Walmart Launches Self-Serve Ad Platform

On Friday, Walmart Media Group (WMG), the retail giant’s advertising arm, released a self-serve portal so advertisers can directly buy on-site search and sponsored product ads on walmart.com. These tools were in beta since late last year.  With 90 percent of America shopping at Walmart every year and nearly 160 million visitors to their stores and website every week, Walmart Media Group enables brands to reach more customers at scale and measure advertising effectiveness across the entire shopping journey.

They have also launched an API to make that inventory available through their initial ads API partners Teikametrics, Flywheel Digital, Kenshoo and Pacvue.

Previously, advertisers and sellers were only able to purchase search ads and sponsored product placements on Walmart as part of a managed service buy. The new product lets advertisers bid for keywords to position their ads at the top of a Walmart search results page but retail and audience-level data are not yet available for ad targeting.