Omnichannel strategies drive an 80% higher rate of incremental store visits, according to data collected by Think with Google. This is one of the most important statistics that has shaped growth strategies for brands around the world in the past few years.
To help sellers understand the opportunities of an omnichannel growth approach, Pacvue recently hosted an insightful webinar with VENDO. Matt McGrory, the Account Director at Pacvue, spoke with Walmart Advertising Manager at VENDO, Michelle Long, and Head Media Buyer, Gefen Laredo.
In this blog, you’ll discover some of the main similarities and differences in bid adjustments between Amazon and Walmart, understand the best practices to create a holistic strategy, and get an introduction to some of Walmart’s newest advertising capabilities.
Bid Adjustments on Amazon and Walmart
The two eCommerce giants both offer a powerful way for sellers to get the most out of their advertising budget – bid adjustments. Sellers can use platform-specific insights to test out different ad placements and capitalize on that in 2022.
A recent addition to the Walmart seller’s toolkit, bid adjustments or bid “multipliers” are a way for sellers to increase or decrease their bid amounts based on key metric performance predictions. This ability to customize your bidding strategy based on the CTR, CPC and other target KPIs lets you control and improve your ROAS.
There is no maximum bid multiplier amount when it comes to Walmart’s bid adjustments, unlike Amazon, giving the seller more opportunity to have a dynamic strategy. Walmart also provides sellers with a manual campaign option with more control over their ad placements as compared to automatic campaigns.
Stock-up placements on Walmart have witnessed high conversion rates as last-minute reminders for customers ready to make the purchase, especially for grocery brands. With manual campaigns, you have control over both search in-grid as well as item buy box.
Creating A Holistic Strategy
The best practices for growth in 2022 are omnichannel. Recent research showed a whopping 494% increase in order rate for marketers using three or more channels as part of their campaigns. For eCommerce brands, two of the most influential platforms to have a presence on are Amazon and Walmart.
Walmart offers Search Brand Amplifiers while Amazon offers Sponsored Brands Headline, so sellers can choose the logo and headline text, own the most important search terms and establish authority to set their brand apart. The goal with both is to reach new customers, grow market share, and improve sales in the long run.
Having a brand headline or top-of-search placement also helps you conquest competitor keywords, for both mobile and desktop devices. Along with this, both Amazon and Walmart approve the content before the campaign goes live, so being intelligent with the images, videos, and headlines is of utmost importance.
Along with the year-round strategy, seasonality plays a huge role in overall ROAS. With every relevant sale or holiday, sellers get the opportunity to attract sales through updated, catchy campaign angles that position your brand as the top choice.
New Walmart Capabilities Releasing in 2022
Walmart advertising has 3 big changes coming in the next year which sellers should prepare for when crafting a winning strategy:
2nd Price Auction
Walmart is moving from 1st price auction to 2nd price auction. This change in auction style makes Walmart bidding easier, allowing sellers to make necessary adjustments when outbidding competitors. Amazon has used the 2nd price auction model for some time, and this update can make the transition to an omnichannel campaign easier for new Walmart sellers.
Search Brand Amplifier Access to Third-party Sellers
Although till now, only first-party sellers had access to Search Brand Amplifiers through Walmart Connect or an API partner. This new change should encourage more sellers to become bold in their strategy. This is projected to be a game-changer for brands to persuade customers still in the beginning stages of their product research.
Self-serve Display
With no budget minimums, sellers can manage self-serve display either through an in-house team or an agency partner. Smaller brands can use this to raise brand awareness and grow their market share with added automation capabilities.
Defining and testing the targeted KPIs is crucial for every brand, since eCommerce platforms are volatile with their terms and keep changing. One notable piece of advice from the VENDO team was to optimize your PDPs by utilizing the Walmart style guides.
Instead of trying to copy-paste the same approach for every platform, make the most out of your omnichannel success strategy by honing in on the best of what every platform has to offer. Walmart and Amazon both offer a list of features for sellers, and they should be treated as such. They both use very different algorithms and boast tens of thousands of exclusive customers to attract.
To listen to the experts discuss the topics covered in this blog in more detail, you can now access the webinar recording for free. Check it out here.
