The Kroger Co.’s retail media business, Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM) powered by 84.51°, has announced the launch of a new private programmatic advertising marketplace. The Kroger Private Marketplace allows agencies and brands to reach consumers by applying Kroger audience data to programmatic campaigns within their preferred ad-buying platform.

As America’s largest grocery retailer, Kroger serves 60 million households annually nationwide. The Kroger Private Marketplace makes buying easier while providing advertisers unmatched flexibility, speed, and control of their campaigns. For the first time, brands can now reach the most relevant consumers across the web, using their own DSP of choice, and then optimize performance against actual retail sales.

Advertisers tailor their audiences to match campaign objectives using targeting science exclusively available through Kroger Precision Marketing. The platform pre-optimizes audiences to achieve business outcomes. For example, when aiming for conversions, the targeting science will enable brands to reach relevant households that will deliver the strongest sales impact. These activations have resulted in household penetration gains from new and lapsed households—with at least 3x more sales than the average consumer. (84.51° internal 2021)

The new platform further supports Kroger Precision Marketing’s commitment to safeguarding customer data by utilizing a deal ID which facilitates appropriate programmatic use while still giving agencies the flexibility to activate across many platforms. 

“We built The Kroger Private Marketplace to be flexible for agencies—while protecting the privacy of our shoppers,” says Cara Pratt, senior vice president, Kroger Precision Marketing at 84.51°. “You design the audience, choose the measurement criteria, set the safety standards, and activate in your tech stack. We’re setting the bar for the future of programmatic media.”

Publicis Groupe was the first holding company to participate in the alpha tests for this product, helping to shape the offering for its clients and the broader industry.

“Brands are looking for ways to tap first-party retail data and reduce ad waste,” says Helen Lin, chief digital officer, Publicis Groupe. “The Kroger Private Marketplace uses retail sales data to unlock new optimization levers for programmatic buyers—while still giving them the flexibility to manage the campaign in our existing tech stack.” 

With The Kroger Private Marketplace, advertisers will have self-service access to:

• Targeting solutions and audience science to reach relevant households
• Retail performance metrics such as sales lift, new buyers, and household penetration
• Quality controls including verification and brand safety tagging

“We’re still in the early days of seeing ecommerce disrupt shopping habits,” says Pratt. “This is an important time for brands to leverage retail insights to influence new shopping behaviors. Kroger’s private marketplace reaches relevant households and empowers teams to optimize campaign performance against actual business outcomes.”