Walmart streamlines offsite advertising for retail media network members
Walmart’s retail media network is making it easier for advertising partners to target customers on other platforms – and measure the results.
Walmart is unveiling a new, more flexible approach for brands participating in its Walmart Connect retail media network (launched in 2021 as a revamped version of the Walmart Media Group) that want to buy ads for its customers consuming offsite media (platforms such as social, streaming, and connected TV).
Through partnerships with demand-side platforms and supply partners, advertisers can now activate Walmart audiences and use closed-loop measurement tracking sales across the Walmart site, app and stores. Launch partners include Yahoo DSP, beginning with inventory on the Vizio connected TV/streaming platform, which the discounter purchased at the end of 2024 and made a wholly-owned subsidiary, made available via the Magnite modular ad platform.,
Magnite’s supply-side technology can support audience decisioning across multiple DSPs through the same Walmart-controlled data enablement model. Walmart plans to roll out additional platform partnerships, including more Yahoo DSP integrations and capabilities.
"This evolution does more than expand access — it helps connect strategies that have historically operated in silos," Ryan Mayward, GM & senior VP, Walmart Connect, said in a corporate blog post. "By making Walmart Connect’s audiences, signals, and measurement accessible across more buying environments, this expansion brings national media and shopper marketing closer together."
This program is currently in a closed proof of concept phase and will become more widely available at a later date.
Walmart Connect expands connected TV, social integrations
The retailer has also continued to invest in Walmart DSP, including the recent launch of Connect Select, a curated marketplace within the Walmart demand side platform (DSP), and expanded integrations with technology partners.
[READ MORE: Walmart Connect streamlines connected TV ad activation]
Connect Select is designed to streamline access to relevant omnichannel inventory with a focus on connected TV. It surfaces recommended inventory optimized for reach and awareness and aligned to campaign goals. Advertisers can discover and activate deals tailored to objectives like product launches, discovery, and brand building.
Combined with Walmart’s measurement capabilities, Connect Select enables advertisers to see how connected TV influences the full-funnel and optimize toward business outcomes such as reducing wasted ad spend and improving media efficiency.
At launch, Connect Select includes inventory from Vizio; CTV publishers, including Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery; and supply-side platforms (SSPs), including FreeWheel, Index Exchange, Magnite, and PubMatic. SSP partnerships enable post-auction optimizations.
Advertisers also have access to omnichannel formats including online video, display, and audio. Deals are available through Inventory Controls and Deal Desk.
In addition, Walmart Connect recently gave advertisers new opportunities to reach customers via social media. These include self-serve access, closed-loop measurement, and new shoppable formats.
Participating advertisers and agencies can now activate the same Walmart audiences across their social and onsite placements. In addition, self-serve advertisers can launch, optimize, and measure social media campaigns within the Walmart Connect Ad Center. Social media ads appear under Walmart’s handle and feature a supplier’s or seller’s product.
Walmart is also continuing to expand closed-loop measurement across social platforms, with closed-loop measurement via LiveRamp’s data clean room now available for Meta and closed-loop measurement also available for TikTok and Pinterest.
The retailer is further introducing an “add-to-cart” feature on Meta, TikTok and Pinterest. Instead of a multi-step shopping process where customers must leave those apps to add a product to their cart, they can now add up to 10 products directly to their Walmart cart from social ads.
