Overview

How can advertising agencies master Walmart Connect – Walmart’s fast-growing retail media platform – to drive better results for their eCommerce clients? This question was at the heart of a recent Marketplace Masters episode featuring host Paul Sonneveld (Co-Founder & CEO of MerchantSpring) and guest Harry Clayman (Senior Partner, Measurement Partnerships at Walmart Connect).

In their discussion, Clayman shares insider insights on what sets Walmart Connect apart and how agencies can transition their skills to this ecosystem. From Walmart’s unparalleled scale and first-party data advantages to its full-funnel ad solutions and new optimisation tools, the conversation revealed a roadmap for agencies looking to excel on Walmart’s retail media network. Below, we synthesise the key takeaways – including omnichannel advertising opportunities, measurement and metrics, and practical best practices – into an actionable guide for agencies aiming to broaden their expertise and accelerate client growth through Walmart Connect.

Walmart Connect’s Unique Value for Agencies

Walmart Connect offers a combination of assets that is difficult to match: massive scale, rich first-party data, a full suite of omnichannel ad placements, and closed-loop measurement. According to Clayman, Walmart is the number one omnichannel retailer in the U.S., with 4,600+ stores and approximately 150 million customers shopping in-store or online each week(walmartconnect.com). This scale – coupled with Walmart’s deep first-party data on shopper behavior – means advertisers can reach a huge audience of high-intent consumers and directly measure how ads translate into sales both online and in-store. In an era focused on performance and accountability, that closed-loop visibility is a game changer.

For agencies, the opportunity is clear. Walmart Connect enables firms to diversify their clients’ media mix beyond Amazon and Google, tapping into a retail media channel that drives tangible sales outcomes. “There’s a huge opportunity right now,” notes Clayman, as more brands demand measurable ROI and want to close the loop between ad spend and conversion. By investing in Walmart’s ecosystem, agencies can unlock new revenue streams and upsell clients in a strategic way – positioning themselves as forward-thinking partners who deliver results. Whether through sponsored search, onsite display, off-site programmatic, or even in-store ads, Walmart Connect offers an array of touchpoints to engage shoppers. Crucially, all of these tie back to Walmart’s sales data, allowing agencies to attribute ad spend to actual purchases in a way that few platforms can match.

“Walmart Connect brings together scale, rich first-party data, and omnichannel solutions with closed-loop measurement. Advertisers can reach millions of high-intent shoppers and directly connect campaigns to real sales outcomes – that’s incredibly powerful.” – Harry Clayman, Senior Partner, Walmart Connect

Full-Funnel Omnichannel Advertising Solutions

One reason agencies can’t afford to ignore Walmart Connect is the breadth of advertising solutions available to reach customers at every stage of the funnel. Clayman highlights that Walmart Connect has built a full-funnel ecosystem spanning search, display, off-site, and in-store channels – enabling brands to drive awareness, consideration, and conversion within Walmart’s universe.

Sponsored Search: On Walmart’s site and app, brands can leverage Sponsored Search ads to capture high-intent shoppers. Within search, there are multiple formats: Sponsored Products (promoted item listings that drive conversion), Sponsored Brands (banner ads that showcase a brand logo and products to build awareness), and Sponsored Videos (video ads that engage customers with richer content). Sponsored Products are the foundation for driving sales, boosting product visibility in search results.

Meanwhile, Sponsored Brands and Videos play a more upper-funnel role by increasing brand visibility and consideration. Notably, Walmart’s data shows these formats can introduce brands to new customers – in fiscal 2025, 46% of all orders from Sponsored Brands ads were from new-to-brand customers, underscoring how these placements expand reach. Agencies should use a mix of these search ad types to both capture active shoppers and build brand equity with Walmart’s audience.

Onsite Display: Beyond search ads, Walmart Connect’s onsite display ads allow brands to visually engage shoppers browsing Walmart’s website or app. These banner and native display ads appear in prominent placements (homepages, product detail pages, etc.), catching the eye of customers who may not be actively searching for the product yet. Onsite display is an excellent complement to sponsored search – it can stimulate demand by reaching those who haven’t searched, and re-engage shoppers who showed interest.

In fact, Walmart’s data indicates a powerful synergy when search and display are combined: shoppers exposed to both Sponsored Search and Walmart Onsite Display ads are, on average, up to 3× more likely to buy a brand’s products and spend up to 40% more on that brand. The takeaway for agencies is to adopt a full-funnel approach on Walmart Connect – pairing search and display advertising to maximize impact. Brands that layer in display advertising alongside their search campaigns can significantly boost their conversion outcomes and basket sizes.

Off-Site Media (Programmatic & CTV): Walmart Connect isn’t confined to Walmart-owned properties. Through the Walmart DSP (Demand-Side Platform), advertisers can run programmatic display and video campaigns across a vast network of external websites, mobile apps, and CTV (Connected TV) streaming platforms. Built in partnership with The Trade Desk, Walmart’s DSP lets brands use Walmart’s first-party shopper data to target ads out in the open web and on streaming services – reaching Walmart shoppers when they’re, for example, watching their favorite show or browsing news sites.

This off-site advertising drives brand and product awareness by inserting Walmart-connected ads into customers’ everyday media consumption. Agencies can thus extend their client’s reach beyond Walmart’s walls while still targeting Walmart’s audience. And importantly, because these off-site ads are tied back to Walmart’s data, their performance can be measured in terms of in-store or online sales lift, providing a true closed-loop for awareness campaigns. For instance, running a CTV video ad via Walmart DSP can later be linked to a viewer purchasing that product on a Walmart store trip – insight that traditional TV advertising could never provide.

In-Store Activations: Uniquely, Walmart Connect also bridges into physical retail through in-store advertising. Brands can run campaigns on digital TV Wall screens in Walmart stores, sponsor content on the self-checkout kiosks, run in-store audio ads, or even execute product sampling and demos via Walmart’s channels. These tactics allow agencies to influence shoppers at the point of purchase in brick-and-mortar stores – a capability that most other ad platforms don’t have. With Walmart’s reach of millions of in-store shoppers weekly, such in-store media placements can reinforce messages seen online or introduce new products in an attention-grabbing way (e.g. a video ad on a Walmart TV wall in electronics or grocery). And thanks to Walmart Connect’s integration, advertisers can measure the effect of these in-store ads on sales, completing the omnichannel loop.

By deploying this suite of solutions together, agencies can create an omnipresent brand experience: guiding the customer from initial awareness (CTV and display ads), to consideration (search and video ads on Walmart.com), all the way to conversion (sponsored products at the point of purchase, whether online or in-store). The key is to tailor the campaign mix to the client’s goals and to use consistent targeting and creative across channels for reinforcement. Walmart Connect’s omnichannel approach allows for a truly holistic retail media strategy, reaching Walmart customers wherever and whenever they shop.

Measurement Partnerships and Closed-Loop Analytics

Another major advantage of Walmart Connect – and one particularly valuable to agencies – is its robust measurement capabilities and partner ecosystem. Because Walmart can tie advertising exposure to actual transactions (both online orders and in-store sales via loyalty/account data), advertisers get closed-loop reporting on how ads translate into revenue. To make the most of this, Walmart Connect offers a range of in-house metrics and has also integrated with third-party measurement partners for additional insights.

Clayman explains that Walmart’s Partner Network now includes a category of Measurement Partners. These partners are independent tech or service providers that plug into Walmart Connect’s reporting APIs to deliver enhanced analytics, visualisations, or attribution studies. Working with a Walmart-approved measurement partner gives advertisers trusted third-party validation of performance and often richer analysis than the basic dashboard. The measurement partners span several specialties:

• Visualisation & Analytics Platforms: Tools like MerchantSpring (the host’s company) fall into this category. They pull Walmart Connect campaign data (via API) and often combine it with other data sources (e.g. Walmart Marketplace sales data) to provide unified dashboards and custom metrics. For instance, MerchantSpring aggregates advertising data alongside marketplace sales data, giving agencies a holistic view of their Walmart business in one place. These platforms help agencies and brands slice and dice the data, track new-to-brand sales, compare ad performance to total sales, and more – yielding deeper insights than Walmart’s native interface alone.
  
  
• Data Connectors: These partners focus on streamlining data flow, piping Walmart Connect performance data into clients’ own data lakes, warehouses, or preferred BI tools. By automating data exports, they make it easier for large brands or agencies to integrate Walmart metrics into cross-channel dashboards or attribution models.
  
  
• Brand Lift & Attribution: Some partners help measure upper-funnel impact through surveys or market mix modelling. For example, brand lift partners can run post-exposure surveys to quantify how Walmart Connect ads moved the needle on brand awareness or consideration. Rest-of-market attribution partners can even track incremental sales outside of Walmart, giving a more complete picture of how Walmart ads drive customers to purchase in other channels or stores. Similarly, reach and frequency partners specialise in CTV advertising metrics – ensuring that if a brand runs Walmart ads on streaming TV, they can measure unique reach, frequency capping, and audience overlap across campaigns.
  
  
• Mobile and Cross-Channel Measurement: These partners delve into how Walmart Connect ads influence actions beyond Walmart’s ecosystem – such as app installs, website traffic, or conversions on a brand’s own site. They help advertisers attribute Walmart media’s role in the broader customer journey.
  
  

This rich measurement partner network means agencies can bring in their measurement vendor of choice to work with Walmart Connect, ensuring continuity with how they report on other channels. It “allows us to meet our customers where they are,” says Clayman – advertisers can use the solution that fits their needs while still tapping Walmart’s data. The takeaway for agencies is to leverage these partnerships to demonstrate clear ROI and deeper insights for their clients. For example, an agency might use a third-party lift study to prove that a client’s Walmart Connect campaign not only drove Walmart sales, but also lifted the client’s sales on their D2C site – a compelling result justifying greater investment.

Of course, Walmart Connect’s first-party measurement tools are evolving as well. Advertisers have access to robust in-platform reporting, and Walmart continues to roll out new metrics. One recent addition is in-store sales attribution for search ads, which provides visibility into how sponsored search campaigns online are influencing in-store purchases. Thanks to this, a brand can see if someone who clicked their ad later bought the product at a physical Walmart – bridging the online-to-offline gap. These omni-sales metrics help optimise campaigns by accounting for total sales impact, not just e-commerce.

Overall, Walmart Connect’s emphasis on measurement – both through closed-loop data and partner integrations – gives agencies the tools to prove the value of advertising on Walmart. The ability to concretely connect ad spend to incremental revenue (something historically challenging in media) is a strong selling point to brands and a differentiator for Walmart’s platform. Agencies should make measurement a centerpiece of their Walmart Connect strategy, setting up the right dashboards or partner tools from day one to track performance and optimise campaigns based on real sales outcomes.

New Features and Tools: Target ROAS, Incrementality & More

Walmart Connect is rapidly evolving, and 2023-2024 brought several notable new features that agencies should be aware of. Clayman highlighted a few recent product updates that can help advertisers optimise campaigns and gain advanced insights:

• Target ROAS Bidding: Launched in April 2024, Target ROAS is an AI-powered bidding strategy for Sponsored Products campaigns. Instead of manually adjusting bids, advertisers can set a desired Return on Ad Spend target (e.g. 5:1 ROAS), and Walmart’s system will automatically optimise bids in real-time to try to achieve that goal. This builds on last year’s dynamic bidding algorithm and takes it a step further – using machine learning to bid more or less aggressively depending on the likelihood of conversion and the ROAS target. 
  
  For agencies managing many campaigns, Target ROAS removes a lot of guesswork and manual tinkering, potentially improving efficiency. The feature is available in the Walmart Ad Center interface and via API, meaning third-party tools like Pacvue and Optiwise (which were among the first partners to integrate this) can also offer Target ROAS to their users. Agencies should experiment with this bidding strategy for clients that have specific ROAS goals, as it may help maximise profitability while saving time on bid management.
  
  
• Search Incrementality Measurement: Also introduced in April 2024, Walmart’s new Search Incrementality reporting provides insight into the incremental sales driven by sponsored search ads. In other words, it helps answer the question: “Of the sales we got during our search campaign, how many were truly incremental (would not have happened without the ads)?” This is determined through Walmart’s data science models comparing audiences who saw the ads vs. those who didn’t. For advertisers and agencies, this is a critical metric to judge the real impact of search campaigns and to optimise budget allocation. 
  
  For instance, if certain keywords or branded terms are delivering mostly non-incremental sales (cannibalising organic sales), you might reallocate spend to more incremental opportunities. Search Incrementality is not available via API yet (agencies must request it through their Walmart Connect representative), but it’s a powerful analytic tool. It allows agencies to confidently report the true lift from Walmart search advertising – extremely useful during seasonal campaigns or when justifying increased Walmart budgets to skeptical clients.
  
  
• Onsite Display API Access: In February 2024, Walmart Connect expanded its API capabilities to include Onsite Display advertising. Previously, advertisers could only run on-site display campaigns through Walmart’s internal tools or managed service; now, certified API partners in the Walmart Connect Partner Network can support on-site display creation and management. For agencies, this means they can use their preferred campaign management platforms (or agency tech stack) to launch and optimise Walmart display ads, similar to how they manage sponsored search. 
  
  The Display Advertising API opens the door for more hands-on keyboard control and partner expertise in running Walmart display. By leveraging partners who specialise in DSP or display optimisation, agencies can maximise returns on Walmart on-site display and more seamlessly integrate it with their search efforts. Clayman emphasises that using partners’ tools for display can help advertisers complement search campaigns and engage new audiences on Walmart’s site and app, all while maximising the return on display investment through expert optimisation. In short, managing Walmart display just got easier and more flexible – something agencies should capitalise on to run truly full-funnel Walmart programs.
  
  
• In-Store Sales Attribution Metrics: Rounding out the new offerings is Store Attribution, a set of metrics that launched in 2024 to track in-store purchases resulting from online ads. Specifically focused on sponsored search for now, these metrics show when a Walmart shopper who clicked on a sponsored ad later buys the advertised product in a physical Walmart store. It’s an important development because it captures the total impact of digital ads. Many Walmart customers prefer to buy in-store; without store attribution, the performance of an ad could be underreported if it drove offline sales. Now, agencies can get credit for those conversions too. 
  
  By analysing these omnichannel results, advertisers can better understand shopper behaviour – for example, an ad might not have led to an immediate online sale, but perhaps the customer was influenced to pick up the item on their next Walmart run. Actionable insight: campaigns that show strong in-store attribution might call for continued or increased investment even if their online ROAS looks just average, because they are driving store traffic. As Walmart Connect further integrates online and offline data, expect more innovation in this area (e.g. store attribution expanding to display ads or off-site media in the future).
  
  

Staying on top of these new features is essential for agencies to maintain an edge. Incorporating Target ROAS bidding can improve efficiency and hit client goals. Using incrementality data can refine strategy and demonstrate value. Tapping into the display API capability can enhance creative execution and consistency. And embracing omni-channel attribution ensures you’re optimizing with the full picture of ad impact. Walmart Connect is investing heavily in its platform, so agencies should regularly check for new tools and beta programs – they often provide an early mover advantage in delivering better results for clients.

Focusing on the Right Metrics and KPIs

When running Walmart Connect campaigns, one common pitfall is getting tunnel vision on a single metric like ROAS. Clayman advises agencies and brands to take a more nuanced view by aligning KPIs to the specific goals of each campaign and funnel stage. Walmart Connect provides a wealth of metrics, and the “right” ones to focus on will depend on what you’re trying to achieve:

• Upper-Funnel (Awareness) – If the objective is to build brand awareness or reach new audiences on Walmart, then impressions, reach, and new-to-brand metrics are key. Impressions and reach tell you how many eyes you’re getting in front of – crucial for awareness campaigns using display ads or sponsored brands videos. New-to-brand customers (% or count) is an especially valuable Walmart metric that shows how many first-time buyers your ads are acquiring. A high new-to-brand rate indicates your ads are effectively expanding the brand’s audience. These metrics matter more than immediate ROAS for awareness-focused efforts; a low ROAS might be acceptable if you’re successfully growing top-of-funnel interest.
  
  
• Mid-Funnel (Consideration) – For campaigns meant to influence shopper consideration and decision-making (e.g. sponsored brands ads highlighting brand messaging, or off-site ads meant to drive traffic to Walmart.com), look at engagement metrics. Click-through rate (CTR) is a strong indicator of how compelling your ad is to the audience – higher CTR means your targeting and creative are resonating. Additionally, if you have access to Brand Lift studies (via a partner), those can directly measure lift in brand favorability or purchase intent among those exposed to your ads versus a control group. A positive brand lift or a high CTR suggests your campaign is doing its job in swaying customers. These mid-funnel metrics often signal whether consumers are moving from awareness to genuine interest.
  
  
• Lower-Funnel (Conversion & Sales) – When the goal is driving sales and efficiency, focus on metrics like ROAS, new buyers, sales lift, and incrementality. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) remains a staple for evaluating efficiency – it tells you how many dollars in sales are generated per dollar spent. However, it’s important to interpret ROAS in context (for example, a campaign with a slightly lower ROAS but high new-to-brand might be valuable long-term). New buyer count or new brand buyers (first-time purchasers of the brand) is another critical metric for growth-minded brands – it shows if the campaign is not only selling, but also recruiting additional customers. 
  
  Walmart’s Sales Lift metric (usually obtained via a test-control analysis or a partner study) reveals the percentage increase in sales attributed to the campaign, which is great for understanding overall impact. And as discussed, incrementality is the holy grail to ensure those sales weren’t just cannibalising other sales. A campaign that delivers strong ROAS and incremental sales lift is a home run. On the flip side, if incrementality is low, you might shift strategy (e.g. target new keywords or audiences).
  
  

In summary, agencies should match the metrics to the mission. If you’re running a branding campaign, don’t kill it just because the ROAS is low – look at reach and new customer acquisition. If you’re running a conversion campaign, don’t focus only on spend and sales – dig into how many of those sales were new buyers or truly incremental. Walmart Connect’s platform allows for tracking performance at each stage of the funnel, so taking a balanced scorecard approach will give clients a fuller picture of success. It also helps justify full-funnel investments: you can show awareness efforts leading to more efficient retargeting down the line, or demonstrate how upper-funnel tactics fill the pipeline for lower-funnel conversion. By educating clients on these metrics, agencies can set appropriate expectations and optimize campaigns in a more strategic, goal-oriented way.

Best Practices for Succeeding on Walmart Connect

Many agencies coming from Amazon or other platforms assume they can replicate the same playbook on Walmart and succeed. In reality, Walmart is its own ecosystem, and Clayman warns that “you can’t just copy and paste from other platforms.” Here are some best practices and tips for agencies to drive impact quickly and avoid common mistakes when transitioning clients to Walmart Connect:

• Ensure Products are Retail-Ready: Success in Walmart’s marketplace starts before you spend a dime on advertising. “Being retail-ready” means your product listings and supply chain meet a high standard. This includes rich, optimised product content (titles, descriptions, images that follow Walmart’s guidelines), competitive pricing, ample inventory levels, and fast fulfillment options (Walmart Fulfillment Services or other efficient shipping) so that customers get their orders quickly. 
  
  Just as importantly, it means a positive customer experience, evidenced by strong ratings and reviews. If a product has poor reviews or often goes out of stock, ad spending will be wasted driving traffic to it. Agencies should audit their clients’ Walmart listings and fix any content, pricing, or fulfillment issues first. Build a solid foundation so that when you do start running ads, you’re sending customers to a page that will convert. A retail-ready product coupled with advertising is far more likely to win the algorithm (and the sale) than an unoptimized one. In short, don’t skip the fundamentals – great advertising can’t save a bad product detail page or slow shipping.
  
  
• Leverage Sponsored Search as a Foundation: On Walmart (much like Amazon), sponsored search ads are often the engine of eCommerce sales. Invest in Sponsored Products early to gain traction for new or priority items. Clayman notes that Walmart Marketplace sellers who advertise via Walmart Connect see an average 5:1 return on ad spend – indicating that search ads, when done right, deliver strong ROI. To maximise results, agencies should structure Walmart campaigns thoughtfully: use relevant keywords, separate branded vs. non-branded terms, and take advantage of Walmart’s search algorithms (which consider relevancy and listing quality in addition to bid). 
  
  As performance data comes in, optimise by adjusting bids or budgets towards the best converting keywords and items. Once a baseline of sponsored search is in place, layer on Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Videos to capture more real estate and drive upper-funnel impact. These formats will not only help boost sales but also grow brand recognition on Walmart – which can improve organic ranking over time. The bottom line is that a healthy sponsored search program is crucial for sustaining and growing Walmart sales; it’s often the first step agencies should take with a client who is new to Walmart Connect.
  
  
• Adopt a Full-Funnel Mindset: While search ads are critical, don’t stop there. Walmart Connect’s greatest strength is the omnichannel, full-funnel approach, so take advantage of it. Use on-site display ads to reach shoppers who are browsing categories related to your client’s products (even if they haven’t searched the brand specifically). This can capture latent demand and introduce the brand to new customers. Utilise off-site programmatic ads to re-target Walmart shoppers who viewed your client’s product but didn’t purchase, or to build awareness among relevant audiences outside Walmart. 
  
  Consider in-store advertising if the brand has a strong brick-and-mortar presence or wants to influence last-mile decisions. By orchestrating campaigns across the funnel, agencies can create a multiplier effect – for example, a customer might see a CTV ad at home, later search for the product on Walmart.com due to increased interest, click a sponsored product ad, and finally encounter a reminder via a banner ad in-store, all leading to the purchase. This integrated approach drives better results than isolated tactics. Walmart’s own studies show that advertisers using both search and display see significantly higher customer value than using either alone. So, pitch a holistic strategy to clients: advertise across the funnel to maximise visibility and conversion, rather than treating Walmart Connect as solely a bottom-of-funnel channel.
  
  
• Take Advantage of Walmart’s Unique Data: Walmart Connect provides unique audience targeting and insights powered by Walmart’s shopper data (both online and offline behaviour). Agencies should explore using category and brand affinity targeting, where you can reach shoppers based on their purchase history (e.g. targeting buyers of organic foods if you sell a natural beverage). Also, leverage new-to-brand targeting options to refine campaigns toward acquiring fresh customers versus existing ones. Keep an eye on Walmart’s automated campaigns and suggested optimisations driven by their algorithms – these can reveal useful patterns. For example, Walmart might identify “recommended keywords” or “items frequently bought together” that you hadn’t considered. 
  
  And with the new incrementality and in-store metrics, agencies should incorporate those findings: if data shows certain ads are driving store trips or truly incremental sales, amplify those efforts. Essentially, use the closed-loop reporting to continuously refine targeting and budget allocation. Walmart’s first-party data (like what other items your audience buys, seasonal trends, etc.) can inform creative and bidding strategy in ways that third-party data from open ad networks cannot. Agencies that dig into these insights will outperform those that treat Walmart like a generic ad platform.
  
  
• Partner for Efficiency and Expertise: Managing Walmart Connect can be complex, especially as the platform grows. Clayman suggests that working with a partner like MerchantSpring can help agencies accelerate success. Partners come in many forms – from tool providers that automate and simplify campaign management, to consultants who bring deep Walmart-specific knowledge. If an agency is smaller or just ramping up on Walmart, partnering with a Walmart Connect Campaign Management partner or using a unified analytics platform can save a lot of time and avoid costly mistakes. 
  
  For example, a tool that consolidates Walmart advertising and marketplace data (again, as MerchantSpring’s platform does) allows you to monitor performance and troubleshoot issues in one dashboard, rather than juggling spreadsheets or multiple systems. Likewise, consulting with experts (either at Walmart Connect or external) can help you navigate nuances like Walmart’s auction dynamics, content guidelines, or the onboarding process. Ultimately, leveraging partners can make an agency more efficient and deliver better outcomes for clients, especially in the early stages of mastering Walmart Connect. As Clayman put it, sellers of all sizes can benefit from partners – whether you “don't know where to start” or you’re looking to automate advanced insights, the right partnership can accelerate growth and results.
  
  

By following these best practices – getting retail-ready, starting with search, expanding full-funnel, using Walmart’s data, and seeking partner support – agencies can avoid the trial-and-error and move faster toward winning on Walmart Connect. The Walmart ecosystem is a bit different from Amazon or other retail media, but with the right approach, it can become a highly lucrative channel for clients. And given Walmart Connect’s rapid development, those agencies who establish expertise now will be in a strong position to attract clients seeking help on Walmart in the coming years.

Walmart’s New-Seller Savings Program (2025 Promotion)

To sweeten the deal for brands (and the agencies who represent them) considering Walmart’s marketplace, Walmart has rolled out a New-Seller Savings program in 2025. If your clients are not yet selling on Walmart.com, this promotion offers significant incentives to join – effectively a “welcome package” that reduces the initial cost and encourages use of Walmart’s services, including advertising. The program, running through January 31, 2026, includes:

• 75% off base referral fees for new marketplace sellers. (Referral fees are the commission Walmart takes on each sale, which vary by category – this discount can substantially improve margins in the launch phase.)
  
  
• $2,000 in Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) credits, to encourage trying Walmart’s FBA-like fulfillment network. Using WFS can help sellers become Prime-like with 2-day shipping tags, so this credit lowers the barrier to entry for premium fulfillment.
  
  
• $1,000 in Walmart Connect advertising credits, providing new sellers some free budget to kickstart their advertising on Walmart Connect.
  
  

These incentives are subject to eligibility and are available upon successfully registering as a new seller on Walmart’s Marketplace during the promotional period. For agencies, this is a great “carrot” to present to prospective clients who haven’t ventured onto Walmart yet. The dramatically reduced fees and free ad credits de-risk the trial period on Walmart. An agency can say to a brand: “Not only is Walmart’s audience huge, but right now you’ll get thousands of dollars of value to test the waters.” It’s an opportunity to get ad campaigns running with minimal upfront cost, allowing the results to prove the case for further investment.

If you’re an agency professional looking to expand a client’s presence beyond Amazon, leveraging this promotion could be an excellent entry point – effectively giving the client a head-start on Walmart in terms of economics. Be sure to check out the official details on Walmart’s site (at marketplace.walmart.com/nss) and coordinate with your Walmart Connect rep or partner manager to ensure any new accounts take advantage of the program. The window runs until end of January 2026, so there’s still time (depending on when you’re reading this) to on-board brands and capitalize on these savings.

Conclusion: Embracing Walmart Connect for Agency Growth

As Walmart Connect continues to surge in growth and innovation, it represents a unique and potent opportunity for agencies working with eCommerce brands. Harry Clayman’s insights illuminate how Walmart’s retail media platform combines the massive reach of the nation’s top omnichannel retailer with sophisticated advertising tools and data that drive real performance. For agencies, the message is clear: Walmart Connect is no longer optional – it’s rapidly becoming a must-have channel for brands seeking measurable ROI and new growth avenues. By leaning into Walmart Connect’s full-funnel solutions, agencies can diversify client ad spend and deliver results that truly “close the loop” between online media and in-store sales.

Equally important are the strategies and best practices that make Walmart advertising effective. From Clayman’s advice, agencies should remember to lay the groundwork with retail readiness, adapt their tactics to Walmart’s platform (rather than copy-pasting from elsewhere), and embrace a holistic approach that spans search, display, off-site, and in-store. With Walmart rolling out new features like AI bidding and incremental measurement, those who stay updated and leverage these tools early will gain an edge. The ability to attribute campaigns to every sale – whether on Walmart.com or in a brick-and-mortar aisle – means agencies can optimise and justify budgets in ways that delight clients. And with support from Walmart’s partner ecosystem and programs like the New-Seller Savings, getting started has never been easier.

For those inspired by Harry Clayman’s perspective, don’t let the conversation end here – feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn to follow his updates and insights. If your agency or brand is ready to elevate its Walmart Connect game, MerchantSpring’s platform can be your secret weapon – it combines Walmart Connect advertising and marketplace data into one dashboard, making analysis and reporting a breeze. You can 【schedule a personalised demo】 to see how MerchantSpring helps agencies excel on Walmart, Amazon, and other marketplaces. And before you go, be sure to check out our 【Watch On-Demand】 library for more expert interviews and actionable strategies from e-commerce leaders. Embrace Walmart Connect now, and empower your clients to ride the wave of Walmart’s retail media revolution.