• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 19, 2016

Meredith’s Allrecipes.com is bolstering its capabilities for measuring the impact of native advertising targeting shoppers in the food category. A new deal gives the food publisher and social network access to Nielsen’s Similarities Market Test data.

The agreement will incorporate Nielsen’s SimTest data, which compares product sales in stores where consumers have been exposed to ads from Allrecipes to a control group of stores with no consumer ad exposure, into Allrecipes’ Digital Shopper Marketing campaign analytics.

The aim is to determine which in-market marketing activities are driving sales. The same capabilities will also be available for campaigns on Meredith’s other digital properties.

Meredith’s Shopper Marketing platform, based on its acquisition of Grocery Server’s Qponix earlier this year, enables marketers to place retailer-specific product offers in native ads, including recipe and editorial content on mobile devices as well as desktop and tablets.

The publisher hopes the integration of SimTest data will yield insights into campaign design and execution to improve the performance of these hyper-local campaigns.

Last September, Allrecipes introduced new capabilities that allow consumers to search for recipes by ingredients, and introduced native advertising in the recipe feed intended to lead consumers to nearby grocery stores to pick up missing ingredients. 

The content also serves up in search engine queries to lead recipe hunters back to the site. When consumers select a recipe, geo-location targeting serves-up retailers and products on sale at local stores.

It also unveiled new features like “The Cooking Graph,” a personalized tool that anticipates the individual user’s interests and needs, making it easier to connect with their favorite home cooks and brands.

In July Allrecipes acquired Grocery Server’s Qponix, which specializes in targeting local digital advertising for consumer packaged goods and grocery retail outlets. The service focuses on shoppers who use mobile to research and find deals, including while creating shopping lists and looking for products in store.