Create a sponsored listing

This feature is available to retailers only.

Beta refers to pre-release features or products that are under active development and available for users to try out.

Creating a sponsored listing has two parts. First you create the ad campaign, which holds the settings for your ad (budget, schedule, and billing). Then you create one or more promotion ad groups, which are the individual promotions your ad includes.

You can run only one sponsored listing campaign per banner at a time. If the banner has an active retailer promotion, Ads Manager shows a validation error. Pause or end that promotion first.

If you don't see the option to create a sponsored listing campaign, your account might not have sponsored listings enabled. Contact your Instacart representative, or email ads-help@instacart.com if you don't have one.

Create the ad campaign

The campaign holds the budget, schedule, and billing for every promotion ad group in the sponsored listing.

1. On the Ads Manager dashboard, click Create campaign.
2. In the campaign name field, enter a name. This name is for your internal tracking and isn't shown to customers. Choose something descriptive, such as Fall 2026 Weekend $10 off $50.
3. Select your objective. During the closed beta, the only objective is Build your own, which means you set your own budget, bids, and targeting.
4. Set your lifetime budget. This is the most you want to spend on clicks for this campaign. To estimate it, multiply the clicks you expect by your expected average cost per click. For example, 2,000 clicks at an average of $1.25 is $2,500. Build in a buffer so the campaign doesn't run out while your promotions are still performing.
5. Set the schedule. Both dates are required, and the schedule applies to every promotion ad group in the campaign. You can't set separate dates for individual promotions.
   • Start date. When your campaign goes live.
   • End date. When your campaign stops serving.
6. Under Billing, select your bill payer.
7. Click Continue to create your first promotion ad group.

Create a promotion ad group

Each promotion ad group is one promotion. The campaign holds your promotion ad groups, and you can have several in one campaign.

These settings work differently from retailer promotions:

• You create the promotion inside the sponsored listings flow. You can't boost an existing retailer promotion.
• The start and end dates come from the campaign, not from each promotion.
• Multi-banner promotions aren't available. Create one promotion ad group per banner.
• Each promotion ad group has its own maximum bid.

Promotions are set up the same way as retailer promotions. For details on promotion types, savings amounts, minimum spend, budgets, and targeting, see Creating a promotion group.

1. Select the banner for the promotion. Each promotion ad group applies to a single banner.
2. In the ad group name field, enter a name. This name is for internal tracking and isn't shown to customers.
3. Set up your promotion.
4. Choose your targeting. Targeting works the same way as in retailer promotions.
5. Set your maximum bid. This is the most you're willing to pay for a click on your sponsored listing. Instacart uses a second-price auction.
6. To add another promotion ad group, do one of the following:
   • On the campaign overview page, click Add ad group to start from scratch.
   • On an existing ad group, click Duplicate, or open the menu next to the ad group and select Duplicate. A duplicate pre-fills every field from the original so you can edit and save it.

Review and launch

The summary page shows the campaign (name, objective, bidding strategy, budget, and dates) and each promotion ad group (name, budget, minimum required spend, savings amount, maximum discount, targeting, and bid).

1. Review your settings on the summary page. You can open it at any point while you create the campaign.
2. Accept the sponsored listings product terms.
3. Click Launch to make your campaign live.