Grab’s ad business goes from strength to strength | WARC | The Feed

Grab’s ad business goes from strength to strength

Grab, which began life as a ride-hailing app and has evolved into a super-app, has seen its ad business grow rapidly in recent months – and this will be an area of focus in the coming year.

On a Q3 earnings call, COO Alex Hungate reported 100%-plus year-on-year growth in Grab’s ads business and said “our return on advertising spend on the Grab ads platform is … north of three times”. 

Background 

Grab’s move into an expanding retail media landscape is built on the success of the core areas of the app. “The power of our superapp ecosystem continues to attract more transacting users, driving cross-sell, which in turn improves retention and engagement,” Hungate explained. And, he added, “the macro situation is not impacting our demand for Grab ads”.

Where Grab ads go next

Hungate outlined plans to:

• introduce auction pricing to Grab’s ads platform;
• add inventory where that can be done without impacting the customer experience;
• tap the four million merchants on the platform;
• use the new self-serve ads platform to go further down the long tail (“Some of the small guys can get access to the sophisticated targeting that the big guys already use”).

Key quote

“We think that we’re still only just scratching the surface of the opportunity here” – Alex Hungate, COO, Grab.

Sourced from Seeking Alpha