose a daily or lifetime budget and pay per click, $0.53 on average in RMIQ-managed campaigns. Optimized bidding needs at least $20 a day. Display and shoppable video are priced per thousand impressions (CPM), with bids starting at $15 CPM.
Are Instacart automated campaigns worth it?
They can be. Campaigns on Instacart's optimized bidding averaged 2x ROAS against 5x on RMIQ-managed accounts, and they need no operator time. For a small catalog, a small monthly budget, or a brand with nobody to run the account, optimized bidding is a reasonable floor. Past that, the managed benchmark is the better yardstick for the account.
Next step
Which group is your account in?
The numbers on this page describe two groups. One runs Instacart on optimized bidding and gets roughly 2x. The other runs structured, actively managed accounts and gets roughly 5x on the same platform.
If your Instacart ROAS sits below 4x, the platform is rarely the constraint. The usual causes are account structure, keyword bids, or a promotional calendar nobody has checked in 6 weeks, and each can be checked against the numbers above.
Tell us your current Instacart ROAS, and we will tell you what is capping it. You get a short read on your account against the benchmarks above.
Sources
- RMIQ, Instacart Ads benchmarks from managed client campaigns, measurement period to be confirmed.
- Instacart Docs, Sponsored products: auction, bidding settings, attribution, viewable impressions; managing ad groups; display ads; account billing. Read September 22 and 23, 2026.
- Instacart Docs, Measurement and attribution, linear attribution since August 1, 2022.
- Instacart Ads API reference: exact match only, $20 daily minimum for optimized bidding.
- Instacart, fourth quarter 2025 shareholder letter, February 2026: more than 9,000 advertising brands.
- Instacart Ads blog: smart budgeting, November 24, 2025; how consumers shop on Instacart, 2021; where ads show, 2021.
- Instacart Help Center: replacements; delivery speed. Instacart home page: same-day delivery.
- Instacart Ads landing page, citing Pacvue and Helium 10's Q4 2024 CPC Benchmark Report.
- Amazon Sponsored Products attribution windows: Intentwise; Amazon Seller Forums.
- Perpetua, Instacart targeting, 2022: no broad, phrase or negative matching.
- RMIQ: How to optimize Instacart ads step by step (video guide); Darey Brands case study; 2026 Instacart Ads guide.
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