Walmart ramps up Amazon competition with omnichannel ad platform

Walmart is offering advertisers on-demand visibility into how their campaigns are performing in-store and online.

The discounter’s Walmart Media Group advertising analytics division is launching its first on-demand omnichannel reporting solution at scale - performance dashboards. The solution is available for all Walmart display and Sponsored Products campaigns via the new Walmart Ad Center platform. This unified, single-sign-on, self-serve platform enables advertisers to measure the omnichannel impact of their campaigns.

Walmart Media Group is rolling out its new ad platform and dashboards following the January launch of the Walmart Advertising Partners program. The program established an ecosystem designed to bolster advertisers’ ability to deliver targeted, sponsored advertising to Walmart shoppers via partnerships with digital ad platforms. The discount giant is building its Walmart Advertising Partners ecosystem to compete in a retail digital advertising marketplace currently dominated by Amazon, Google, and Facebook/Instagram.

Advertisers can gain access to performance dashboards whenever they want. There are two performance dashboards: one for display ads and one for Sponsored Products campaigns, which feature pay-per-click ads that drive traffic to select items by ensuring they appear on the first page of search results and category and item pages. While hosted on the same platform, each dashboard has different metrics that are applicable to the campaign.

Walmart Media Group ran beta tests with more than a dozen large advertisers including Nestlé Purina, Procter & Gamble, Mondelez, and Clorox, and received positive reviews.

“At Walmart Media Group, we’re excited to take the next step in our self-serve journey,” said Jeff Clark, VP, Walmart Media Group. “A journey focused on building trust through transparency as we enable our advertisers to build meaningful connections with Walmart customers in our stores and online.”