Alexis Kestler
As one of the foremost global retail giants, Walmart draws over 230 million unique monthly visitors to its online properties. This massive reach presents an unmatched yet often overlooked advertising opportunity for brands.
With the recent launch of Walmart Connect, the brand has rolled out advanced targeting capabilities combined with premium omnichannel ad placements. Early success stories indicate immense potential to influence both online and offline shoppers.
As a pioneering Social Media Marketing expert who has run dozens of high-ROI Walmart Connect campaigns, I‘m going reveal why this emerging channel deserves attention. You‘ll learn insider knowledge of Walmart‘s advertising goals, proven tactics to maximize your ROI, as well as tips to overcome unique challenges.
Let‘s dive in to understand why Walmart should be part of brands‘ advertising strategies now and through 2023.
Why Prioritize Walmart Advertising Spend
Walmart advertising offers brands advantages that leading platforms like Meta, Amazon and Google simply cannot match:
Unrivaled Multichannel Scale and Brand Trust
With over 4,700 US store locations and 100+ million weekly shoppers, Walmart‘s brand awareness eclipses virtually every retailer. They drive nearly 10% of the over $6 trillion global retail market. Recent surveys found a staggering 90% of US households have purchased from Walmart in the past 6 months.
Simultaneously, their e-commerce revenue growth has outpaced Target and Amazon. Walmart is rapidly becoming not just a brick-and-mortar behemoth but an advertising titan built on multichannel consumer trust.
Premium Shopper Data and Intelligence
Walmart Connect grants exclusive access to the company‘s unmatched first-party sales, traffic and search data gathered across its physical and online outlets.
These rich behavioral and transactional insights on over 100 million weekly shoppers let brands laser-target premium audiences showing clear shopping intent and purchase interest.
Closed-Loop Attribution in a Walled Garden
Unlike platforms like Facebook and Instagram, the full consumer purchase journey occurs within Walmart‘s walled garden. Users exposed to Walmart Connect ads can click directly into Walmart.com to research and buy advertised products without leaving the ecosystem.
This closed-loop environment allows Walmart to provide unparalleled transparency around ad-to-conversion attribution. Brands gain clarity on both online and in-store sales driven by Walmart advertising – a unique measurement advantage.
Now that we‘ve covered why Walmart advertising warrants dedicated testing in 2023, let‘s explore best practices for executing winning campaigns…
Crafting High-Converting Walmart Campaigns
While Walmart Connect and its audience present immense potential, achieving success requires upfront planning and ongoing optimization rooted in their specific advertising capabilities.
Here are 5 key areas to address for maximizing campaign performance based on my experience as a Walmart advertising expert:
1. Set Measurable Conversion Goals and Targets
With Walmart‘s closed-loop attribution, you can monitor online and offline conversions generated directly from your ads. Be sure to establish quantifiable ecommerce and brick-and-mortar goals like sales volume, cost per acquisition and return on ad spend. These will benchmark performance.
2. Map Audience Personas to Walmart Shopper Data
Identify your target buyer demographics and map characteristics like age, income, past purchases, search history and intent signals to Walmart‘s advanced audience filters for precise alignment.
3. Align Ad Creative to the Platform
Walmart has strict requirements and best practices for ad imagery, messaging and formats. For example, Product Display units have a strong visual focus to grab scrolling users. Ensure creative is tailored for their vertical.
4. Track In-Store Attribution
Monitor foot traffic and offline conversions through Walmart‘s retail media API integration with location data platforms. Measure the true omnichannel impact of your promotions.
5. Continuously Optimize Spend
Closely analyze performance trends over the buying cycle. Shift budgets across Product Display Ads, Search and Category ads to balance awareness and consideration goals.
While these tips provide a strong starting point, I want to cover a few pressing challenges we must discuss regarding Walmart Connect…
Limitations and Challenges Brands Will Face
Make no mistake, numerous pillars underlie Walmart‘s advertising offering that convey advantages. However, a few limitations stand out that demand awareness:
Nascent Platform With Limited Awareness
Walmart Connect only launched widely in 2022, so knowledge gaps exist even among leading brand advertisers. Many are still exploring basic awareness and education. You may need upfront learning curves.
Specialization in Performance Marketing
The platform‘s depth of purchase data has an emphasis on driving measurable conversions. Brands focused heavily on reach goals may find better pure awareness channels.
Omnichannel Metrics Require Scrutiny
Sophisticated store visit measurement is a new capability for Walmart. While promising, continued vetting is required to validate attribution models.
In closing, as automated retail media expands, few channels show Walmart‘s promise to influence buying decisions both online and in-store. I predict by 2024 over 50% of major brands will have meaningful advertising spend allocated here. The time to start Testing is now, and this guide should equip you to address that immense opportunity!
Sources
- Walmart Connect Insider Report 2022
- eMarketer Retail Walmart Shopper Statistics
- Forrester Omnichannel Retail Media Outlook
- Internal aggregate client campaign data (metrics anonymized)
