Walmart leads grocery paid-search ads — but for how long?

Walmart leads the pack when it comes to paid search advertising in the grocery category.



That’s according to new research from AdGooroo. The search marketing intelligence provider analyzed 124 non-branded grocery store and grocery delivery keywords from June 2016-May 2017.



During this period, Walmart was the highest spender, investing $850,000 over a 12-month period. This was a staggering jump from only $51,000 between May 2015 and June 2016. Jet.com, which was acquired by Walmart in September, spent an additional $82,000 during the same timeframe, up from a mere $3,000 in the 12 months preceding June 2016, AdGooroo reported.



Walmart's position at the top seems to be safe for now, as Amazon ranked ninth, with $134,000 spending for the current period, while Whole Foods ranked 18th, spending $51,000 over the same time period. However, the Amazon-Whole Foods partnership, along with Amazon's strong overall search presence, should worry Walmart, the report stated.



Additional findings include:

• Aldi ranked second among all advertisers in the grocery category, spending $441,000 from June 2016 to May 2017, up from $40,000 during the preceding period. Notably, from March to May 2017, the grocer spent an average of $119,00 per month, up from an average of $9,000 per month. This suggests the company was ramping up its online presence in preparation of its US expansion.

• Safeway ($365,000), Kroger ($283,000) and Fry's ($232,000) rounded out the top five among advertisers in the category.

• Walmart also led among all advertisers in click-share, capturing a 19.1% share of total clicks on the 124 category keywords over the 12-month period.

• Aldi again ranked second, with an 11.6% click-share, followed by Kroger, which captured 7.6% of all clicks.

• Amazon ranked 9th in click-share, capturing 2.8% of all clicks while Whole Foods ranked 19th with a 1.2% click-share.