If you’re advertising on Amazon, you have likely begun or looked into advertising on Walmart Connect. The two platforms have many similarities, especially since the core offerings are the same—advertising on marketplaces. However, there are some key differences between the two that you should be aware of!
We’re breaking down Walmart Connect Ads vs. Amazon Ads, so you can determine if you should be advertising on both platforms to grow your business!
Walmart Connect Ads vs. Amazon Ads
What’s the Same
Bidding Tools
Both Amazon and Walmart Connect have suggested bids available to advertisers. This bidding tool is great for beginning advertisers as you figure out your ideal bids, CPCs, and keywords. As you refine your strategies, you can set your own custom bids, but knowing these tools are available is a huge plus! Both also offer placement modifiers for bids to help increase visibility in the places advertisers want to show up on the site or in the app.
Ad Placements
Both Walmart Connect and Amazon feature these three ad placements:
- Sponsored Brand (includes video)
- Sponsored Product
- DSP
All of these placements are very typical for any marketplace, so it’s no surprise that both platforms have these placements.
Two notes: First, Amazon also features Sponsored Display ads, while Walmart Connect doesn’t. Second, Walmart Connect features fewer ad-types in general compared to Amazon.
Brand Stores
Both Walmart Connect and Amazon have a feature that allows brands to to guide customers to shop your entire catalog, instead of just one product. On Amazon, these are called Brand Stores; on Walmart Connect Connect, they’re called Brand Shop/Shelf.
Bidding Type
Amazon and Wal-Mart both utilize a second-price auction, where the winning bid will pay 1 cent more than the second-highest bid.
What’s Different
Competition
Most Sellers on Amazon and Walmart Connect will tell you that the increased levels of competition on Amazon are one of the primary differences between the two platforms. Amazon has much higher competition than Walmart Connect. But, while Amazon features more sellers, it also features more customers—so while the competition is high, the potential for success is also high. However, Walmart Connect’s advertising sales grew 30% in Q2 of 2024, proving that the platform is continuing to expand!
Auto Campaigns
For auto campaigns, Amazon approaches this type from a keyword perspective, while Walmart Connect does them at a product ad level instead.
For a Walmart Connect Auto campaign:
- You have 1 bid per product included in the campaign
- That bid will be applied to any/all relevant keywords that Walmart Connect chooses to target for that product
For an Amazon auto campaign:
- You have 4 bids based on targeting (close match, loose match etc.)
- Those bids will apply to all products in the campaign
Essentially, it’s flipped — Walmart Connect is 1 bid per product that applies to all keywords, while Amazon is multiple bids for different keywords, all applied to one or more products.
Support
While both companies offer support for sellers, Walmart Connect has an advantage due to its smaller size. Many sellers find getting one-on-one support with somebody at Walmart Connect is easier than Amazon!
Advertising on Walmart Connect in Kapoq
Kapoq is proud to be a Walmart Connect software partner and have developed our platform to help you manage your Walmart business including advertising with Walmart Connect.
Kapoq currently supports the following for Walmart and continues to add more capabilities every month:
- Placement modifiers for ad settings in buy box, search in grid, desktop, mobile, etc.
- Ability to update total and daily budgets
- Full bid automation, including for auto campaigns
- Manual and automated dayparting
- Historical data including additional breakouts by product ads, placements, and devices
Ready to see the forest for the trees? Sign up for your free Kapoq demo today!
