PayPal has outlined advertising results from campaigns with Adorama, Best Buy and Etsy, saying its transaction-based audience data drove them.
Its advertising offer relies on what it calls a cross-merchant transaction graph built from more than 25 billion transactions across more than 400 million PayPal and Venmo accounts. The system draws on purchase activity across merchants and categories rather than behaviour within a single retailer network.
The pitch reflects a broader shift in digital advertising, as brands come under pressure to demonstrate sales impact rather than audience reach. PayPal is positioning its ads business around purchase data and measurable return, citing examples from retail and online marketplace customers.
"For years, advertising has been measured by attention. But chief financial officers want outcomes they can see in the numbers. The PayPal Transaction Graph is the CMO's edge," said Mark Grether, Senior Vice President & General Manager of PayPal Ads, PayPal. "Built on what people actually buy, it provides real, cross-merchant purchase behavior across PayPal, Venmo, and PayPal Honey, which is why the brands working with us aren't measuring success in impressions. They're measuring campaigns in return, incremental lift, and new customer acquisition. When audiences are built on transactions, the results show where every budget decision is made: the bottom line."
Campaign data
Adorama, the New York photography and electronics retailer, used PayPal Storefront Ads to place its products in front of consumers likely to buy cameras, lenses, and electronics. The campaign targeted four audience groups across the web and showed products directly in the ad unit.
According to figures released by PayPal, the Adorama campaign produced a 7.3x incremental return on advertising spend and a 14.9% incremental lift in transactions. It also said 56% of purchasers had not bought from Adorama in the previous 12 months.
"We needed to reach consumers who were looking for new camera and video equipment but were not shopping at Adorama," said Yoav Shargil, Chief Marketing Officer, Adorama. "PayPal's Transaction Graph helped us reach a high-intent audience we weren't capturing through our existing marketing channels. The ability to target based on real purchase behavior gave us a meaningful lift in both new customers and overall returns."
Best Buy also used PayPal Storefront Ads, targeting consumers based on purchase behaviour in consumer electronics and home technology. Those campaigns delivered a 6.25x return on advertising spend, while dwell time ran 22% above platform benchmarks, according to PayPal.
"PayPal's Transaction Graph adds incremental signals based on real shopper behavior across our key categories," said Amy Adams, Vice President of Media, Best Buy. "When combined with our customer intelligence, it builds on our capabilities to give us a more complete view of the customer-helping us better reach high-intent shoppers and drive more efficient conversion."
Etsy test
Etsy is also using PayPal Storefront Ads and testing an integration with PayPal's Conversion API. The tool sends Etsy conversion data back into the transaction graph to refine audience selection and campaign measurement.
The arrangement is intended to link ad exposure, purchase signals and conversion reporting more closely. For Etsy, which operates a marketplace for independent sellers, the test focuses on improving how sellers are matched with prospective buyers.
"With better data, we can better match Etsy sellers with the shoppers looking for their special items. The PayPal Transaction Graph gave us audiences built on real commerce behavior," said Gabe Trumbo, Director of Performance Media, Etsy. "We're excited to be the first to put the full stack to work, testing Conversion API to help close the loop on every campaign and enable our sellers to reach the right shoppers where they are."
Competitive angle
PayPal argues that its data set differs from retail media networks tied to a single merchant because it can observe spending patterns across multiple sellers and categories. That broader view could appeal to advertisers seeking customers beyond the audiences they already reach through their own channels or retailer-specific media platforms.
Its use of transaction data also places it in a competitive field where payments groups, commerce platforms and retailers are all trying to capture a larger share of digital advertising budgets. In that market, proof of sales uplift and customer acquisition is becoming more important as marketing chiefs face tougher scrutiny from finance teams.
PayPal said the results from Adorama, Best Buy and Etsy show how brands are using purchase-based audience data to assess return, incremental lift and new customer acquisition.