Today Walmart announced the availability of Search Brand Amplifiers (SBAs) a premium placement module for advertising items on Walmart.com, to be activated via Walmart Platform Partners. Search Brand Amplifiers are similar to the sponsored brand section on Amazon and allow brands to capture premium real estate and compete for chosen keywords to convert new customers.
What do you need to know about Search Brand Amplifiers?
- Premium Placement – SBAs appear at the top of the search results page for selected search terms and heavily showcase the promoted items’ brand.
- Search Term Driven- Brands can choose their own keywords (or work with a partner who will do so) that resonate with their customer base. In the future, advertisers will be able to target categories, as well.
- Pay Per Click – despite its similarities to a display, SBAs are pay per click, making it a cost-effective option for brands.
Why does it matter for brands?
- Great for New Launches – Relevancy, as we have come to know it with sponsored products, is not a requirement for brands wishing to advertise with Search Brand Amplifiers, making it a great opportunity to promote a new or seasonal product or existing item that might not yet be ranking for the relevant keywords.
- Advertising Opportunities for Small to Medium Suppliers – Small and medium sized brands have the opportunity to compete for Search Brand Amplifier placements as they no longer have steep minimum spend requirements (aside from the existing campaign spend minimums required of sponsored products). It is also an open auction, giving brands the opportunity to compete for 100% share of their targeted keywords (though currently only open to 1P suppliers at this time).
- Learning Opportunity for Brands – SBAs operate much like a manual sponsored products campaign, meaning brands have total control over the keywords they advertise against (however, with less restrictions from the relevancy algorithm). Brands can analyze individual keyword performance enabling them to learn which keywords drive the most click-through and conversions.
What’s Next?
Similar to sponsored products campaigns, SBAs will require ongoing management and optimization for best results. SBAs have an added layer of complexity due to the requirement of creative assets, as well as the management of the manual review process conducted by the WMC team. Not all of the keywords and items you submit are guaranteed to be approved – these results will need to be monitored.
*SBAs are now going to be part of an open auction and not directly managed by Walmart Connect – this means it will be important that brands have a team in place that can monitor individual keyword performance and adjust bids accordingly.
Harvest Group is an official Walmart Platform Partner and has been beta testing the activation with the Walmart Connect Team. We are able to help brands activate Search Brand Amplifiers immediately. If you’re interested in learning more about Harvest Group’s Digital Advertising services at Walmart, email hello@harvestgroup.com or fill out our Contact Us form here.
