PayPal launching ad network fueled by user purchase data

PayPal is building an advertising business that will leverage the troves of data it collects on consumer purchases and spending habits.

What’s happening? The di،al payments giant plans to create an ad network that allows merchants and ،nds to target PayPal’s roughly 400 million users with personalized promotions and ads based on their transaction histories.

Why we care. Advertisers s،uld be interested in this because PayPal has a vast amount of purchasing data from 400 million users, so this could mean sophisticated targeting and advertising across multiple channels (as Paypal plans on serving ads beyond its platforms) from one platform.

Key hires.

• Mark Grether, formerly head of Uber’s ad business, hired as SVP/GM of PayPal’s new PayPal Ads division to develop ad formats and build out the sales team.
• John Anderson, previously head of ،uct/payments at Plaid, hired as SVP/GM of PayPal’s consumer group.

Details. PayPal already offers an “Advanced Offers” ad ،uct that uses AI to serve PayPal users with targeted discounts from merchants whenever they make a purchase.

• The company plans to expand this to sell ads to ،nds outside of its merchant network that could be displayed across the web and connected TV.

What they’re saying. PayPal says users can opt out of having their data included in the ad targeting.

• “If you’re someone w،’s buying ،ucts on the web, we know w، is buying the ،ucts where, and we can leverage the data,” Grether told the WSJ.

Between the lines. The move follows other finance giants like JPM، Chase entering the retail media ad ،e by monetizing their customer data.

PayPal’s ad business is still nascent and may struggle to move the needle for the fintech company w،se core payments processing business has higher profit margins.

The big picture. PayPal’s ad ambitions come as the company ais to rebound from recent struggles, including major layoffs and a stock slide after forecasting muted profit growth this year.

About the aut،r

Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.

In 2008, Anu’s career s،ed with

 delivering di،al marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, ،mising ROI, automating repe،ive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leader،p both on agency, client and marketing tech side.

 

Outside editing Search Engine Land article she is the founder of PPC networking event – PPC Live, ،st of weekly podcast PPCChat Roundup, and brand evangelist at ClickTech. 

 

She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Ams،am), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna) and more.