What Walmart Connect is and why it is growing so fast
Walmart Connect is the retail media arm of Walmart, the ad platform that lets brands buy placement across Walmart.com, the Walmart app, in-store screens, and offsite inventory powered by Walmart's shopper data. The reason it is the fastest-growing US retail network is simple: Walmart has roughly 90 percent of US households shopping its stores in a given year, and it can tie an ad impression to an actual checkout, online or in a physical aisle. That closed loop is what advertisers pay for. For a brand already selling on Amazon, Walmart Connect is the most logical second network to add, because the buying mechanics rhyme with Sponsored Products even though the auction, the shopper, and the data are different. We treat those differences as the whole game. If you want the full picture across every surface we run, our networks overview lays out all eight.
Ad types and placements we run
Walmart Connect breaks into three layers. First, Sponsored Search, also called Sponsored Products, the keyword-driven listings that sit inside search results and category pages and drive the bulk of measurable sales. This is where most budgets start and where most of the profit lives. Second, onsite display, the banner and brand placements across Walmart.com and the app that build share of voice and defend your category against competitors buying against your terms. Third, offsite and programmatic, bought through Walmart DSP, built on The Trade Desk, which extends Walmart's first-party audiences across the open web so you can reach lapsed and in-market shoppers off-platform and pull them back to the digital shelf. We decide the mix per SKU and per goal rather than spreading budget evenly, and we sequence spend so lower-funnel Sponsored Search proves out before we scale display and DSP on top.
How we actually run Walmart Connect
Nothing performs until the item is ready to convert, so we start with item setup and content readiness: titles, bullets, images, attributes, and stock status that Walmart's algorithm and shoppers both reward. A great campaign on a weak listing just pays to send traffic somewhere it will not buy. From there we build keyword and bid strategy the way we run every account, isolating branded, category, and competitor terms into separate structures so budget is never blind. Our retail media management approach means bids move on margin and incrementality, not vanity ROAS. We track share of voice on the terms that matter and buy display to hold it, then layer offsite through Walmart DSP once onsite economics are proven. Every account opens with a full account audit so we fix the leaks before we spend a dollar scaling.
Sequencing a Walmart expansion without cannibalizing Amazon
The biggest mistake we see when brands add Walmart is treating it as a copy of their Amazon account, then watching the two channels fight for the same shopper and the same margin. We sequence expansion deliberately. We start with your proven winners, the SKUs with content and reviews strong enough to convert cold Walmart traffic, and we launch Sponsored Search on those first. We hold Amazon budget flat during the ramp so we can read Walmart's incremental contribution cleanly rather than robbing one channel to feed another. Walmart shoppers are not Amazon shoppers; the price sensitivity, the basket, and the search behavior differ, so we rebuild keyword and bid logic for the network instead of importing it. Done right, Walmart adds net-new revenue rather than shifting existing sales sideways. We proved this with Dr. Pooper on Walmart, where a disciplined build hit a 4.9x average ROAS.
Targeting, measurement, and incrementality
Walmart Connect gives you keyword, category, and audience targeting onsite, plus first-party and programmatic audiences through the DSP. The advantage over most networks is closed-loop measurement: Walmart attributes online ad exposure to sales across online and in-store, so you can see reach that actually moved product. We do not stop at platform-reported ROAS. We look at whether spend is incremental, whether you are paying to win sales you would have captured organically, and whether share of voice gains show up as real category share. For our Walmart clients we have driven an average 4.9x ROAS and share of voice up 32 percent while managing $5M+ in Walmart sales. Those are outcomes from disciplined measurement, not from spending more.
Who Walmart Connect suits
Walmart Connect fits brands that already have traction, ideally an established Amazon business, real reviews, and content that converts, and want a second scaled retail channel without diluting the first. It suits categories Walmart shoppers buy heavily: consumables, household, grocery-adjacent, health, home, and value-driven CPG. It is a poor fit for brands with thin listings, no reviews, or a single hero SKU and no roadmap, because Walmart's traffic will expose those weaknesses fast. If you are unsure whether your catalog is ready, that is exactly what our audit answers before you commit budget.
Our approach and what makes us different
We are senior-only, so the person building your campaigns is the person who has run retail media for 6+ years, not a trainee learning on your account. We charge a flat monthly retainer, never a percentage of spend, because tying our fee to your ad budget is a conflict of interest that quietly encourages waste. We work a 90-day growth model: fix the foundation, scale what proves out, then compound. Across networks we have managed $50M+ in sales, and we bring that operator judgment to every Walmart build. If that sounds like the partner you want on Walmart Connect, tell us about your catalog and we will tell you honestly whether we can move the numbers.