A Practical Guide to Walmart Connect: Media Types, Strategies, and Best Practices

Walmart Connect has quickly become one of the most important players in the retail media landscape. With over $4.4 billion in ad revenue projected for 2025 — a 27% year-over-year increase — Walmart Connect has secured a major share of the $45 billion U.S. retail media market, trailing only Amazon and outpacing rivals like Target’s Roundel and Kroger’s 84.51°.

Walmart’s omnichannel presence, including more than 240 million customer visits each week across online and physical stores, provides brands with unmatched reach. The platform’s deep first-party data from both online and in-store purchases gives advertisers a powerful advantage in targeting, personalization, and closed-loop measurement.

If you’re looking to drive meaningful growth through Walmart, mastering Walmart Connect is critical. This guide breaks down the media types available, key best practices, and tips for building high-performing campaigns.

Walmart Connect Advertising Solutions

Walmart Connect offers a range of options designed to engage shoppers across the purchase funnel — from brand discovery to conversion.

1. Search and Sponsored Ads

• Sponsored Products
  Sponsored Products appear in search results, browse pages, carousels, and product detail pages (PDPs). There are two campaign types:
  • Automatic Campaigns: Walmart’s algorithm automatically matches ads to relevant customer queries and placements, making it ideal for discovering new keyword opportunities.
  • Manual Campaigns: Advertisers select specific keywords and products to target. This approach provides more control over bidding and audience targeting.

Keyword Match Types for Manual Campaigns:

• Broad Match: Captures a wide range of search variations.
• Phrase Match: Targets queries containing the exact phrase, with words before or after.
• Exact Match: Matches only the precise search query, offering the tightest control.

Bidding Strategies:

• Dynamic Bidding (Up/Down): Walmart automatically adjusts your bids higher or lower based on the likelihood of conversion.
• Fixed Bidding: Your bid remains static, regardless of conversion probability.
• Sponsored Brands
  Showcase multiple products together or drive traffic to a brand-specific landing page. Sponsored Brands are effective for increasing brand awareness and cross-selling related items.
• Sponsored Videos
  Short-form video ads placed within search results. These highly engaging placements combine brand storytelling with performance marketing by driving shoppers directly to PDPs.

2. Display and Offsite Media

• Onsite Display Ads
  Target Walmart shoppers across different stages of their journey:
  • Homepage Banners: High-traffic placements great for major promotions.
  • Browse and Category Pages: Reach shoppers exploring specific product categories.
  • Item Pages: Retarget users based on browsing behaviors or complementary product interests.
• Offsite Advertising
  Extend campaigns beyond Walmart.com using Walmart’s first-party data:
  • Social Media: Advertise on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
  • Connected TV (CTV): Deliver video ads to audiences streaming content on smart TVs.
  • Programmatic Display: Target shoppers across a broader network of websites and apps.

Walmart’s offsite solutions allow brands to maintain continuity, retargeting shoppers who interacted with your products online or in-store.

3. In-Store and Omnichannel Activations

• Walmart TV: Video ads displayed on TV walls inside Walmart stores to influence shoppers near the point of sale.
• Self-Checkout Kiosks: Serve static or animated ads at checkout terminals where shoppers complete purchases.
• Walmart Radio: Audio ads broadcast across Walmart stores nationwide.

These in-store solutions are powerful tools for reinforcing messaging introduced online and driving action at shelf.

Best Practices for Walmart Connect Success

1. Align Campaigns to the Funnel
Use Sponsored Brands and Display Ads for upper-funnel awareness, while Sponsored Products drive lower-funnel conversion. A blended full-funnel strategy delivers stronger results over time.

2. Start Broad, Then Refine
Launch Automatic Campaigns to uncover effective keywords and placements. Then build Manual Campaigns targeting the most profitable keywords and products.

3. Organize Campaigns by Match Type
Separate Broad, Phrase, and Exact match types into distinct campaigns. This allows you to optimize budgets and bids more efficiently based on performance.

4. Optimize Your Bidding Strategy
Use Dynamic Bidding (Up/Down) when brand exposure is a priority. Switch to Fixed Bidding for high-converting campaigns where maintaining specific ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) targets is critical.

5. Prioritize Retail Readiness
Ensure your PDPs are fully optimized before driving traffic. Focus on:

• High-quality product images and videos
• SEO-friendly titles and detailed bullet points
• Strong review volume and ratings
• Rich A+ content (Enhanced Content)

6. Leverage Dayparting
Analyze your ad performance by time of day and adjust bids to prioritize high-performing hours.

7. Monitor and Optimize Frequently
Use Walmart Connect’s reporting dashboards to track KPIs like ROAS, CTR (Click-Through Rate), Conversion Rate, and overall sales lift. Make regular adjustments to improve efficiency and outcomes.

The Opportunity Ahead

Walmart Connect’s rapid growth and unique omnichannel capabilities make it an essential platform for brands aiming to win in today’s retail environment. With access to massive audiences and unmatched first-party data, advertisers who invest in building smart, full-funnel strategies will be well-positioned for sustainable growth.

As the platform continues to evolve, staying disciplined in your execution — and agile in your optimizations — will be the key to unlocking long-term success.

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Shaun Brown

Shaun Brown is the Founder and CEO of Birddog, a leading agency at the intersection of commerce media, digital shopper marketing, and retail technology. With over 25 years of experience, he specializes in connecting big data and AI to deliver better ideas, optimized shopper connections, and proven business results.

Shaun's career spans both client and agency sides, working with some of the world’s most recognized brands. His expertise includes shopper marketing, customer marketing activations, and the seamless integration of broadcast, print, retail, digital, social, mobile, and influencer channels to drive strategic, insight-led campaigns that resonate with today’s shoppers.