Over the last decade, Amazon has skyrocketed to the top of the digital advertising space, now owning 37.8% market share of all ecommerce sales. Walmart.com, in second, now accounts for 6.3% of all online sales. In an effort to attract more affordable traffic, Walmart has improved their digital marketplace so sellers can now purchase placements for sponsored product ads and search ads on the website and app. Third-party sellers have more capability to build and customize their campaigns to push more visibility to their products, ultimately driving more sales to walmart.com.
Learn what the world’s largest retailer offers brands and why now is the right time to advertise on walmart.com.
Why 3P Sellers Should Advertise with Walmart
Walmart is a great option for any brand looking to increase their market share online. Here are a few of the many reasons why it’s worth it to advertise your products on walmart.com:
- 100 million unique monthly online visitors between desktop and mobile.
- With fewer current sellers on walmart.com compared to Amazon, means lower competition for sellers joining walmart.com advertising.
- Walmart.com has an impressive trajectory of growth, with the number of active advertisers having grown 175% over last year, with overall ad spend up by 95%.
- Diversification across multiple advertising platforms will help expand your reach to new audiences and demographics.
- Walmart’s ROAS continues to climb, and is now competitive with Amazon.
- CPCs on walmart.com are lower than other platforms, which allows for higher reach.
Walmart.com Advertising Cheat Sheet
Walmart.com advertising doesn’t need to be a mystery. Here is a cheat sheet of how walmart.com advertising works along with which features are available:
- Requirements to Advertise With Walmart
- Setting Up Your Walmart Advertising Campaign
- Types of Ads
- Sponsored Product Ads
- Search Brand Amplifier
- Display Ads
Requirements to Advertise on Walmart.com
Like Amazon advertising, in order to be eligible to advertise on walmart.com you are required to have two things:
- Product must be in stock.
- Product must own the Buy Box.
To ensure that you own the Buy Box, your product must be:
- Consistently in stock.
- Competitively priced.
- Have positive reviews, fast shipping, and on-time delivery.
Setting Up Your Walmart Advertising Campaign
Like many other advertising platforms, walmart.com ads can be built out as either automatic or manual campaigns.
Automatic
Automatic campaigns utilize Walmart’s built-in algorithms that decide when and where your ads will be placed based on keywords found in the title and product detail page. This is the quick and easy way to set up campaigns and is the best option for maximum exposure, meaning these campaigns will likely get you the most impressions. They are also the best option if you are new to advertising, have limited keyword data, or are launching a new SKU.
Manual
In manual campaigns, you have control over what keywords you bid on and you can set individual CPC bids. This option is more customizable and gives you more control over your ads and on what search terms they will deliver. Manual campaigns are the best option if your product is already well established on walmart.com, or you already have relevant keyword data for your products.
Types of Ads
As part of Walmart’s efforts to compete with Amazon, their ad platform offers multiple ad types and placements to brands selling their products on walmart.com.
Sponsored Product Ads
The most widely used ad type on Walmart, Sponsored Products is very similar to Amazon’s Sponsored Products. The purpose of running these ads is to help customers discover and purchase items that you sell on Walmart. It is a cost-per-click ad option, meaning you only pay when your ad is clicked.
There are three different types of ad placements. Your Sponsored Product ad could show up in any of these three placements:
- Search In-Grid: found within the search results
2. Product Carousel: appears below search results on category and product pages.
3. Buy Box: located on the product detail page of a relevant or complementary product, just underneath the Buy Box.
Search Brand Amplifier
Search Brand Amplifier, Walmart’s counterpart to Amazon’s Sponsored Brands ad, gives you an opportunity to improve brand recognition and showcase your product portfolio. Your logo, a custom headline and up to three of your SKUs appear at the top of relevant search results.
Display Advertisements
The display advertisements come in two categories: on-site and off-site display ads.
- On-site: appears on walmart.com, pickup & delivery, and Walmart apps.
- Off-site: allows you to retarget Walmart customers on other websites and across social media platforms.
How Pattern Helps Brands Win with Advertising on Walmart
With Walmart’s projection of continued online marketplace growth and recently added advertising features for 3P sellers, now is a great time to start advertising on Walmart. As the world’s foremost ecommerce accelerator, and strategic partnership with Walmart, Pattern has the variety of resources, tools, and experience to achieve success for your brand on Walmart.
With deep knowledge of the emerging marketplace, and first mover status, Pattern knows how to set up your brand for success and optimize your ad spend to drive the traffic and conversions. According to our ecommerce equation, using advertising as a key strategy in your ecommerce growth, will lead to overall higher revenue for your brand.
Want to accelerate your brand on Walmart? Contact us.
