How Deep Brands is driving product discovery and performance with Instacart and commerce media

Deep Brands’ Deep Indian Kitchen partnered with Mogl, a Certified Service Partner of The Trade Desk platform, and Instacart to increase product discovery among U.S. consumers. By using The Trade Desk platform and combining deterministic retail data with programmatic scale, the campaign improved efficiency by directly connecting media exposure to sales, seeing a 58% lower CPM and a 79% increase in ROAS. The teams proved that this approach to retail media can drive both growth and performance. 

Driving discovery and purchases in a growing category 

Deep Indian Kitchen set out to solve a category-level challenge. While interest in global flavors continues to grow, many consumers remain unaware that frozen Indian meals exist, creating an opportunity for Deep Indian Kitchen to drive product awareness and sales. 

To address this, the team focused on building a strategy that could: 

• Increase awareness and product discovery among new grocery shoppers 

• Drive purchases of key products, including Chicken Tikka Masala 

• Maintain strong ROAS while expanding reach 

• Reach high-intent customers using real purchase behavior data 

• Connect media investment directly to retail outcomes 

This required a more precise and measurable approach to retail media — one that would influence customers at the point of discovery while maintaining efficiency. 

Combining retail data, programmatic activation, and real-time measurement 

To bring this strategy to life, Deep Indian Kitchen partnered with Mogl, Instacart, and The Trade Desk to activate retailer data programmatically. The team aimed to bring first-party audience targeting, media delivery, and closed-loop sales measurement together in one flexible approach. 

Working together, the campaign focused on three key areas: 

1. Retail data and audience activation 

Instacart’s first-party data enabled the team to reach customers based on purchase behavior. 

• Deterministic audiences built from grocery shopping activity 

• Segments combining category shoppers and broader meal-based behaviors 

• Targeting aligned to markets with strong product availability 

• Audience expansion to balance efficiency with incremental reach 

This approach helped to ensure media was directed toward consumers more likely to convert, while still supporting discovery among new audiences. 

2. Scalable programmatic activation

Programmatic execution made it possible to reach those audiences more efficiently across the open internet. 

• Display formats delivered scalable reach at efficient costs 

• Creative focused on a hero product to simplify discovery and messaging 

• Campaign structure designed for test-and-learn iteration 

• Continuous refinement of audience and bidding strategies 

This allowed the team to maintain performance while extending beyond retailer-owned environments. 

3. Closed-loop measurement and in-flight optimization

Retail measurement was central to the strategy. 

• Sales and ROAS tracked directly through retail data 

• Performance evaluated at the audience level to identify top drivers 

• Insights were used to make mid-flight optimizations, including shifting budget toward higher-performing segments 

• Ongoing optimization based on real-world purchase outcomes 

This created a feedback loop where campaign decisions were informed by outcome data. 

Data-driven activation improved efficiency, reach, and retail outcomes 

Over a three-month period, the campaign delivered measurable performance gains across both media and sales impact, outperforming previous benchmarks and validating the approach. 

* Compared to the 3‑month average for Instacart campaigns vs. non-Instacart campaigns 

These results demonstrate the benefits of aligning retail data with programmatic activation. By targeting high-intent audiences and optimizing in-flight, the campaign improved both efficiency and scale. This increased awareness of Deep Indian Kitchen’s high-quality frozen meals and helped influence grocery shoppers’ purchasing decisions. 

Beyond performance, the campaign established a repeatable model for future activation that connects discovery, targeting, and measurement all within a single strategy. 

Ready to learn how retail data and programmatic activation can help drive stronger product discovery and sales outcomes? Contact your representative at The Trade Desk to get started. 

*Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes