PayPal Offsite Ads May Revive the Ad Landscape for PayPal

PayPal just waded into programmatic advertising with Offsite Ads, turning transactions into ad fuel.  

This isn’t the kind of “spray-and-pray” ad targeting that guesses who you are based on your click—it’s much sharper. The age of programmatic ads. By leveraging real purchase behaviors across PayPal, Venmo, and Honey, Offsite Ads gives marketers actual shopping intent to track, and that’s a big leap from traditional cookie-based targeting.  

Let’s dig into what this means, why PayPal’s fashionably late, why it’s a bit deja vu, and how it could tip the scales in their favor. 

Mechanics of PayPal Offsite Ads  

PayPal’s Offsite Ads let advertisers tap into its “transaction graph”—a massive dataset built from billions of real purchase signals across PayPal, Venmo, and Honey consumers and merchants.  

Rather than guess your interests based on browsing clicks, PayPal knows when and where you bought something. That means ads can be served based on genuine buying history, not just inferred intent.  

Display and video ads across websites, apps, and even connected TV can now target audiences with razor-precision grounded in transaction behavior. 

This isn’t an isolated effort. PayPal is stretching beyond its platforms, letting brands meet potential buyers wherever they are—via programmatic buys embedded in broader ad ecosystems. 

While writing this, we are sure to answer significant queries.  

Do PayPal Offsite ads invade user privacy by exposing purchase info? 

No—they’re built “with privacy in mind,” using aggregated and anonymized transaction data to target audiences rather than individuals. 

Can users opt out of being included in this targeting pool? 

Yes. PayPal allows users to opt out of data sharing for advertising purposes. 

The role of subsidiaries in PayPal Offsite Ads  

Venmo and Honey are wallet and coupon tools, subsidiaries of PayPal. Now, with PayPal’s evolving machinery, these subsidiaries are shifting into data engines feeding Offsite Ads.  

Venmo, known for peer-to-peer payments, especially among younger demographics, provides cultural and social buying signals. Honey, the coupon-finder, tracks deal discoveries and affiliate behavior. With PayPal’s core platform, they build a cross-merchant, behavioral mosaic that’s arguably stronger and broader than any retailer’s first-party data.   

How does Honey contribute if it’s just a coupon tool? 

Honey captures when users discover deals or compare prices across retailers—behavior that reveals purchase interest, which is gold for targeting precision. 

Does Venmo usage really add value? 

Venmo’s peer-to-peer context—splitting dinner bills and gifting—reflects real-life spending behavior and demographic nuance, especially among millennials and Gen Z. 

Is PayPal late to programmatic ads? 

Retail media has been booming, and retailers and platforms are mobilizing their commerce data for ads. But it wasn’t as simple for PayPal.  

Mark Grether, who helped build Uber’s $1 billion ad biz, joined PayPal in 2024 and pushed ad ambitions forward. This new ad offering only became possible when the tech, talent, and privacy foundations aligned. 

Launching Offsite Ads required collecting transaction data and building the infrastructure to safely, privately and programmatically serve ads across the open web. That’s a complex stack—add leadership shifts too.  

So, the next question is, is PayPal late to the game? Haven’t other payment platforms done this already? 

 The answer is not on the same scale. PayPal uniquely spans PayPal, Venmo, and Honey, offering cross-merchant insights most retailers—even giants—don’t have. But they started building this later. 

 Others seizing retail-media early had the first-mover advantage. PayPal’s now playing catch-up in a saturated market. 

PayPal Offsite Ads feel the same and are not very new

Retailers using purchase data to target ads is nothing radically new. Amazon, Walmart, and Target already do it, so PayPal isn’t reinventing the wheel.  

It’s just another entity with access to first-party shopping signals selling them programmatically.  

It’s familiar territory for advertisers. For consumers, ads served based on what they bought last week won’t surprise them. And considering privacy debates around data usage, it may even raise eye-rolls. So yes—it’s a predictable move, not a groundbreaker. 

But PayPal spans more merchants, does that make it special?  

It’s more comprehensive than a single retailer, but the model—“use commerce data to drive ads”—is the same. Execution may differ, but the premise feels familiar. 

 UX will also have a similar vibe. Users might encounter ads on the interface, but since targeting is authentic shopping intent, the ads may feel more relevant than creepy—unless overdone. 

Gains from PayPal Offsite Ads

This isn’t charity. PayPal gains a new high-margin revenue stream. Advertisers pay more for data-backed targeting tied to actual conversions, not just clicks. That’s better ROI and boosts PayPal’s appeal to CMOs and CFOs alike. 

Integrating ad business across PayPal, Venmo, and Honey reinforces PayPal’s brand as a commerce platform, not just payments.  

Marketing campaigns, including Will Ferrell sketches, reinforce that pivot, boosting Venmo usage by 50% and PayPal debit card activity by 40%. Ads amplify that momentum. It raises a pertinent question.  

Plus, if Onsite Ads can prove incremental sales against brand benchmarks, PayPal could become indispensable to marketers. Eyeballs on Venmo and Honey deepen stickiness across the ecosystem. 

Will this boost user engagement on PayPal platforms? 

Potentially. As advertising enhances relevance, users may engage more—but only if ads remain useful, not intrusive.  

Cut to the chase 

PayPal offsite ads are late and echo existing retail media strategies. However, leveraged wisely, they could reinforce PayPal’s position as a full-stack commerce platform. Ads powered by real checkouts—not guesses—can be a compelling brand pitch and a quiet revolution for PayPal.