• by Laurie Sullivan , May 29, 2024

Data on millions of PayPal users should boost its new advertising business run by Mark Grether, who formerly led Uber’s advertising group. At least that’s what the company hopes as targeting signals vanish.

Grether joined the company Tuesday as senior vice president and general manager of PayPal Ads. He grew Uber Advertising into a $1 billion business with more than 500,000 advertisers globally. Prior to that, he supported Amazon’s ad business and also was co-founder and global COO of WPP’s Xaxis.

John Anderson also has joined as senior vice president and general manager of the Consumer Group. He spend a decade at Meta working in a variety of roles, such as head of product for Oculus, and headed a team of products and operations for its commerce, payments and risk department.

PayPal plans to build an ad-sales business on the data it has collected throughout the years. That means first-party data on purchases, spending behaviors and services, and will include data from its Venmo app. Venmo came with PayPal’s acquisition of its parent company, Braintree, in 2013 as part of its $800 million deal. 

The ad business will include PayPal Advanced Offers, a platform that uses customer data aimed at driving better advertising results.

The move gives PayPal advertisers access to highly targeted inventory that provides a combination of high-intent and lower-funnel traffic, according to Ben Riggle, managing director of North America at Channable, a data fee management tool. “Financial services companies have access to extremely valuable data and, in the case of PayPal, access to a large selection of diverse inventory, neither of which are fully monetized without an advertising network,” Riggle said.

Riggle said the move gives PayPal the ability to “participate in two parts of a sale by collecting advertising revenue and then collecting payment transaction revenue.”

PayPal could offer more advanced targeting than is typically possible through retail media, he said. Its Advanced Offers Platform allows for targeting based on purchases down to the SKU level and works as a pay for performance ad system, which Riggle believes will likely become more attractive for advertisers and help PayPal grow its advertiser base quickly.  

Chase launched an ad business in April that uses payment data to serve targeted ads across its digital platform called Chase Media Solutions, a new digital business that provides brands with the ability to connect directly with the company's 80 million customers.

Chase Media Solutions serves as a key conduit for brands, connecting them with consumers’ personal passions and interests. In turn, Chase customers benefit from personalized offers and the ability to earn cash back with brands they love or are discovering for the first time. The service relies on Chase's first-party financial data, institutional credibility and precise targeting capabilities.