Shoppable recipe ads are a cutting-edge form of digital marketing that enable consumers to add ingredients directly to their online cart from an interactive recipe. Unlike static recipe posts or traditional food ads, these units bridge the gap between inspiration and purchase—transforming content into commerce in real time.
This format meets the growing demand for seamless, personalized, and convenient shopping experiences. In fact, shoppable recipe ads have been shown to drive 2–5x higher engagement rates and up to 3x higher conversion rates compared to standard digital display ads, based on SideChef’s internal data and partner campaign data.
As consumer behavior shifts, the market is rapidly adapting: over 60% of U.S. grocery shoppers now purchase food online.
According to Neil Patel, surveyed consumers were 15% more likely to make a purchase after viewing a shoppable ad compared to a standard ad. NielsenIQ reports in their Online Grocery Trends of 2024 that in-store food sales grew by only 0.9% in the last year, while online sales saw a staggering 15.1% increase.
These trends highlight the increasing importance of integrating commerce directly into content.
By streamlining the user journey and boosting product discoverability across platforms like Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram, shoppable recipe ads give CPG brands and retailers a powerful tool to meet consumers where they are—and turn inspiration into action instantly.
The image above shows an example of a shoppable ad created by SideChef, featured on Walmart’s Pinterest board. When users view a recipe image on Pinterest, they can tap to shop the recipe. Instead of being redirected to a standard recipe site, they’re taken directly to a shoppable recipe page that displays real-time ingredient availability based on their nearest Walmart store.
From there, users can review products, change store locations, swap or remove items, and save the recipe for later. With a single click, all selected ingredients can be added directly to their Walmart cart.
Once their groceries arrive, users can revisit the shoppable recipe page to follow cooking instructions, including step-by-step videos.
This flow allows users to add items to their cart in just two clicks—first reviewing their selections, then proceeding to checkout—making it easy to go from browsing to cooking. The interstitial page also supports multiple retailers, which aligns with the preferences of most CPG brands, giving users the flexibility to choose their preferred retailer.
For brands focused on maximizing conversions, SideChef also offers a one-click flow that takes users directly to the retailer’s cart. This streamlined experience removes friction and significantly boosts campaign conversion rates.
For CPG brands, especially in the food and beverage industry, shoppable recipe ads offer a compelling value proposition. These ads:
In a world where advertising food products online is increasingly competitive, these experiences represent a new frontier in food advertising strategy.
Shoppable ads are a cutting-edge form for modern, digital shoppers, especially millennials and Gen Z, who are engaging with food content across multiple platforms. Shoppable experiences tap into this behavior by integrating recipes into:
These interactive shoppable ads let users engage, explore, and make purchases—all within a seamless experience. However, the shoppability tools for creators on social channels are limited to individual items. They often integrate with e-commerce platforms like Shopify. More on this in our article on How Food Brands Use Social Media to Sell More.
This is a major limitation for food brands, as consumers rarely buy food brands in isolation. No one gets inspired to purchase just one package of Bertolli fettuccine or a single can of Nestlé condensed milk.
Brands can empower engaged users to purchase all the ingredients for a complete recipe by partnering with service providers like SideChef. These partners enable multi-SKU shoppability through shoppable recipe links integrated directly with retailers. Since social platforms aren't built for full ingredient shopping, SideChef bridges the gap with its proprietary technology—creating seamless, high-impact ads that take users directly from post to cart.
Top brands are already setting the standard for modern food advertising with shoppable recipe campaigns. These campaigns highlight how immersive, seamless content can drive far stronger performance than traditional food marketing tactics. In the following sections, we’ll take a closer look at three CPG brands that are making shoppable recipe ads a cornerstone of their digital marketing strategy.
SideChef created a collection of original, shoppable recipes for Walmart, developed in our in-house culinary studio. Designed around popular food trends and limited to 10 ingredients or fewer, the recipes make shopping simple and convenient. Each one has been shared on Walmart’s Pinterest channel, complete with a SideChef-powered shoppable link.
For instance, this Quick Easter Candy Bark recipe on Walmart’s Pinterest account links to this shoppable recipe page, powered by SideChef.
Pepsico’s marketing team partners with SideChef for shoppable recipe campaigns. Recently, we launched a Doritos campaign during the Superbowl season. A major part of this campaign has been the release of nacho-focussed recipes, highlighting new Doritos flavors. Recipe videos showcasing the brand through product placement have been distributed on YouTube Shorts, such as this Doritos Loaded Air Fryer recipe. Additionally, many recipes have been made available on Pinterest within links to shoppable recipe pages.
One of SideChef’s partner for evergreen campaigns is GOYA, a top Hispanic food manufacturer. They aim to captivate consumers with their renowned coconut-based products, such as Coconut Milk and Cream of Coconut. Goya’s product-centric recipes were strategically showcased across social channels (primarily Meta), as well as the SideChef website and app. On the SideChef platform, Goya’s products were set as the default ingredients in all recipes featuring their items, ensuring strong product prominence. The campaign’s reach was further extended through social media, leveraging shoppable links that allowed users to make direct purchases seamlessly. One of their campaigns achieved a 8.72 ROAS with 11.9% incremental sales for the top-performing SKU during the campaign period.
Find the full case study on GOYA here.
CPG marketers have access to an array of tech solutions that power shoppable ads, but few offer the full end-to-end service. We’ll deep dive in some players in the industry, and have summarized their capabilities in one table.
Apart from SideChef, Chicory is the only other provider embedding shoppable recipe ads within partner food publisher sites. However, Chicory operates strictly as a technology provider—they do not own a recipe platform or maintain a proprietary recipe library. Consequently, they depend on their network of external recipe sites for recipes that fit the promoted brand, limiting brands’ control over their own brand perception.
Chicory does not offer end-to-end support for recipe creation, recipe selection and optimizations. Furthermore, within the recipes, their ads are linked to single-SKU shoppability, meaning users can add only one item to their cart, even when shown alongside a recipe.
Although they offer campaign support and performance insights, and their technology supports full-recipe shoppability, they do not distribute full-recipe ads on social media channels. Additionally, their pricing model is more traditional, charging per impression rather than per shoppable conversion, unlike SideChef’s approach.
Some Shoppable Tech providers, such as Adimo, Destini, Northfork, offer multi-SKU shoppability and recipe-to-cart integration with major grocers. Like Chicory, these providers require brands to create and manage their own shoppable ads. However, unlike Chicory, they do not have a network of partner recipe sites or any owned content platforms. This means CPG brands must source recipes from their own domains, develop the recipe ads themselves, and rely on these tech providers solely to generate shoppable links."
Agencies (such as WPP Group and Publicis Groupe) can run ads across social platforms and might even include shoppable links for individual food products. However, they don't offer any shoppability features. They are stuck on providing traditional ads, which can showcase recipes and even link to recipes within a CPG brand platform, but it hits a dead end when it comes to shopping. They are not able to deliver any performance data beyond ad impressions or clicks.
SideChef stands out as a unique player in the market by combining the capabilities of multiple service providers into a single, integrated solution. We offer proprietary shoppable technology, operate our own recipe platforms, and leverage a library of over 20,000 recipes. As a full-service partner, we create ad assets, manage campaigns, and deliver comprehensive performance reports. In addition to embedding shoppable ads within our network of recipe websites, we also extend campaign reach across social platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. This allows CPG brands to maintain full control over campaign parameters—including reach, audience targeting, and geographic focus.
In summary, transitioning from traditional food advertising—often centered on individual products, whether shoppable or not—to fully shoppable recipe campaigns featuring your branded products usually requires coordination across multiple vendors. However, by partnering with an all-in-one solution like SideChef, food marketers can streamline the process. SideChef handles every aspect—from campaign execution and shoppable technology to providing tailored, high-quality recipe content.
To maximize performance, top-performing shoppable recipe campaigns consistently leverage a set of proven strategies that drive engagement and conversions:
These are the modern food advertising tactics that today’s most innovative brands are using to transform passive scrolling into active, purchase-driven engagement.
The future of shoppable ads is intertwined with the rise of social e-commerce and AI. As platforms continue to blur the lines between entertainment and shopping, expect:
Shoppable ads are quickly becoming the backbone of next-gen food advertising.
If you're a CPG marketer ready to explore shoppable recipe ads, here’s a step-by-step guide to launching your first campaign:
1. Set Clear Objectives
Start by defining your campaign goals. Are you aiming to boost brand awareness, drive conversions, or encourage product trials? Shoppable formats can support all of these, but they’re especially powerful when conversions and trials are the priority.
2. Know Your Audience
Understand your target consumers—how they shop, cook, and what meals inspire them. What food trends are they following? This insight shapes the content and channels you choose.
3. Choose the Right Platforms
Align your media channels with your audience’s behavior. Whether it’s Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, or Google, each platform attracts different user demographics and engagement styles.
4. Find the Right Partner
Work with an experienced partner like SideChef to streamline the process. They can help you with everything from recipe and campaign strategy to performance reporting, retargeting, and even solutions for collecting first-party data and delivering personalized content.
5. Measure What Matters
Track key metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), add-to-cart actions, return on ad spend (ROAS), and engagement time. These insights will help you optimize your strategy and identify what’s working.
By adding shoppable recipe ads to your media mix, you’re offering more than just product promotion—you’re creating an immersive, actionable experience that drives real results.
Shoppable recipe ads are redefining how food brands connect with consumers. As shopping becomes more social, personalized, and content-driven, CPG brands that embrace shoppable experiences will stand out in a crowded digital marketplace.
Connect with the SideChef Ads Team to explore industry-specific use cases and discover how we can help bring your brand’s shoppable strategy to life.
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