Dive Brief:
- Kroger’s retail media unit said Friday that it is working with TikTok to enable advertisers to deliver advertisements directly to the grocer’s customers on the video-based social media platform.
- The collaboration allows advertisers to use TikTok’s self-service advertising system to target ads at Kroger shoppers based on purchase data.
- Kroger Precision Marketing’s collaboration with TikTok follows its announcement in March that it had started working with Google to let marketers use product-level analytics about people’s shopping behavior to target ads at viewers on YouTube.
Dive Insight:
Kroger’s arrangement with TikTok reflects the rapidly growing role that social media content produced by influencers is playing in driving product discovery, according to Kroger Precision Marketing, which uses data about Kroger loyalty members’ in-store and online purchases to connect marketers with shoppers.
The supermarket chain said it found that households it serves that engage with social media content spend twice as much as the average Kroger customer. In addition, more than two-thirds of Kroger shoppers surveyed by the grocer’s data science and analytics arm said social media led them to buy at least one grocery, household or personal care product over the past six months.
Identifying Kroger shoppers on TikTok will let advertisers influence them from the time they discover a product until they decide whether to buy it, Kroger said. The retailer added that the new capabilities it is offering with TikTok will help brands keep shoppers from forgetting about products they come across on social media.
“Brands want to use retail audiences to amplify messages that are timely and relevant, but they also need the flexibility of self-service management in the platforms they already use,” Christine Foster, group vice president of Kroger Precision Marketing, said in a statement. “By enabling our audiences in the TikTok advertising platform, we are reducing the complexity and friction in media buying.”
Last week, Kroger Precision Marketing rolled out several self-service tools to better help advertisers measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. The new features permit advertisers to set up ad programs on a single webpage and adjust daily spending based on site traffic over a two-week period.
Kroger announced its deal with TikTok just ahead of Walmart’s disclosure on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire self-service connected TV ad platform Vibe.co. Walmart said the deal, which is expected to close in 2027, reflects its goal of making it easier for brands to employ retail media data to reach consumers.
