As Walmart Marketplace grows in popularity, eCommerce sellers are gravitating towards the internationally recognized company for its eCommerce prowess. That’s why many brands turn to Walmart Connect as a way to attract customers and tap into new markets.
If you’ve ever considered selling on Walmart, Walmart Sponsored Products may be the perfect way to get your foot in the door. In this post, we’ll look at what you need to know about Walmart Sponsored Products campaigns, including how they work, where ads are placed across Walmart’s marketplace, how to optimize performance, and how Trellis can help.
Key takeaways
- Walmart Sponsored Products campaigns can be a great way to promote specific products, but are only available for products you list on Walmart’s website.
- There are two main Walmart Sponsored Products campaign strategies: manual and automatic.
- Walmart Sponsored Product ads are displayed across the most popular areas of Walmart’s website and mobile app, including in-search grids, carousels, and buy boxes.
What are Walmart Sponsored Products?
Also known as Performance Ads, Walmart Sponsored Products are a form of cost-per-click (CPC) campaign in which sellers can promote their products across Walmart.com. Products can appear on category pages, product pages, and search pages spanning across the Walmart properties.
It is also important to note that Walmart offers two other formats under the “Sponsored Search” umbrella: Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Videos. These can also help elevate your business across Walmart Marketplace.
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How do Walmart Connect campaigns work?
Walmart Sponsored Products are the fundamental ad format within Walmart Connect. These campaigns are guided by everything from keywords to associated costs.
Sellers using Walmart Sponsored Products will only pay when customers click on ads, maximizing investment and exposure. However, setting this price requires a bid process, which is a way to establish how much you are willing to pay per customer click.
In addition, Walmart Sponsored Product campaigns require keywords to ensure proper placements. Keywords can be set by the users or set by Walmart, depending on the campaign style chosen.
In order to make campaigns as valuable as possible to sellers, track success and shift your strategy by reviewing:
- Impressions, or the number of times an ad is shown,
- The number of clicks an ad receives,
- The number of units sold,
- How often ads are being clicked,
- Total sales revenue attributed to ads,
- The conversion rate, or the number of purchases made by someone who clicked an ad,
- Return on ad spend,
- Total ad spend.
With the ability to set budgets, bid prices, and keywords, along with the performance tracking tools, Walmart Sponsored Products campaigns are designed to improve visibility and drive sales.
Types of Walmart Sponsored Product campaigns
Walmart Sponsored Product campaigns form the backbone of Walmart Connect ads, and can be managed in two distinct ways: manual or automatic.
Automatic campaigns
These campaigns tend to be easier to establish and manage, especially for those new to marketplace advertising or looking for minimal daily management. For these campaigns, Walmart picks keywords to guide the ad placement of products, focusing on the placements they believe are most relevant to users. However, this takes control out of advertisers’ hands, meaning that ad spend may not be used in the most effective way.
Manual campaigns
For sellers who are more comfortable with PPC ads, manual campaigns may be the best choice. Manual campaigns leave the ad group structure and keyword distribution up to the advertiser, ensuring you’re spending the right budget on the right search terms. Manual campaigns also have access to Walmart’s Keyword Analytics, helping brands avoid low-performing keywords to boost outcomes.
However, creating manual campaigns can result in more variability, potentially harming placement opportunities for those not seasoned in keyword management.
If you’re unsure what works best for you, you aren’t stuck with the first campaign style that you choose; it’s possible to restructure a campaign or add a new one once advertising is underway.
Where do Walmart Sponsored Products appear?
One of the biggest advantages of Walmart Sponsored Products is visibility across the Walmart website and app. Ad placements and cost depend on several factors, including:
- Product relevancy,
- Product category,
- Click frequency,
- User reviews,
- 2-day shipping tags,
- Return policy,
- Bid amount.
Walmart Sponsored Products can appear in the following spots:
- Search Grid: Ads are generally placed in the grid of search results. They generally appear in slots one, two, three, and four. Ads also appear in two slots for every 10 products. This applies to product and category pages.
- Carousel: Products can appear in the carousel spots on browse, search, product, and category pages.
- Buy Box: On product pages, a sponsored product similar in form or function may appear below the “Add to Cart” button.
- Throughout the Website and App: Ads can also appear on the homepage, search page, item page, browse page, “my items” page, and stock up page.
Who can create Walmart Sponsored Product campaigns?
Walmart Sponsored Products campaigns are available to individual brands, vendors, agencies, and marketplace sellers.
To manage Walmart Sponsored Products, sellers have two different options: using the Walmart Ad Center, or through third-party AdTech platforms that are partners in the Walmart Connect Partner Network. But first, sellers must be accepted into Walmart Marketplace. To do this, sellers need a verified account, competitive pricing, dependable shipping practices (the faster, the better) and positive reviews.
Further, the exact products Walmart will promote depend on a few details. For example, products that are out of stock won’t be advertised. To appear on an in-search grid, which is where most sellers find the most value, products must:
- Win the Buy Box,
- Be in published status,
- Be in stock,
- Be in the same category the customer is searching.
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How much does a Walmart Sponsored Product campaign cost?
As with similar campaigns across other retail media networks, the expense of a campaign will vary based on the predetermined bid prices, how often ads are clicked, and the total ad spend budget. Walmart requires:
- For first-party suppliers: A total budget of $100 or more, and the daily limit must be set at $50 or above.
- For Marketplace sellers: A total budget of $50 or more, and the daily limit must be $10 or above.
This isn’t how much you’re guaranteed to spend on advertising during these periods, but should be an amount you are comfortable spending.
Are Walmart Sponsored Products worth it?
With a smart strategy in place, Walmart Sponsored Products can absolutely be worth it—even if you’re seeing success on other similar platforms and aren’t sure about entering other online marketplaces.
Walmart is a different type of platform compared to digital-only marketplaces like Amazon. It has strong retail associations for buyers, which places the company in a more authoritative shopping space. Buyers shopping on Walmart’s website or app may not even realize they’re buying products that can’t be found in stores, thus creating an additional market for consumers you may not be able to reach anywhere else.
Some of the biggest perks of Walmart Sponsored Products include:
- Improving visibility for products that rank low in searches,
- Standing out in categories that may be otherwise overcrowded,
- Maximizing velocity for best-selling products and taking advantage of profitable SKUs,
- Placing products in front of a new base of consumers.
How do I optimize Walmart Sponsored Products?
The best way to optimize your campaign is to ensure your approach fits in with the objectives you have in mind. This can mean:
- Investigative keyword research to ensure you’re presenting your products in the best possible way.
- Creating an accurate budget for the results you’d like to achieve.
- Setting bids at an appropriate level to ensure effective placement.
- Choosing the right option for your campaign: manual or automatic.
- Ensuring your Walmart ad spend is balanced with other marketing endeavors.
- Verifying the products you’re listing are appropriate for what Walmart buyers may be looking to purchase.
Accelerate your Walmart Sponsored Product campaigns with Trellis
Succeeding with Walmart Sponsored Products campaigns means understanding your objectives, dedicating the necessary ad spend, and targeting keywords to attract the right buyers.
If you’re looking to break into the Walmart eCommerce space, some contract agencies to setup the store and manage day-to-day operations. For ads management, growth, and profit optimization, Trellis can lend a hand. Our AI can optimize your Walmart Connect ads daily, giving you time to focus on the key details that can fundamentally improve new and existing campaigns. Contact us today to learn how to optimize ad placement across Walmart.com.
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Our automated Walmart PPC platform is everything you need to take your advertising profits to the next level.
