AI won’t steal your snacks, but it will use CPG ads to sell them better: What marketers need to know

Have you had a snack today? If you’re like many people, the answer is “yes.” According to NeilsenIQ, the snack industry has captured $135B of consumer spending. It’s not all chips and cookies either; today’s consumers demand healthier snacks to power through their busy days. With this rising demand for snacks comes more choices. More choices mean more ways to lose your snack foods in the tsunami of options. 

Fortunately, you’re a smart marketer. 

You’ve accepted your mission to devise a consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertising strategy that connects with your consumers. You’re exploring up-to-date ways to drive sales. You know influencer marketing and programmatic advertising with real-time consumer data for ad optimization can make a positive impact.  

In this article, you’ll discover ways to use data insights to turn CPG window shoppers into loyal buyers. Let’s get started. 

We don’t have to tell you consumers are spoiled for snack choices. With thousands of products on the market and new ones emerging constantly, CPG advertisers fight for shelf and brain space. Fortunately, using data as your not-so-secret weapon drives your marketing at every level.

It starts with the basics. The right consumer data helps you do three things:

1. Understand your customer's needs

As a marketer, you know the #1 rule is “know your customer.” You also know that’s far easier to say than to do. Old-school buyer personas aren’t defined enough in today’s fast-paced consumer world.

Fortunately, insightful data is your strategic partner. Don Draper had Peggy Olson; we have a dashboard.

Tools like Google Trends, NielsenIQ and the Zappi Consumer Insights Platform offer CPG data analytics that shape a 3D view of your buyers. Other useful tools include customer surveys, website behavior, social listening and purchase behavior.

For example, 30-second Super Bowl spots cost more than $7 million. PepsiCo ensures that money is well spent by using Zappi’s Ad Amplify Ad System to test ad concepts early and often. For the 2020 Super Bowl, they built a campaign around Cheetos Popcorn using M.C. Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This,” where Cheetos fans used their fingers to wriggle out of social events.

This AI-enabled testing lets you gauge feedback on product concepts, potential ad campaigns and more. Best of all, you get results in hours instead of weeks, so it’s easier to share results across departments and iterate.

By researching ideas with consumers early on, PepsiCo not only gains a better understanding of their customers, but as an added bonus they know their investment is more likely to be a success — which is a huge deal for campaigns of this magnitude!

2. Target the right audience 

Did you know you could grow revenue by 10-15% through audience segmentation? Segmenting your audience by demographics, psychographics and past buying behavior is a powerful way to create relevant ad campaigns targeted just for a specific audience. 

You do need the right consumer data to make this effective and scalable, however. Up-to-the-minute consumer data helps you segment your audience, then test ad campaign concepts with them and create relevant products and ads based on their feedback.

“For a new shake flavor, I analyze the drivers of interest & purchase in all the shakes we’ve tested before. I can see how consumers play those concepts back, & what they want us to do differently. There’s a lot I can do easily with the data set.”

- Matt Cahill, Senior Director, Consumer Insights Activation at McDonald's

Today’s AI-driven predictive analytics tools can anticipate future consumer demand. There’s no need to guess what might work; you can roll out campaigns confidently by testing along the way with a consumer insights platform.

3. Measure and optimize

How will you know when the campaign is a success? When you can measure the results and see how they performed against your key performance indicators (KPIs.) 

What are your KPIs for the campaign? Will you track brand awareness, engagement, purchase intent, sales or customer sentiment? Brand awareness measures impressions, which shows reach, while high engagement and strong customer sentiment can predict future sales. 

You can track all these types of performance metrics post-campaign to see how it did out there, but the real value lies in optimizing well before then. 

Before you launch a campaign, you can use consumer insights to optimize your ad or concept to its fullest potential, allowing you to make any adjustments well before sending anything out for design or production. This not only helps you save time and costly expenses, but it also helps you to create something your customers are more likely to enjoy.

“I always call it getting a head start. It's going to make your outcome better. No one's going to care that you got to a great outcome because you used what people did previously and it wasn't all new to the world thinking. No one cares. They just care about the outcome. Give yourself the head start.”

- Matt Cahill, Senior Director, Consumer Insights Activation at McDonald's

By now, you may wonder how to create a smart CPG advertising strategy that makes you look like a hero. 

In 2025, marketers don’t guess what their buyers want. Instead, they use consumer insights to create highly targeted advertising campaigns that drive results. Brands also use AI-driven consumer insights to create compelling products, messages, images and more, with real-time feedback from real consumers they can optimize dynamically. 

For example, Snickers’ famous “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign used the relatable feeling of hunger pangs to connect with consumers. This campaign positioned the candy bar as more than a candy bar. It was a portable, easy solution for hunger pangs.

This consumer insight, coupled with celebrity-driven ads, was a huge success and the campaign lasted a decade. Creating a strong advertising strategy for CPG isn’t just about running ads — it’s about understanding your audience, reaching them in the right places and delivering a message that sticks.

Start with customer insights

Let’s take a step back. Like we touched upon above, every great ad strategy starts with knowing your audience inside and out. Who are they? Where do they shop? What influences their buying decisions? Use market research, social listening, and first-party data to get clear answers. Here’s a few key things to focus on:

• Who they are – Look at demographics, interests and lifestyle habits.

• Where they spend time – Are they scrolling Instagram, shopping in big-box stores or both?

• What resonates with them – Do they prioritize convenience, sustainability or affordability?

Once you have these insights, build your advertising plan around them. If your customers care about health and wellness, highlight product benefits that align with that. If they’re price-conscious, lean into value messaging. The goal is to make your ads feel relevant, not random.

Balance online and offline advertising

Consumers move between digital and physical shopping spaces constantly, so your advertising should, too. A well-rounded approach might include:

• Digital ads – Social media, search and influencer partnerships to reach consumers where they spend time online.

• Retail media – Sponsored placements on retailer websites or in-store promotions to catch shoppers at the point of purchase.

• Traditional advertising – TV, radio and out-of-home ads for broad awareness, especially for well-established brands.

For example, if you’re launching a new beverage, you might run TikTok ads to create buzz while also securing premium shelf space and in-store displays to drive trial. The key is making sure these efforts work together rather than feeling disconnected.

Keep your brand message consistent

With so many advertising touchpoints, it’s easy for messaging to become fragmented. That’s a problem because inconsistency can confuse consumers and weaken brand recognition. To avoid that:

• Set clear brand guidelines – Define your brand’s voice, tone and visual style.

• Align creative across channels – Your TV ad, Instagram post and product packaging should all reinforce the same core message.

• Tell a cohesive story – Whether it’s about quality, fun or sustainability, your brand’s story should be the same everywhere.

Think of a brand like Coca-Cola. Whether you see a digital ad, a billboard or a store display, the message is always about happiness and refreshment. That kind of consistency builds trust and keeps your brand top of mind.

By turning customer insights into action, balancing online and offline ads and maintaining a strong brand message, you can create an advertising strategy that not only reaches your audience but also makes a lasting impact.

Choose where to advertise: Channels & programmatic

Wondering where to advertise your latest CPG product? It all comes down to where your customers spend their time. Choosing the right channels and using programmatic advertising improves your precision and efficiency in reaching your target audience.

Not all ad channels are created equal, so it’s important to be strategic about where you show up:

You already know the key online ad platforms such as Google Display Network, Meta, TikTok, Amazon  Demand Side Platform (DSP) and Retail Media Networks like Instacart Ads and Walmart Connect.

Unsurprisingly, Amazon is one of the biggest. In 2024, its advertising revenues hit $56 billion, which eclipses Walmart Connect’s $4.4 billion.

Here’s how to make the right choices:

• Find the best places to run your ads – Look at where your audience is most active. If they’re scrolling social media, prioritize Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. If they shop in-store, invest in endcap displays and retail media ads.

• Use automation to target the right customers – Programmatic advertising lets AI do the heavy lifting, serving ads to people based on their browsing behavior, purchase history and even location.

• Make your products stand out online – If you’re selling through e-commerce or retail websites, visibility is everything. Sponsored product listings, search ads and high-quality images can make all the difference.

For instance, if you’re promoting a new protein bar, you could use programmatic ads to target fitness enthusiasts who recently searched for “healthy snacks,” while also running sponsored listings on Amazon and Walmart to show up first when they’re ready to buy.

Programmatic advertising, commonly used in spaces like Google Ads, delivers efficient and scalable results. You can use data to accurately gauge performance before launching campaigns. According to Statista, 76% of marketing professionals believe AI changes programmatic advertising because AI can refine location targeting, regional language and account for cultural differences.

Additionally, Google’s programmatic advertising delivers your ads across potentially millions of relevant websites while Amazon Demand Side Platform (DSP) displays ads on and off Amazon. 

By choosing the right channels, leveraging automation and optimizing your digital presence, you can make sure your ads don’t just reach the right people — they actually drive results.

Drive sales: Shopper & influencer marketing

Marketing’s Holy Grail is sending the right message to the right customer at the right time. In service of this ideal, marketers aim to stay top of mind by consistently delivering creative ad campaigns that are fresh and relevant to their audience.

Partnering with appropriate influencers can help keep brands relevant.

Influencer marketing is predicted to reach $32.55 billion in 2025, and more than 80% of marketers have found it a powerful marketing strategy for building trust and reaching new buyers.

For example, do you remember the Pepsi and Beyoncé celebrity partnership? The campaign included the music star’s image on Pepsi cans and in ads.

But brands don’t always have to go for a queen bee to have an influencer partnership! Brands can partner with micro-influencers, too.

For example, brands like Dunkin’ and McDonald’s like to partner with the Sisters Snacking team. Cofounders Carly Shapiro and Madison Vitale started their account as a way to share restaurant recommendations, recipes and foodie adventures. It took off during the pandemic, and now they eat their way around the world. 

Influencing marketing works because they have loyal audiences who trust the influencer. If they say it’s good, the audience believes it. Plus, by appearing in the viewer’s social feeds as interesting content from a favorite influencer, it feels more authentic than an ad.

Marketers planning CPG influencer marketing campaigns create clear objectives. What will you focus on measuring:

• Brand awareness in impressions and reach?

• Engagement in likes, comments and reshares?

• Conversions and sales?

• Customer trust and sentiment?

Each has value. Maybe you prioritize sales but track the other points for your report as well. That way, you can measure against future campaigns to measure growth. You can even use survey tools to vet your proposed influencers before you contract with them to see if they’re the right voice for your brand.

Improve your results: Analysis & optimization

Marketers are always looking to improve their results and CPG data analytics with consumer insights can help. These analytics tools guide campaign optimization with actionable data – sometimes in real time.

Watch your ad performance. Is it enhancing your brand awareness? Ad recall? Share of Voice? What about the engagement? The sales? Customer sentiment?

As a CPG marketer, when you release a new snack flavor, you can measure web traffic from ads and AI-driven consumer insights tools to measure consumer sentiment.

Using your initial data, you can optimize your campaigns for better results.Or even better, optimize as you develop the ad.

But if you’re looking at how it performed, here are some campaign optimization ideas: 

• Check how your ads are performing – Look at key metrics like click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates and return on ad spend (ROAS). Retail media platforms and social ad dashboards provide real-time insights, so use them to see what’s working and what’s not.

• Make changes to get better results – If an ad isn’t performing, test different elements. Try new headlines, images or copy. Small tweaks can lead to big improvements.

• Stay up-to-date with new trends – Consumer behavior shifts constantly, and advertising tactics evolve just as fast. Keep an eye on emerging trends like AI-driven ad targeting, interactive social ads and shoppable content. Staying ahead of the curve gives you a competitive edge.

• Refine audience targeting (and channels if needed) – You can use lookalike audiences to refine your customers' demographics, behavior and location. If you find that your product resonates more with Gen Z than Millenials, you can shift your ad spend to TikTok. 

• Retarget those who engaged but didn’t convert – You can use AI-driven tools to personalize messaging for different audiences.

As you know, CPG advertising is constantly evolving. New platforms, technologies and shifting consumer behavior is always changing, which creates the opportunity for agile marketing.

For example, marketers long relied on third-party cookies, but as those disappeared, marketers shifted to first-party data, contextual targeting and AI-driven insights.

Speaking of AI, it’s playing a major role in marketing optimization. AI tools can forecast demand, spot patterns in customer behavior and much more.

For example, the U.K.s most popular chip is Walkers Crisps. In 2019, they developed an ad concept featuring the “Queen of Christmas” for a Christmas campaign. Early testing showed viewers found the ad annoying and didn’t watch it all the way through. They also found a social risk in the ad’s joke about hoarding the new brand flavor, which wasn’t in keeping with the holiday spirit.

With Zappi’s early testing tools, the brand adjusted the campaign to deliver a successful campaign. Learn how in this success story.

CPG advertising continues to move fast. Brands have to embrace a culture of consumer research and innovation to remain competitive. The right CPG data analytics can simplify testing and optimization to adapt to trends.

Some of these emerging trends include AI personalization and dynamic creative optimization (DCO), which tailors ad content in real-time. To continue growing your CPG brand in 2025, it’s essential to embrace modern CPG advertising, which includes integrating consumer insights into your process.