Advertisers can now earn credentials for their retail media expertise, following first-to-market testing by GroupM

By Kara Rousseau, Head of Marketing & Lightbox Creative, Walmart Connect

Walmart Connect is not the same business it was three years ago. We quickly transformed into an omnichannel offering and quickly scaled our self-serve solutions to serve brands of all sizes. Even our Sponsored Search solutions have changed dramatically over the last year.

That’s why we’re making it easier for our advertisers to understand and adopt our rapidly evolving solutions with the Walmart Connect Academy Ad Certification program. Through certification, advertisers at all levels can not only optimize their best practices to help unlock increased growth with Walmart Connect, but tout their retail media proficiency with post-certification badges.

This in-depth and comprehensive training and education democratizes access to Walmart Connect’s best practices, across service types. Because the program is designed for hands-on-keys users, media planners, and data analysts alike – such as our agency partners or self-serve advertisers – we partnered with GroupM for an exclusive beta test to understand the value of certification for a range of user types. More than 500 commerce-focused GroupM employees received early access for certification.

"Walmart Connect continues to launch new omnichannel ad capabilities that garner client interest across GroupM, making ongoing education essential," said Lauren Lavin, Executive Director, Commerce, GroupM Nexus North America. "Our first-to-market access to Walmart Connect's certification program is enabling our commerce experts to better recommend, troubleshoot, activate, and optimize our clients' campaign investments to help exceed their business goals."

Who can get certified

Anyone can get certified – from current advertisers and partners to prospective advertisers, or even students.

Self-serve advertisers: Gain detailed insights into Walmart Connect’s advertising solutions to help maximize ad performance – such as improved visibility, engagement, conversion and ROI.

Managed advertisers: Elevate your proficiency in our solutions to

improve buying decisions, create a more performant partnership with the Walmart Connect team and increase your reporting capabilities – and, ultimately, help increase your brand’s growth with Walmart.

Partners & agencies: Increase your team’s understanding and adoption of Walmart Connect’s solutions and provide a source of skills development for your team. Use the certification to tout your expertise in pitches and with existing clients to foster trust and credibility in your team’s ability to help drive performance.

Current courses

Connect Ad Certification is launching in phases. To start, courses include:

1.    Walmart Connect Retail Media (2 courses): Foundational understanding of retail media and Walmart Connect’s unique offerings

2.    Sponsored Products (11 courses): Setting campaign goals, ad placements, bids and budgets, reporting, and how to optimize campaign performance

3.    Sponsored Brands (3-4 courses): Product eligibility, effective targeting techniques, setting competitive bids and budgets, adding images, creating ad groups and reporting

4.    Sponsored Videos (2-3 courses): Product eligibility, creating and uploading video assets, creating campaigns, optimizing performance and leveraging all the available reporting options

Display Self-Serve courses will be introduced in 2024, and course types will continue to expand.

How to access

General access begins Monday, Oct. 16. Learn more.

How to earn a badge

Participants complete coursework and a knowledge check, or simply go directly to a final time-bound assessment. With a passing score of 80% and completion of a feedback survey, participants are granted a LinkedIn-enabled digital credential that is valid for one year.

Certification is one of many offerings we’ve introduced to support businesses of all sizes to grow with Walmart. Learn more about what we offer by reaching out to us.