Walmart Connect, the advertising arm of the company, announced on Monday it's prepared to make strides in capturing a larger share of the U.S. advertising market.
According to a news release written by Walmart Connect SVP and General Manager Rich Lehrfeld, the retail giant will provide “more options for more advertiser types,” add new offsite frontiers, offer improved targeting and measurement tools, and enhance brands’ creative choices.
“Our long-term focus has been on creating new ways for brands to connect with customers, increasing access for brands of all sizes, and continually increasing the performance and value of our solutions,” Lehrfeld wrote.
Expanding Advertising Solutions
By diversifying its revenue sources and investing in innovative advertising formats, Walmart is poised to compete with industry giants like Amazon.
The planned acquisition of Vizio signals Walmart's foray into the streaming media space, aiming to offer targeted advertising and shoppable ads on Vizio TVs, which already enhance its retail media offering.
Walmart Connect is also opening access to smaller marketers, international suppliers, and "non-endemic" advertisers to foster inclusivity and increased competition within its ecosystem.
“We’ve started offering offsite media to supporting brands that don’t sell with Walmart but offer complementary products and services that are relevant to our customers,” Lehrfeld revealed.
Additionally, Walmart Connect is set to introduce a feature that enables advertisers to run search ads targeting specific brand terms, including those of competitors, a strategy commonly referred to as "conquesting."
Enhancing In-Store and Offsite Offerings
Walmart Connect is expanding in-store experiences through demo stations, sampling, and testing to enhance brand visibility and customer engagement.
The introduction of self-serve capabilities in the Walmart Ad Center, kicking off with TV Wall ads, will enable advertisers to more efficiently manage their in-store campaigns.
Emerging brands will also be able to gain access to onsite display placements through the Walmart Ad Center starting this month.
Walmart Connect's media partnerships with platforms like Roku and TikTok are also now being extended to advertisers, offering new avenues for brand promotion and engagement.
The company is also planning to provide access to more tools that will give advertisers better creative options in their campaigns.
“Later this year, partners will be able to plug into our machine-learning-powered, self-serve tool for building and optimizing ad creative, Creative Builder, through a Creative API,” Lehrfeld announced.
On top of these upgrades, Walmart’s targeting and measurement solutions will provide advertisers with more precise insights and performance metrics through Sponsored Search ads.
This data-driven approach will allow advertisers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their campaign impact across the entire customer journey to ensure a higher return on ad spend.