What is Walmart Connect: A Seller’s Guide to Advertising on Walmart Marketplace

If you’re a seller on Walmart Marketplace aiming to grow your brand and boost sales, tapping into Walmart’s retail media platform—Walmart Connect—could be your next big move. As America's largest omnichannel retailer, Walmart has an extensive reach and influence in the shopping habits of U.S. households. But what is Walmart Connect, and how can it help you attract more customers? In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about how it works, what types of ads are available, how to get started, and how to measure results.

What Is Walmart Connect?

Walmart Connect is the retail giant’s internal advertising platform that enables brands and third-party sellers to promote their products both online and in physical stores. It use Walmart’s massive first-party shopper data to deliver personalized, relevant advertising across its digital channels (Walmart.com and the Walmart app) and physical Walmart stores.

Unlike traditional digital ad platforms, Walmart Connect gives sellers access to Walmart’s own shopper insights—helping you target ads more precisely and engage with Walmart customers at key points during their shopping journey.

With multiple ad formats, strategic placements, and robust reporting tools, Walmart Connect empowers sellers to boost visibility, increase conversions, and strengthen brand awareness—all within one of the world’s largest retail ecosystems.

What Types of Ads Can You Run with Walmart Connect?

Walmart Connect offers several ad formats, each designed to support specific business goals. Whether you’re looking to drive sales or build brand recognition, there’s an ad type to help you achieve it. Implementing effective strategies for optimizing these ad campaigns can significantly enhance your performance on the platform.

Sponsored Products

Sponsored Products are pay-per-click (PPC) ads that appear in search results, on product detail pages, and in carousels. These ads help individual items stand out when shoppers are actively searching for similar products.

By bidding on relevant keywords, you can increase your product's visibility and improve its ranking in search. Sponsored Products are especially effective for boosting conversions and are a great starting point for new sellers getting into Walmart ads.

Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Brands give you the opportunity to showcase your brand at the top of search results with a banner that includes your logo, a custom headline, and a selection of featured products. These ads are designed to capture attention and guide shoppers to your Walmart Brand Shop page or curated product collection, effectively communicating your brand story.

This format is ideal for increasing brand recognition and promoting multiple products in a cohesive campaign.

Onsite Display Ads

Walmart Onsite Display ads visually highlight your brand or products across Walmart’s digital platforms. These ads appear in high-traffic areas like home page banners, category pages, or within the app. Onsite Display campaigns allow for more creative storytelling through static images, rich media, or video content, making them perfect for campaigns focused on awareness, new product launches, or promotions.

In-Store Advertising

In addition to digital formats, Walmart Connect offers in-store ad placements. These include ads displayed on self-checkout kiosk screens, digital signage throughout the store, and even in-store radio. These in-store placements allow you to reach Walmart customers during their physical shopping experience—ideal for influencing last-minute purchase decisions or reinforcing promotions they’ve seen online.

This omni-channel experience helps bridge your online and in-store presence for maximum brand impact. With approximately 150 million customers engaging with Walmart both in-store and online each week, advertisers have a significant opportunity to tap into this high level of customer engagement.

Walmart Connect Ad Center: Targeting Capabilities

Whether you're promoting new products or trying to encourage repeat buyers, it's crucial to use targeted advertising strategies to engage your audience and drive sales growth. To help you reach your target customers, Walmart Connect offers a range of targeting options. While not as granular as some other platforms, its targeting is powered by robust first-party data that reflects real shopping behavior, helping you reach the right audience.

Keyword Targeting

Sponsored Products campaigns allow you to target keywords that shoppers are likely to use when actively searching for products like yours. While Walmart doesn't currently offer product targeting (as Amazon does), keyword bidding remains a strong strategy to position your products in front of high-intent buyers.

Demographic Targeting

Advertisers can customize campaigns based on customer demographics, including age, gender, and household income, to reach the right person at different stages of their shopping journey. This targeting helps tailor messaging to specific audience segments and ensures your ads are seen by the most relevant shoppers.

Geographic Targeting

Geo-targeting allows you to focus your ads on particular regions, states, or cities. This can be especially valuable for promoting local availability or running regional promotions tied to seasonal trends or events.

Behavioral Targeting

Using customer behavior data—like past searches, purchase history, or browsing patterns—Walmart Connect helps you zero in on shoppers who are more likely to be interested in your offerings.

Customer Match

This advanced targeting option lets you meaningfully engage with your audience by uploading your own customer lists to retarget past buyers or reach lookalike audiences. It’s a great way to encourage repeat purchases and nurture loyal customers.

Walmart Connect Dashboards and Reporting

Walmart Connect’s first-party data not only helps sellers target the right audience, but it provides robust reporting to help you understand how your ads are performing. The power of Walmart Connect lies in its ability to enhance product visibility and drive sales through comprehensive dashboards and reporting tools.

In the self-serve Walmart Connect Ad Center, you can evaluate results at a glance with the Sponsored Search and Display performance dashboards, view detailed campaign metrics, and optimize your campaigns to help meet your goals. Walmart Connect’s close-loop measurement tools track sales not only on Walmart's site and app, but also in their 4700+ brick-and-mortar stores. When a customer sees your advertisement and makes a related purchase at Walmart, it is recognized and reported, so you can track the results of your onsite and offsite campaigns.

How to Build a Successful Walmart Ad Campaign

To get the best results from Walmart Connect, you’ll need a clear plan, the right setup, and ongoing optimization. Here’s how to craft an effective campaign:

1. Define Your Goals

Start by setting specific objectives. Are you trying to increase sales? Launching a new product? Want to increase brand awareness? Are you looking for new customers? Or do you want to entice Walmart customers to see your product versus a competitor's? Your goal will determine your campaign structure, ad type, and budget strategy.

2. Select the Best Ad Format

Choose the ad type that aligns with your goals:

• Want to drive conversions? Sponsored Products are ideal.
• Looking to grow brand awareness? Consider Sponsored Brands or Onsite Display ads.
• Launching a campaign for in-store customers? Explore in-store ad placements.

Walmart Connect solutions offer a comprehensive suite of advertising options available on Walmart's website and app. Each solution, such as Sponsored Search and Onsite Display, functions uniquely to help businesses effectively reach and engage customers during their shopping journey.

Mix and match formats as needed to cover all phases of the buyer journey.

3. Set and Manage Your Budget

Determine your budget based on your campaign’s scope. Start small, monitor results, and scale your investment as you identify what’s working. Use Walmart Connect’s bidding tools to optimize your ad spend and stay competitive. Utilize Walmart Connect's closed loop measurement tools to track the impact of your ad campaigns on sales, both online and in physical stores.

4. Monitor Performance and Optimize

Regularly check key metrics like:

• Impressions
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Conversion rate
• Return on ad spend (ROAS)
• Listing Quality Score (LQS)

Use this data to understand how your advertising solutions work, optimize your listings, refine your keyword strategy, adjust bids, pause underperforming ads, and shift budget to high-performing campaigns.

5. Get Help from a Walmart Connect Partner

If you want to accelerate your Walmart business and lack the time and expertise to do it yourself, consider leveraging one of Walmart's third-party advertising partners. Some sellers have seen up to 28% higher return on ad spend when working with a Walmart Connect Partner. This network of partners provide a wide range of services, different fee structures, and both managed and self-service business models to meet your needs. In many cases, it can be more cost-effective and a great alternative to in-house staffing.

Getting Started with Walmart Connect Ad Center

Ready to jump in? Here’s a step-by-step overview to help you learn how to start advertising with Walmart Connect.

Step 1: Create an Account

Head to Walmart Connect and click “Start Advertising.” Visit the page to fill out your business information, including your contact information and tax details.

Step 2: Complete Your Profile

Provide Walmart Connect with information about your brand, target audience, and product categories. This helps tailor the experience to your advertising goals.

Step 3: Verify Your Email

You’ll receive a verification link in your email from the Walmart Connect support team. Click the link to confirm your account and complete the registration process.

Step 4: Explore the Platform

Once you’re logged in, take time to navigate Walmart Connect’s dashboard and explore the various features to enhance campaign performance. Familiarize yourself with campaign setup, available ad formats, reporting tools, and targeting options.

Step 5: Launch Your First Campaign

Start with a simple Sponsored Products campaign to test the waters and achieve some initial measurable results. Monitor performance closely, analyze what works, and gradually expand to Sponsored Brands, Display Ads, or in-store placements as you gain confidence.

Final Thoughts

Walmart Connect is a powerful resource for sellers looking to elevate their presence on one of the largest retail platforms in the world. With smart targeting, rich customer data, and multiple ad formats, it gives you the tools to engage shoppers at every stage of their journey and build brand loyalty.

As retail media continues to grow, integrating Walmart Connect into your marketing strategy will give you a competitive edge—whether you’re trying to win the digital shelf on Walmart's site or increase in-store foot traffic.

Now is the perfect time to explore what Walmart Connect can do for your business. Start small, optimize regularly, and scale your efforts to build lasting success on Walmart Marketplace.