Though Amazon still holds the crown when it comes to being the world’s largest retailer, Walmart is not far behind. Walmart is on a clear mission to take back what was once theirs with almost constant releases of new features, programs, and tools that are available for sellers to utilize.
With 16 million searches every day on Walmart.com, sellers can take advantage of Sponsored Products to get customers to notice their ads, consider their offerings, and act. This content is designed to help advertisers create successful Walmart Sponsored Products campaigns and turn their ad dollars into business revenue.
What is Walmart Sponsored Product?
Walmart Sponsored Products ads help customers discover and purchase products sold on Walmart.com. Ads appear in prominent, high-traffic placements such as Search Ingrid, Buy Box, and Product Carousel. Sponsored Products are native, cost-per-click ads that drive customers to Walmart’s product detail pages.
Sponsored Products ads can appear within search results, category pages, and product pages on Walmart’s app, mobile site, and desktop site.
Who may run a Walmart Sponsored Products campaign?
Walmart Sponsored Products ads are available to brands, Marketplace Sellers, vendors, and agencies. The advertised products must be in stock on Walmart.com and win the buy box.
To be eligible for Search In-grid placement, products also must:
- Appear within the top 128 organic search results
- Rank higher than or equal to their organic search ranking
- Be of the same category as the search query
- Be of the same product type as at least one non-sponsored product in the top 20 results
Why should advertisers invest in Walmart Sponsored Products or the Benefits of Walmart Sponsored Products?
Advertisers should invest in Walmart Sponsored Products because it provides them with an effective way to reach millions of Walmart shoppers. Walmart’s powerful search engine and customer data insights enable advertisers to target their ads to the right shoppers and create engaging campaigns that drive sales. With highly competitive pricing, Walmart Sponsored Products also offers advertisers a low cost-per-click, helping them maximize their return on investment.
- To improve visibility for products that rank low in search.
- To increase velocity for best sellers, hot inventory, or seasonal items.
- To stand out among crowded categories where there is competition.
- To maximize profitable SKUs and increase the share of the wallet.
How and when do Walmart Sponsored Products ads appear?
Walmart Sponsored Products ads appear in the search results and product pages of Walmart.com. They are designed to appear when customers search for relevant products. They are targeted based on the customer’s search terms and the products offered by the advertiser. Ads appear before, during, and after a customer’s search and are identified with a “Sponsored” label.
Where do these ads appear?
Search In-grid: Walmart’s search in-grid feature is an advanced search tool that allows customers to refine their search results by shopping for specific items within a predefined search grid. Customers can use the search grid to narrow down their search results by selecting specific characteristics such as brand, product type, size, color, price, and more. The search grid also allows customers to sort their search results by relevance, price, customer rating, and more. This tool makes it easy for customers to quickly find exactly what they’re looking for without having to scroll through dozens of pages of search results.
Product Carousel: On search, browse, category, and product pages.
Product carousels on Walmart’s website are used to display featured products. These carousels are located on the home page, product category pages, and search result pages.
Buy Box: Under the Buy Box on the product detail pages.
Different types of Walmart Sponsored Products Campaigns:
There are two types of Walmart Sponsored Products campaigns:
- Automatic Campaign,
- Manual Campaign.
- Automatic Campaign: Automatic campaigns are the easiest way to bid on Walmart.com. Easy setup, high-traffic placements, no keyword management, and higher impression volume. Just enter all the product information and the Walmart search algorithm does the rest. Automatic campaigns are best suited for brands new to advertising, to launch new product launches, and for brands interested in expanding their reach beyond their existing customer base.
- Manual Campaign: With a manual campaign, advertisers handpick the keywords they want to bid on and match types. Advertisers can also consult Walmart’s Keyword Analytics tool to weed out low-performing keywords from their campaigns. Manual campaigns are best suited for brands that are confident in knowing the keywords their customers use and have a long history with Walmart.com.
An Automatic campaign offers maximum exposure; a Manual campaign offers maximum control.
How to Set Up Walmart Sponsored Products!
Walmart Sponsored Products set-up processes are given below:
- Become a Marketplace Seller
Before you start taking advantage of Walmart Sponsored Products and the benefits they can have for your conversion rates, you need to become a marketplace seller. You can apply for a seller account using their dedicated application form where you will need to provide information on your annual online sales revenue, e-commerce experience, business details, and more.
- Upload Products to Your Catalog
Next, you will need to ensure you have all your products uploaded to your catalog. There are two ways to upload your products to Walmart Marketplace:
Setup by Match: When you start selling a product on Walmart, you should do plenty of research and planning to find a unique and profitable product. Many sellers though, may choose to sell a product that already exists on the marketplace in an effort to compete with existing brands. In this case, you don’t need to create a brand new listing for your product, you can simply use Walmart’s ‘Setup by
Match’ feature to pull information from existing listings and have your product uploaded in minutes.
Full Item Spec: For sellers that have a unique range of products on offer with their own USPs, characteristics, and features, you will need to create a brand-new listing. This may take more time, but it allows you to be in complete control of your product listing in terms of content, optimization, and more. Simply select a category template and customize the listing to suit your products.
- Apply for Walmart Advertising
Once you have a seller account set up, you will need to be approved to access the Walmart Advertising platform. The requirements for accessing the program are currently unclear, though Walmart is known to approve or deny applications based on the amount of experience of sellers and the budget you have available.
- Create and Launch Your Walmart Sponsored Products
Approved for the Walmart Advertising platform? Then you are all set to start creating and implementing a Walmart Sponsored Products ad campaign.
Choose Your Campaign Type: Walmart Sponsored Products allows you to choose between a manual and an automatic campaign. Depending on your experience in advertising or how much time you have to dedicate to managing your campaign, you can decide whether Walmart is in charge of when and where your ads are placed or whether you want to hold the baton. Manual campaigns are ideal for brands that have a deep understanding of product keywords to make sure their ads appear alongside the right types of keywords with the right search intent behind them.
Choose Your Keywords: If you have decided to tackle your Walmart Sponsored Products head-on with a manual campaign you will need to do plenty of keyword research to find valuable opportunities. You choose and bid on keywords that trigger your Sponsored Products to appear making it essential to understand which keywords are worth your investment. By bidding on a keyword, you are essentially deciding how much you want to pay when someone clicks on your ad. Of course, some keywords will be far more competitive than others, making it essential to have a strong understanding of your brand’s ad budget and how much you are able to spend on Sponsored Products each month. When calculating budgets, your ad spends will be completely dependent on your business’ unique short- and long-term goals. Consider how many products you want to advertise, how much you want to bid for your keywords, and how long you plan to run your ad campaigns to devise an educated strategy.
- Measure Your Campaign
When releasing its self-serve ad platform, Walmart did not hold back. Brands gain full access to real-time data to measure the performance of each Sponsored Product ad. Sellers can use their Performance Dashboard to monitor key metrics and see a visual representation of how their ads are performing.
By having such a clear-cut and detailed insight into your ads, you can ensure your ad spending is being designated efficiently and generating the optimum results. Walmart also offers an insights area for brands from a variety of industries to benefit from their inside information on shopping trends and campaign performance data.
3 Ways to Optimize Your Walmart Sponsored Products:
- Win the Walmart Buy Box
If your product already exists on Walmart Marketplace and you decide to upload a listing, your product will automatically share the existing listing. The brand that achieves the Walmart Buy Box for that listing will have a bright blue ‘Add to Cart’ button next to their product, which in turn hugely boosts rankings and conversion rates.
To win the Buy Box and increase the chances of your Walmart Sponsored Products being seen there are several factors to consider:
- Competitive Pricing
- Fast and cheap shipping
- Plenty of stock
- Optimized listings
- Optimize Your Listings
A key component to running a successful Walmart Sponsored Products campaign is the optimization of your listings. If your product doesn’t rank in the top 128 organic product search results, your Sponsored Product simply won’t be displayed.
To optimize your products:
- Use clear and specific titles
- High-quality images
- Key features
- Optimized product descriptions
- 2-day shipping
- Inventory, Shipping, and Returns
Sellers that offer fast, reliable, and quality shipping are far more likely to have their Sponsored Products appear and get noticed. Where possible, try to offer your customers two-day shipping and make sure that you have strict customer service policies in place.
You can utilize the Walmart Free Two-Day Delivery program that uses Deliverr to distribute your products and fulfill orders in no more than two working days.
What’s more, the fast delivery makes you immediately eligible for Sponsored Product advertising, far more likely to achieve a Buy Box and your site will rank better organically due to the prominent ‘2-day shipping’ tag on all your product listings.
Walmart rewards sellers that have loyal and returning customers. After all, they don’t want to be seen promoting a brand that their customers wouldn’t recommend or have had a bad experience with.
As well as making sure your shipping times are as short as possible, inventory management should be a top priority. Your Walmart Sponsored Products will be a waste of your budget if you don’t have a well-stocked inventory as your ads simply won’t be displayed.
Hope you have a clear idea of Walmart-Sponsored Products. If you have any confusion or questions about this content please let us know in the comment section. We are ready to help you with those. Stay tuned for more updates from Ecomclips.
