Deliveroo has announced a strategic partnership with commerce consultants SMG.

The delivery firm has seen strong growth in its advertising business since its launch in 2022. According to the business, ad revenue as a percentage of Gross Transaction Value (GTV) increased to 1.4% in Q4 2024, “making good progress as the business works towards a target of 2+% GTV in 2026”.

It hopes the SMG partnership will “drive further growth of its advertising and media offering with Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands and non-endemic advertisers”.

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Deliveroo said, over the last year, it has “improved the advertiser experience through the launch of new features and enhanced targeting, increased relevance using machine learning models and launched new formats for non-endemic brands”.

In 2024, this led to a 15% increase in merchant partners placing ads and 90% of all partners who placed an ad, returning to place another within a month, said Deliveroo.

The SMG partnership will “play a key role in accelerating Deliveroo Media” in the UK & Ireland, “bringing its expertise from running media networks” for retailers such as Boots, Co-op and The Very Group.

Carlo Mocci, chief business officer at Deliveroo, said: “I’m really proud of the advertising business we’ve built over the last three and a half years and the strong growth we’ve seen.

“Our advertising offer is built on great fundamentals, every one of the 300 million orders we receive a year are for high-intent consumers, and each one of these orders has the potential to have an ad tied to them.”

Sam Knights, CEO of SMG, said: “We’re excited to be using our 16 years of expertise in running media networks to maximise the opportunity for Deliveroo Media.”