With Walmart ads, advertisers have access to one of the frontrunners for retail and e-commerce. While the company came late in the game, Walmart eventually released an advertising platform to compete with other giant companies like Amazon and Google.
The question then becomes: how much do these Walmart ads cost?
With such a competitive and successful platform, it can be difficult to digest cost and how it operates. This is because no platform is quite the same. Examining costs and operational aspects, advertisers can better understand to invest ad budgets for brands they represent.
Why Advertise with Walmart Ads?
The main reason brands should consider advertising with Walmart is that retail shoppers often overlap. According to Walmart Media Group, over 57% of Amazon buyers also shop on Walmart.com, and 90% of Americans shop at Walmart. By advertising on Walmart, brands have ample opportunity to increase their market share. More exposure increases the possibility for shoppers to make a purchase.
These are additional reasons to advertise with Walmart:
- To support an organic presence
- Boost new seller performance
- Aid struggling SKUs
- Take advantage of seasonal spikes
How Does Walmart Auction Work?
For your Walmart ads to run successfully, consider hiring a Walmart ads agency to manage your auction ads. They run off a first bid auction system, meaning the winning bid in an auction is the max cost-per-click (CPC) bid. Competitors like Amazon use second bid auctions, so unlike Walmart, the winning bid might be one penny over the second-highest.
Use the checklist to know if your ad had the winning bid.
- Appear in the top 128 organic search results
- Win the Buy Box
- Rank lower than or equal to the organic search ranking of the desired product
- Be the same product type of at least one non-sponsored item in the top 20 search results
Walmart Ads Minimum Costs
Walmart advertising costs vary per advertiser, so it’s a good idea to research how much to budget with the idea of a base cost. Walmart Marketplace offers strict standards when it comes to budgeting. The following were made to ensure a good return on investment:
Self-Serve Campaign: Requires $1,000 monthly spend with $100 daily cap.
Managed Campaign: Requires a $25,000 commitment.
If a company chooses to partner with an advertiser agency professionally, these rates should be expected:
- A one-time setup cost of $3750 to up to more than $15,000
- A monthly ad spend of $5,000 to up to more than $50,000
- A monthly management cost of $1,000 to more than $6,000
Professional ad agencies come with additional costs because their marketers have several years of experience and successful portfolios that set them apart.
Walmart Ads Average CPC and CPM
The costs for CPC and CPM also vary, especially when advertisers are only charged per click. These are the following Walmart’s ad options:
- Native banner ads on a category home page
- Landing page ads under certain product categories
- Sponsored ads in a product grid
These methods are used so shoppers have options regarding how consumers interact with the ads. Sometimes ads aren’t noticeable, so shoppers are more likely to interact with them if they fit their needs.
How Walmart Ads Compares to Other Platforms
When using Walmart ads, it’s important to know that there are a few differences than advertising on Google or Amazon. Here are some of the following ways Walmart is able to stand out and operate differently than its top competitors.
- On the online platform, organic listings are actually impacted by advertising performance. There’s an option to push higher organic listings when ads offer the same product and achieve clicks and views.
- Online aren’t given an exclusive page like most other e-commerce platforms. If a shopper is on a product detail page and clicks the brand, a google search occurs. On the other hand, Amazon sends the shopper directly to the brand page.
- Search functionality isn’t at the top of the page like other marketplaces. It can be more difficult to discover organically if advertisers don’t have boosters like a 2-day shipping badge to help them out.
Final Thoughts
So are the costs for advertising on Walmart worth the potential return on investment? While no cost is truly the same, Walmart operates on the principle that the prices listed for their campaigns achieve positive income.
What do you think about the Walmart ad costs? Have you used Walmart advertising in a previous campaign? Let us know your thoughts as we’d love to hear more from our fellow advertisers.
