Search continues to play a fundamental role in customers’ shopping journey as they discover and purchase products. Slightly more than half (51%) of surveyed Walmart customers said they discover new products once a month (or less often) in their Walmart online search results.¹

Not only are they discovering new products, but they are relying on virtual shelves to research before making purchase decisions – 75% of surveyed customers responded they shop online with Walmart to compare items and products and 45% responded they browse product details to learn more about new products¹. 

This makes it more important than ever for brands to invest in advertising strategies that help their products appear at the top of search results to drive more meaningful customer engagement. We continue to expand our Sponsored Search Solutions with the launch of Sponsored Videos, so advertisers can use the power of video storytelling to reach Walmart’s millions of customers when they are searching across our extensive assortment of online products.

Introducing Sponsored Videos – the first video ad unit on Walmart’s site and app

Our newest Sponsored Search solution, Sponsored Videos can help your products stand out in search results by capturing customer attention through visual storytelling with sight, sound and motion.

These short, keyword-targeted video ads promote a single item within relevant Search In-grid results. A click anywhere on the video sends the customer to the item page to learn more. There’s even a direct add-to-cart button to make buying seamless.

Sponsored Videos ads open new opportunities for brands to stand out to customers and communicate value during moments of intent. This offers advertisers a highly engaging way to tell brand stories and showcase key product information directly within shoppers’ search results when they are actively shopping.

Sponsored Videos play an important role in full-funnel retail media strategies

Sponsored Videos are a critical component of a full-funnel retail media strategy. Advertisers can use these video ads as a standalone strategy, or complement existing Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Products campaigns, helping to build awareness and improve product discoverability through a premium customer experience.

This solution is unique for its ability to help boost brand awareness and purchase intention at the consideration point of Walmart customers’ shopping journey. The high impact nature of videos allows advertisers to lean into upper-funnel messaging and capabilities, but in the performance-driven environment of search.

With this launch, advertisers have access to a powerful new tool to drive full funnel objectives by helping to:

·       Increase brand awareness – Attract more potential customers into your marketing funnel with ads that can capture customers’ attention through sight, sound and motion. Find new customers, educate customers on product benefits, help grow market share, enhance new items, etc.

·       Drive product consideration - Help influence Walmart customers’ decisions by showing them uses and benefits at the consideration point of their Walmart shopping journey. Generate traffic to item pages, boost product visibility, engage in-market customers, etc.

·       Grow conversions - Get in front of in-market Walmart customers actively searching for products like yours. An add-to-cart button makes buying simple. Defend market share, encourage purchase, convert customers more quickly, launch seasonal items, etc.

Accessibility, seamless activation and getting started

Sponsored Videos are available to all Walmart suppliers and Walmart Marketplace sellers who are brand owners registered with the Walmart Brand Portal.

Advertisers can quickly and easily upload their own industry standard 16:9 videos and launch their own campaigns through the Walmart Connect Ad Center. Within the Self-serve portal, advertisers can implement optimization levers by managing budgets, keywords and bids to stretch dollars and help ensure their videos are live during prime hours of the shopping day.

Closed-loop Measurement for Sponsored Videos includes all standard Sponsored Search metrics, plus video engagement metrics including view-through-rate (VTR), viewable click-through-rate (vCTR) and view-based attributed sales metrics. Using a direct and halo video attribution model, advertisers can measure the impact on product sales after customers watch their Sponsored Videos.

We’re excited to make Sponsored Videos more accessible to advertisers of all sizes. Get in touch to find out how to get started today!

Sources: ¹Walmart E-Commerce Claims Custom Survey", first-party data, Walmart Customer Spark Community, provided by Walmart Luminate; survey conducted by the Walmart Connect Media Insights Survey team, June 2023.