Walmart Advertising and Amazon Ads are two of the most popular ecommerce platforms for sellers who want to reach a large and engaged audience, particularly within the United States. Both platforms offer various placement types for advertisements, such as Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display Ads, and Video Ads. However, there are also some key differences between them that sellers should consider before choosing one or the other.

One of the main differences is the size and scope of the platforms. Amazon has a much larger market share and customer base than Walmart, which means that sellers can potentially reach more buyers and generate more sales on Amazon. However, this also means that there is more competition and higher costs for advertising on Amazon. Walmart, on the other hand, has a smaller but growing audience that is more loyal and less price-sensitive than Amazon shoppers. Walmart also offers lower fees and more flexibility for sellers who want to control their own pricing and inventory.

While ecommerce sales only make up approximately 13% of Walmart’s estimated 2023 revenue (with in-store sales making up the other 87%) this nearly $80B in projected revenue from Walmart ecommerce is enough to place the Bentonville-based store in the number two slot next to Amazon. As one might expect, Walmart has an advantage over Amazon for sales of groceries and other food orders, given the retailer’s broad reach of stores from which they can deliver perishable items versus Amazon’s Whole Foods, which are much fewer in numbers and tend to be limited to affluent areas. 

Basic Terminology Differences

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Review of Differences Between Amazon Ads & Walmart Advertising Campaign Types

Sponsored Products

Sponsored Products are PPC (pay-per-click) advertisement types on both Amazon and on Walmart that highlight a single product at a time, and can be found near the top of the search results on both platforms, in addition to on product listings pages for competing products. On both Amazon and Walmart, one does not need to have registered for Amazon’s Brand Registry or Walmart’s equivalent Brand Portal program, making Sponsored Products a great strategy for new sellers who want to get up and running as quickly as possible.

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Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Brands on Walmart and Amazon allow sellers to highlight multiple products, such as multiple flavors of a certain beverage, or different sizes/colors of a suitcase, for example. Sponsored Brands placements on Amazon additionally allow sellers to include their logo, a branded tagline, and a lifestyle image or video, with the option to link directly to a brand’s Seller page as well. Amazon Brand Registry and Walmart Brand Portal is required for sellers who wish to utilize Sponsored Brands placements. 

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Sponsored Display

Sponsored Display ads on Amazon allow sellers to create image/video banners that display across various parts of the Amazon storefront. Additionally, sellers also have the option to place ads on other Amazon properties should it overlap with their target audience, including IMDb (a ranking and information website for movies and TV) and Twitch (a live-streaming platform popular among the gaming community). Walmart does not implement Sponsored Display advertising in the same manner as Amazon does. Like Sponsored Brands, Brand Registry is required in order for a seller to use this campaign type.

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Sponsored Video

On Amazon, video placements are possible using either Sponsored Brands with a video included, or by using a video within a Sponsored Display banner. On Walmart, Sponsored Videos are their own campaign type, and in terms of appearance and functionality, they are roughly half-way in between Sponsored Brands on Amazon, since they show up in the search results with a product-on-white image adjacent to the video, and Sponsored Display, since they cannot include multiple product listings. 

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Amazon remains the primary ecommerce platform within the American market, however Walmart has been making decisive inroads in attempting to capture some of Amazon’s market share of the ecommerce space, and PPC advertising is one means of Walmart seeking to emulate Walmart’s success. Walmart’s physical presence for shipping out a range of products sold in stores through Walmart+ (the seller’s equivalent of Amazon Prime) gives Walmart an advantage over Amazon, as most Amazon deliveries typically require at least another day to arrive at a customer’s doorstep. Additionally, drive-up pickup of orders provides another way for Walmart customers to pick up their online orders, giving an additional source of revenue for Walmart and convenience for consumers. It’s yet to be seen for how long and how much Walmart can continue to grow their ecommerce platform, and if they’ll be able to expand beyond their bread-and-butter categories (which tend to be centered around consumer-packaged-goods and groceries), and into Amazon’s more niche-driven market, but it appears that the rivalry between these platforms is set to heat up in the coming years.