Walmart Advertising Guide

Walmart is one of the largest retailers in the world with a net worth of over $514,405 billion and 11,484 stores in 27 different countries in the world. Walmart has over 160 million customers visiting the Walmart website every week and about 265 million customers visiting Walmart stores across the globe every week.

Walmart has overtaken e-commerce stores like eBay and it is hot on Amazon’s heels to repossess its position as the world’s largest retailer.

One of the major ways Walmart intends to unseat Amazon is through advertising. Walmart has made massive progress in advertising this year especially with the acquisition of an online advertising startup that allows advertisers to purchase on-site adverts in Walmart’s marketplace, this will increase the visibility of brands to more Walmart shoppers.

Also, before the upgrade, Walmart sellers could only advertise through a managed service but this is now history as average sellers can now promote their products on the Walmart website.

Seeing that Walmart has stepped up its advertising game, it is crucial for every Walmart seller who wants to reach more shoppers and improve their marketing strategy should take advantage of Walmart advertising. The good thing about Walmart advertising is that sellers can also target Amazon shoppers.

Still skeptical about giving Walmart Advertising a chance? Here a few reasons why you should give it a try.

1. New and Low Performing Products will get Visibility

One of the end goals of most advertising campaigns is to generate more visibility for products and brands. With Walmart advertising, every new product you launch and low performing products can be displayed to hundreds of thousands of Walmart shoppers. The primary places where the ads will be placed are key places like product detail pages, category pages, and search result pages and these are pages that shoppers always visit when they get on the Walmart website.

2. The Measurement of AD Performance is Easy

The New self-service ads portal that Walmart launched this year, enables sellers to easily measure the performance and impact of their ads, and also target the right audience.

The good thing about all of this is that sellers won’t be able to measure just the effectiveness of the campaign on the website alone, but also the mobile apps and in-store.

3. Increase in Organic Ranking

It is no longer news that the more visible a brand or product is to more shoppers, the higher it will rank in search engine result pages. Using Walmart ads will enable you to push newly launched products to the limelight and increase the SEO relevance of both new and existing products.

Walmart’s advertising platform is similar to that of Amazon. This new in-house advertising platform enables buyers to buy on-site search and sponsored product ads which will be displayed to shoppers on both Walmart’s website and the Walmart mobile app.

Walmart’s sellers can use the ads to either promote their entire brand or specific products. Before now, sellers could not purchase certain ads on the mobile app or Walmart’s website because Walmart only worked directly with promoters through managed services but with the introduction of the self-serve option this problem has been eliminated.

Despite these new features, the eligibility of sellers who can run ads on Walmart is still rigid. First, brands must submit an advertising application to the Walmart Media Group before they can run ads. Also, the seller must commit not less than 1000 dollars to monthly ad spend before the application is approved.

Walmart is relatively new in advertising, so the advertising options are not as vast as that of Google. These few advertising options are however very effective.

All the ads options are on a cost-per-click basis, this means that you will only be charged when a user clicks on the ad. Every ad is linked to Walmart’s product detail page for the product being advertised, which increases the conversion rate.

That said, let’s examine the various advertising options on Walmart.

1.Sponsored Products Ads

This PPC ad was previously known as performance ads. With sponsored products ads, promoted products get premier placement in Walmart’s market place which gives them increased visibility. Just like Amazon’s sponsored products, when a user searches for a relevant keyword on Walmart, the product listings will be displayed for the user.

Sponsored ads are displayed on key pages of the Walmart website like category pages, search result pages, and item pages on both the Walmart website and Walmart app, across both desktop and mobile devices. Walmart sponsored products are ideal for a seller who wants to maximize ad spend, test new product launches, and increase conversions.

2. Site Search Feature Ads

This is an exclusive advert type that can help retailers to increase their e-commerce sales. The site search feature ad enables sellers to promote their brand on related product pages.

When any user clicks on the ad, the user is redirected to a page that contains all the brand’s products on Walmart. The seller then narrows the item selection using filters. Asides from increasing sales, the site search feature ads increase brand awareness by giving all the products of a brand equal and maximum exposure

3. Native Banner Ads

These ads are similar to Amazon’s sponsored brands adverts. With the native banner ads, sellers can create awareness around their brand within the Walmart marketplace. Sellers cannot purchase native ads through the Walmart self-serve ad platform, they need to partner with the Walmart Media Group to be able to use native banner ads.

Sellers who can partner with Walmart to run native banner ads get their brands and products showcased at the top of category pages, this creates massive brand awareness and increases the visibility of the brand’s products.

4. Catapult Ads

Walmart’s Catapult ads are similar to product display ads, and they are a great way to increase sales on an item. Catapult ads can be likened to stealing customers from competing product pages. The ads are displayed at the top of item listings with the tag “Featured Item” which gives the customer a hint that it is a paid advert.

The good thing about Catapult ads is that the ads are not dependent on keywords to determine where they should be displayed, rather product categories are used to determine the placement of the ads within Walmart’s marketplace.

Due to the cost of running Catapult ads, sellers need to keep the advertising cost of sale low to maximize profit.

Below are a few steps to help you get started with Walmart Advertising

1.Become a Walmart Seller

You can only use Walmart ads if you are an approved  Walmart marketplace seller, so the first thing you need to do is apply to be a seller by visiting Walmart.com.

Basic information like your name, email address, website, company name, and business information will be required. You will also be required to provide information on your experience in e-commerce, your product assortment information, and operations information.

After the application has been submitted, you will have to wait for the Walmart team to review and approve it. Applications can be rejected but Walmart hasn’t come out to clearly state major requirements that sellers need to meet to get approved.

Just ensure that your application contains all the necessary information and also ensure that they align with Walmart’s values.

If your application is approved, a Retailer Agreement will be sent to you. Once you sign the agreement, you can begin selling as an approved seller.

2. Create a Product Catalog

The next thing you should do once you have registered as a seller is to create a product catalog. Important information like product details, pricing, product image, inventory, reviews, and promotions will be needed when creating a catalog in Walmart Seller Central.

It is important to note that certain products are restricted or outrightly prohibited in the Walmart marketplace. Products like drugs, alcohol, collectibles, currency, medical devices, artifacts, animals, and used products are prohibited.

When getting started on Walmart, it’s best practice to start with products that are already popular and have high demand and positive reviews, this will increase the efficiency of your ad campaigns and also increase sales.

3. Apply to Use Walmart Advertising

Once you have uploaded your product using the Walmart API, an excel spreadsheet, or a Walmart Channel partner, the next thing you should do is to apply to use Walmart Advertising.

This application is different from the application you made to be a seller, the application to advertise will be sent to Walmart Media Group. The following information will be required:

Your company name, product category, contact information, the primary objective of the campaign, the number of SKUs, the desired advertising plan, the target audience, and the estimated monthly budget for the advertising campaign.

If a company meets Walmart’s requirements (which are not stated) the application will be approved.

4. Attend the Walmart Online Webinar

Every seller whose advertising application is approved is mandated to attend a compulsory online training webinar which is hosted weekly by the Walmart Media Group.

The training is hosted every week. The training is aimed at training the sellers on the basics of the  Walmart advertising platform like how to create ads on Walmart. The training also includes a question and answer session, where sellers can ask questions related to advertising on the platform and get answers from the Walmart team.

5. Launch your Campaigns

At the end of the online training, you are free to launch your advertising campaigns. Ensure that you have a budget before you get started, this will enable you to get a good return on your investment. With the knowledge of what you learned in the course of the training, you should be able to identify what type of advert will suit your needs per time, this will increase the efficiency of your campaigns.

The journey doesn’t end after you launch the campaign, you will need to monitor the performance of the campaign and make adjustments where necessary.

Having a huge advertising budget does not necessarily guarantee the success of your advertising campaigns. There are certain things you need to do to get the best out of every Walmart advertising campaign you run.

Below are few Walmart advertising best practices you should implement.

1.Optimize your Product Listing

The purpose of an ad is to attract people to your product page, what they do when they get there and whether or not they convert is dependent on your product listing. Your product listing needs to be optimized to give the user a good experience.

Below are a few tips on how to optimize your product listing:

• Use relevant keywords, with each keyword being used a maximum of three times in the listing.
• Be straightforward and concise.
• Use high-quality photos preferably photos that show your product in use.
• Add backend keywords, product attributes, and tagging in the Walmart Seller Central.
• Provide concise and detailed information on the product. This will increase the conversion rate.
• Add a video to the listing if it is allowed in your category.

2.  Test Keywords

If you are running a manual campaign, you should use the suggested keywords provided by Walmart. You can also test out higher bids for keywords that are closely related. We will suggest you start your bid from half a dollar, you can also use cascading bids, this will enable you to bid lower on broader keywords and higher in closely related keywords.

NOTE that success with manual campaigns is dependent on the category of the product, find out which category manual campaigns are ideal for and only run manual campaigns for such categories.

3. Be Cautious with Automated Campaigns

While automated campaigns perform better than manual campaigns, you need to apply caution with them to maximize profit. To be able to use automated campaigns, your product group must have at least 10 SKUs, you will also need to start bidding from about 30 cents and then work your way up.

Ensure you put your ad budget into consideration because automated campaigns can take off quickly due to their eligibility for placement on the Walmart market. To avoid exceeding your budget, you need to constantly monitor the ad performance and ad spend.

4. Partner with a Walmart Agency

If the process of advertising on Walmart looks too complex for you or  time consuming, you can partner with a Walmart PPC advertising agency. The best type of e-commerce agency to partner with is one that has adequate knowledge of vital aspects of advertising such as keyword research and optimization.

Partnering with an agency will reduce the workload and make your ad campaigns more effective.

Walmart advertising platform is easy to use but if you encounter a problem when using the platform, don’t hesitate to contact the Walmart team.

Have you tried advertising with Walmart? Share your experience with us.