From Scoring to Spelling: Rebuilding Ads Retrieval at Instacart

Key Contributors: Karuna Ahuja, Marko Avdalovic, Soroush Sobhkhiz, Shrikar Archak, Xiyu Wang, Ji Chao Zhang, Hao Yan

Introduction

Every time a user opens Instacart, they see product recommendations: on the retailer home page, in search results, and alongside their cart. Many of these recommendations are sponsored products surfaced by a retrieval model that decides which products to show from a vast ads product catalog. A relevant ad helps users discover products they didn’t know they needed; a less relevant one generates friction.