If your Instacart ROAS is stuck around 2x, the data you need to improve it may already be in your account.
An automated campaign is an easy way to start on Instacart: you choose the products and the budget, and Instacart finds the keywords and sets the bids. Once it has run for a while, it has recorded which keywords sell your products and what each click costs. That record is worth more than the campaign itself.
In the first video, Peter, RMIQ’s co-founder, shows a client whose own automated campaign sat at roughly 2.4x ROAS for about 2 years. RMIQ has run the account for over a year since, splitting it into campaigns for individual products and managing each one. On about the same spend, its ROAS moved into the 6x to 8x range.
This guide shows how to optimize Instacart ads step by step, using the part of that process you can do by hand: export your keyword data, calculate a new bid for each keyword that matters, rebuild the campaign manually, and then review the results and adjust. The minimum bids, ad formats, and screen labels are as shown in the videos, published in September 2026, so check them in your own account as you go.
- 42 steps
- 4 phases
- 2 videos
- 31-item checklist
Phase 1 of 4 · Steps 1-5 · 5 steps
Export the keyword data
Step 1: Open Your Existing Instacart Automated Campaign
Start with the automated campaign that has run long enough to collect real data. In Instacart, this is called an optimized campaign.
By now it has recorded:
- which keywords Instacart matched to your products
- how much each keyword spent
- which keywords brought clicks and sales
- what CPC you paid for each
- what ROAS each returned
How much data is enough? One ad group in the video spent $50,000 over 2024 and made $100,000 in sales from about 49,000 clicks. Peter’s point is that a tenth of that over a similar period, $5,000 in spend and $10,000 in sales, still gives you plenty to work with.
Do not delete this campaign. You will pause it in Step 15, and its history is the raw material for everything that follows.
Step 2: Open the Ad Group You Want to Analyze
Open the campaign and pick the ad group you want to work on.
If the ad group holds several products, the same keyword will appear several times in your export, once for each product it was matched to. Peter’s rule for those duplicates: use the row where the keyword spent the most, because the largest sample gives the most reliable numbers.
For future campaigns, use this structure:
1 SKU = 1 ad group
With one product per ad group, every keyword’s numbers belong to exactly one product.
Step 3: Go to the Keyword Section
Inside the ad group, open the keyword section. It shows how each keyword performed over the campaign’s history.
Make sure the date range covers the period you want to analyze. The example in the video uses all of 2024.
Step 4: Export the Aggregated Keyword Report
Click:
Export Aggregate
This downloads the keyword report for that ad group, with a row for each keyword and product.
Step 5: Download the File and Open It in Excel or Google Sheets
Open the export in your spreadsheet tool, for example:
- Microsoft Excel
- Google Sheets
No cleanup is needed first. All you need is the data in a sheet you can sort and filter.
Phase 2 of 4 · Steps 6-14 · 9 steps
Calculate new CPC bids
Step 6: Identify the Key Columns
The export has more columns than you need for a first pass. Focus on these:
- Keyword
- Spend
- Sales
- ROAS
- Average CPC
Step 7: Sort the Spreadsheet by Spend
Sort the sheet by:
Spend → Highest to Lowest
Peter’s reasoning is that spend shows which keywords matter most to Instacart shoppers. It is also where most of your budget already goes, so changes at the top of the sheet move results the most.
Step 8: Review the Highest-Spend Keyword First
In the video, the top keyword is:
chips
Read across its row and compare:
- Spend
- Sales
- ROAS
- Average CPC
Chips brings in a lot of sales at a weak ROAS. Keep it: a keyword this central to your category is one you want to keep winning, so the question is what you pay for it.
Step 9: Check Whether You Are Overpaying for the Keyword
Look at the keyword’s average CPC and ask:
Is this keyword valuable but too expensive?
Your bid is the most you will pay for a click, and average CPC is what you actually paid. ROAS is sales divided by ad spend: if a $5 sale took $2 in ads, ROAS is 2.5x, and if it took $1, ROAS is 5x. For a keyword that already sells well, one likely reason for weak ROAS is that you pay too much per click.
Remember that the automated campaign set this bid for you, based on the data Instacart had at the time. You now have the full history, so you can aim to do better.
Step 10: Do Not Reduce the CPC Too Aggressively
Resist the urge to drop the bid straight to Instacart’s minimum.
For Instacart Ads Ecosystem campaigns, the minimum bid in the video is:
$0.30
Cut an important keyword from over $1 to $0.30 and it will likely lose most of its auctions, taking its sales with it.
The goal is a bid low enough to lift ROAS and high enough to keep winning most of the auctions for that keyword.
Step 11: Calculate a New CPC for the Keyword
Add a column to your sheet called:
New CPC
For every keyword you plan to keep, decide whether its bid should go down, stay about the same, or go up. This is the core judgment of the whole process.
For example:
| Keyword | Historical CPC | ROAS | New CPC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chips | $1.42 | Lower than desired | $1.05 |
In the video, the bid on “chips” drops from $1.42 to $1.05, 37 cents less. Peter expects that to improve its ROAS noticeably while keeping the keyword competitive.
Step 12: Identify Keywords Where You Can Increase the Bid
Some keywords deserve a higher bid. Look for keywords that:
- deliver a good ROAS
- already bring in sales
- run on a low bid today
A modest increase lets them compete in more auctions. In the video, “snacks” performs well on a bid of $0.30, so Peter suggests raising it to $0.37.
Step 13: Repeat the Process for Every Important Keyword
Work down the sheet. For each keyword that matters:
- Check its spend.
- Check its sales.
- Check its ROAS.
- Check its average CPC.
- Decide whether the bid goes down, stays, or goes up.
- Enter the new CPC in your sheet.
When you finish, every keyword you want in the new campaign has its own planned bid.
Step 14: Build Your Final Keyword-and-Bid List
Trim the sheet down to the keywords you will use and their new bids, for example:
| Keyword | New CPC |
|---|---|
| Chips | $1.05 |
| Snacks | $0.37 |
| Healthy Snacks | $0.65 |
These keywords already proved themselves in the automated campaign: shoppers clicked them and bought through them. This list is what you will enter into Instacart in the next phase.
Phase 3 of 4 · Steps 15-34 · 20 steps
Rebuild the campaign manually
Step 15: Pause Your Existing Automated Campaign
Before the manual campaign goes live, pause the automated one in Instacart.
Running both at once leads to clashes between them, and you would have no clean way to judge the new setup.
Pausing is reversible. If the manual campaign underperforms, restart the automated one and nothing is lost.
Step 16: Click Create Campaign
On the main Instacart Ads screen, click:
Create Campaign
Name the campaign anything that helps you find it later.
Step 17: Select Maximize Sales
For the campaign objective, select:
Maximize Sales
This is the objective used in the video.
Step 18: Select Instacart Ads Ecosystem
Next, choose the campaign scope. Select:
Instacart Ads Ecosystem
An ecosystem campaign can show your ad at any retailer on Instacart that carries your product, whenever a nearby shopper searches one of your keywords.
The other scope, partner-specific ads, targets only the retailers you choose. In the video, its minimum bid is $1, compared with $0.30 for the ecosystem. This guide stays with the ecosystem because that is where the automated campaign’s data came from.
Step 19: Select Sponsored Products
Choose:
Sponsored Products
In the video, it is the only ad format available for an ecosystem campaign.
Step 20: Enter Your Initial Daily Budget
For the first test, set a daily budget of:
$50 to $100 per day
In the example, the campaign starts at:
$50 per day
A modest budget limits the damage if something in the setup is wrong. Later, Peter recommends raising it to at least $100 per day. His view is that Instacart’s algorithm takes the size of the daily budget into account when it evaluates keyword auctions, so a bigger budget puts you in a better position.
Step 21: Set the Start Date
If you have already paused the automated campaign, start the new one the same day. That is what Peter does in the video.
If you are building the campaign for a promotion, pick the date it should start.
Step 22: Change the Bidding Type From Optimized to Manual
Under bidding, do not choose:
Optimized
Instead select:
Manual
This is the critical switch.
From here on, you set the keywords and the bids. Once you select Manual, the remaining bidding options disappear and you move on to the ad group screen.
Step 23: Create the First Ad Group
Create a new ad group and name it after the product it will advertise, for example:
Chips
Step 24: Add Only One Product to the Ad Group
Select one product. Several products in one ad group blur which product each keyword is selling. The recommended structure is:
one product per ad group
It is the same rule as in Step 2, applied from the start.
Step 25: Set the Default Maximum CPC to $0.30
Even in a manual campaign, Instacart does not limit your ads to the keywords you enter. It also suggests keywords it thinks you missed, and all of them use the default maximum CPC bid. At the start, set it to:
$0.30
That keeps Instacart’s suggestions at the minimum bid, so the keywords you chose and priced get the most attention. The suggested keywords can earn a bigger role later in the campaign.
Step 26: Return to Your Keyword Sheet
Go back to your sheet and copy the keywords for the product you are setting up. Copy only the keyword column for now. The bids come in Step 28.
Step 27: Paste the Keywords Into Instacart
Paste the list into the keyword field and click:
Add Keywords
Your keywords now appear in the ad group, each with its own bid field.
Step 28: Enter the CPC for the First Keyword
Find the first keyword’s New CPC in your sheet, copy it, and paste it into the bid field next to that keyword in Instacart.
Step 29: Repeat for Every Keyword
Repeat for each keyword, one at a time:
- Find the keyword in your sheet.
- Copy its new CPC.
- Paste it into the matching bid field in Instacart.
- Move to the next keyword.
In the setup screen shown in the video, each bid has to be pasted in by hand. It is slow work, and it is where your campaign gets its precision.
Step 30: Check That Every Keyword Has the Correct Bid
Compare the Instacart screen with your sheet. Make sure:
- every keyword on your list is there
- each bid matches the New CPC in its row
A bid pasted into the wrong row overpays for one keyword and underbids another, so this check is worth the time.
Step 31: Repeat the Process for Additional Products
For every other product:
- Create a new ad group.
- Add one product.
- Set the default maximum CPC to $0.30.
- Paste that product’s keywords and click Add Keywords.
- Enter the new CPC for each keyword.
Continue until every product has its own ad group.
Step 32: Click Next
With ad groups, products, keywords, and bids in place, click:
Next
Instacart opens a review screen.
Step 33: Review the Full Campaign
Before you launch, verify:
- Objective: Maximize Sales
- Scope: Instacart Ads Ecosystem
- Ad format: Sponsored Products
- Daily budget: $50 to $100
- Start date: today, or your promotion date
- Bidding: Manual
- Ad groups: one product each
- Default maximum CPC: $0.30
- Keywords: your full list
- Bids: each matches your sheet
Step 34: Launch the Campaign
If everything matches, click:
Launch
Your manual campaign is live.
Phase 4 of 4 · Steps 35-42 · 8 steps
Review and adjust again
Step 35: Do Not Judge Performance on Day 1
Do not make major changes immediately.
You probably launched partway through the day, so Day 1 holds only a few hours of data. In Peter’s experience, on Day 2 the campaign is still warming up while Instacart’s algorithm evaluates it.
Step 36: Let the Campaign Run for 2 to 3 Days
Give the campaign:
2 to 3 days
before you judge its first results.
Step 37: Review the New Performance Data
After those first days, go back to the keyword report. Look at:
- Spend
- Clicks
- Average CPC
- Sales
- ROAS
The first manual setup is a starting point. The next four steps turn it into a routine.
Step 38: Check Keywords Where You Lowered the Bid
For every keyword whose bid you lowered, ask:
- Did ROAS improve?
- Did sales hold steady?
- Is it still getting clicks?
- Is it still winning enough auctions?
If ROAS went up and sales held, the new bid is doing its job.
Step 39: Check Whether You Reduced Any Bid Too Far
A keyword that suddenly loses traffic after a bid cut has probably dropped out of most of its auctions. Raise its bid in small steps until its clicks recover, even if that costs a little ROAS.
Step 40: Check Keywords Where You Raised the Bid
For every keyword whose bid you raised, ask:
- Did it win more clicks?
- Did sales go up?
- Did the extra sales justify the higher bid?
- Is ROAS still acceptable?
A higher bid pays off only when the extra visibility brings enough additional sales.
Step 41: Adjust the Bids Again
Based on what you see:
- lower bids that are not earning their cost
- raise bids where there is room to scale
- restore bids that went too low
- keep watching sales and ROAS
Treat bidding as a routine. Manual bidding gives you more control, and that control pays off only if you keep using it.
Step 42: Repeat the Optimization Cycle
The full process becomes:
Export → Analyze → Adjust → Run → Review → Adjust Again
Each round teaches you more about which combination of:
SKU + keyword + bid
produces the best results for your products.
Instacart Manual Campaign Setup Checklist
This approach replaces one broad automated setup with decisions you make yourself, product by product and keyword by keyword, using data your account already holds.
That gives you control over how much you spend, where you spend it, and what return you expect from each keyword.
Use this list to check your work before and after launch:
1Export the keyword data
2Calculate new CPC bids
3Rebuild the campaign manually
4Review and adjust again
Watch the Full Instacart Ads Walkthrough
The two videos above show every step inside Instacart, from exporting the keyword report to launching the manual campaign.
They are part of the RMIQ Retail Media Academy, which covers practical ways to improve retail media performance at the SKU and keyword level.
For a result from campaigns RMIQ runs end to end, see Darey Brands. RMIQ ran each SKU of its Green Valley Lactose Free brand on Instacart as its own AI-optimized campaign, and in under 2 months ROAS rose 75% and attributed sales grew 2.5x.
