Walmart Connect is structurally similar to Amazon Ads, with a few real differences
If you've run Amazon Sponsored Products, the core mechanics (keyword or automatic targeting, cost-per-click bidding, campaign/ad group structure) will feel familiar. The differences worth knowing: Walmart Connect's overall auction competition is generally lower than Amazon's for most categories (often meaning lower CPCs for comparable relevance), and its automatic-targeting algorithm has historically had less search-term data to learn from simply because Walmart Marketplace's search volume is smaller than Amazon's.
Step 1: Confirm campaign eligibility
Your item needs to be in a buy-box-winning, in-stock state to be eligible to advertise — an item that isn't currently winning the buy box generally can't run ads for that listing. Check your buy box status before troubleshooting a campaign that won't go live; a missing buy box is a common, easy-to-overlook cause.
Step 2: Set up your first campaign with automatic targeting
As with Amazon, automatic targeting is the recommended starting point for a first campaign, for the same reason: it surfaces real converting search terms with less manual guesswork. Name the campaign clearly (product or SKU plus targeting type is a common convention) so it's identifiable later once you're running several campaigns at once.
Step 3: Budget realistically for a smaller-traffic platform
Because Walmart Marketplace's overall traffic is lower than Amazon's, expect a longer ramp-up period to gather a statistically meaningful sample of clicks — don't judge a Walmart Connect campaign's performance on the same weekly timeline you'd use for Amazon. A campaign that would show a clear signal within a week on Amazon might reasonably need two to four weeks on Walmart to reach a comparable sample size, simply due to lower search volume.
Step 4: Set your bid with Walmart's lower-competition environment in mind
Because CPCs are often lower than the equivalent Amazon auction, a bid that would be conservative on Amazon can sometimes be a reasonably competitive starting bid on Walmart Connect — check Walmart's own suggested bid guidance for your ad group rather than importing your Amazon bidding habits directly.
Step 5: Layer in Walmart-specific placements as you scale
Walmart Connect also offers Sponsored Brands-style and offsite display placements similar in concept to Amazon's — worth exploring once your Sponsored Products campaign is performing consistently. See Cross-Marketplace Advertising Comparison for how Walmart Connect stacks up against Amazon Ads and other platforms overall.
Troubleshooting a first Walmart Connect campaign
- Campaign won't activate / item shows ineligible: check buy box status first — this is the single most common blocker for new Walmart Connect advertisers.
- Very few impressions even after a week: this is more likely to reflect Walmart's smaller overall search volume for your category than a setup mistake — compare against realistic Walmart-scale expectations, not Amazon-scale ones.
- No sales despite decent clicks: as with Amazon, check the listing itself (price competitiveness, images, reviews) before assuming the campaign is misconfigured.
Mistakes to avoid
- Judging a Walmart Connect campaign against Amazon-scale weekly benchmarks — lower traffic means a longer, not a broken, ramp-up.
- Not checking buy box eligibility before troubleshooting a campaign that won't go live.
- Assuming Walmart's suggested bid guidance will match Amazon's for a similar product — the two auctions have different competitive dynamics.
Best practices
- Give a Walmart Connect campaign at least 2-4 weeks before drawing firm conclusions, longer than the 1-2 weeks that's often sufficient on Amazon.
- Cross-check buy box status regularly, since losing it can silently stop a previously running campaign.
- Pull the search term report on the same discipline as an Amazon campaign, even though it may take longer to accumulate a useful volume of data.
FAQs
Why is my Walmart Connect campaign getting so few impressions compared to a similar Amazon campaign? Walmart Marketplace's overall search traffic is meaningfully smaller than Amazon's for most categories — fewer impressions for a comparable bid and targeting setup is expected, not necessarily a sign of a setup problem.
Do I need Walmart's version of Brand Registry to run Sponsored Products? No — similar to Amazon, the basic Sponsored Products format doesn't require brand enrollment; that's needed for the brand-level formats.
Can I use the same keyword list I built for Amazon? It's a reasonable starting point, but validate it against Walmart's own search term report rather than assuming identical search behavior — shopper search phrasing and volume can differ between the two platforms.