Why is Walmart Advertising important for sellers?
Walmart advertising is important for sellers on the Walmart marketplace for the following reasons:
Increases product visibility
Walmart.com has millions of active shoppers. Without advertising, your products compete purely on organic ranking, which is increasingly difficult as the marketplace grows. Advertising puts your product in front of shoppers who might not have discovered it organically.
Drives higher sales velocity
Higher sales velocity signals to Walmart's algorithm that your product is relevant and in demand. This improves your organic ranking over time, creating a compounding effect where paid visibility leads to more organic visibility.
Supports new product launches
New listings have no sales history or reviews, which makes organic ranking difficult. Advertising is a critical tool for building momentum in the early days of a product launch.
Builds brand awareness
Brand-level advertising formats like Sponsored Brands allow you to establish presence across Walmart.com and increase recognition among shoppers who may not immediately convert but are building familiarity with your brand.
Walmart vs Amazon Advertising: Key differences
If you're already advertising on Amazon, you'll find Walmart's platform similar in structure but different in several important ways:
- Competition levels: Walmart's marketplace has fewer sellers than Amazon, which generally means lower CPCs (cost-per-click) for equivalent keywords.
- Organic ranking signals: Walmart's algorithm places significant weight on price competitiveness and in-store availability, which Amazon's doesn't factor in. This affects how advertising interacts with your organic ranking.
- Ad format maturity: Amazon's advertising platform is more mature and offers more targeting and reporting capabilities than Walmart Connect at this stage.
- Audience intent: Walmart shoppers tend to be more price-sensitive than Amazon shoppers on average, which affects bidding strategy and messaging.
How to get started with Walmart Advertising
To run ads on Walmart, you need to be an approved Walmart Marketplace seller. Once approved, here's the basic setup:
- Access Walmart Connect through your Seller Center dashboard.
- Set up billing and payment information.
- Create your first campaign by selecting campaign type (Sponsored Products is the standard starting point), setting a budget and bid strategy, selecting products to advertise, and choosing automatic or manual targeting.
- Monitor performance through the Campaign Manager dashboard.
Tips for effective Walmart Advertising
Optimize your listings before advertising
Advertising drives traffic to your listing — but if the listing isn't optimized, traffic won't convert. Before investing in ads, make sure your product title is keyword-rich and accurate, images are high-quality (main image with white background, additional lifestyle images), bullet points clearly communicate key features and benefits, price is competitive, and you have at least some reviews.
Start with automatic targeting
Automatic targeting lets Walmart determine which keywords and products to match your ad against. This is a valuable source of keyword data for new campaigns. Run automatic campaigns for 2-4 weeks to collect data, then use the search term report to identify your best performers and build manual campaigns around them.
Win the Buy Box
On Walmart, winning the Buy Box is essential for advertising effectiveness. If you're not in the Buy Box, your ads may not serve. Price competitiveness and strong fulfillment metrics (in-stock rate, on-time delivery) are the primary drivers of Buy Box eligibility.
Monitor and adjust bids regularly
Walmart's advertising environment is competitive and dynamic. Review campaign performance at least weekly and adjust bids based on what's converting. Increase bids on high-performing keywords and reduce or pause spending on keywords with high spend and low conversion.
Getting help with Walmart Advertising
Walmart Advertising can deliver strong results, but it requires ongoing attention and optimization. If you're new to the platform or want to scale more efficiently, working with a team that specializes in Walmart can accelerate your results significantly.
At ePlaybooks, our Walmart advertising specialists manage campaigns end-to-end, from initial setup and keyword research to bid management and ongoing reporting. At ePlaybooks, we help brands grow efficiently on Walmart with data-driven strategies tailored to the platform.
