Amazon vs Walmart Advertising: Key Differences for Sellers

Sellers who run both platforms often assume Walmart Connect works exactly like Amazon Ads with a smaller budget — the formats are similar, but the dynamics that make a campaign successful aren't identical.

Lower competition, often lower cost per click

Fewer advertisers bid on most Walmart Connect keywords compared to the equivalent Amazon search terms, which frequently means a lower cost per click for comparable visibility — though this varies by category.

Smaller but different audience

Walmart's customer base has real overlap with Amazon's but isn't identical — different price sensitivity and shopping habits in some categories mean a campaign structure that worked on Amazon may not convert the same way on Walmart.

Fewer sophisticated targeting options

Walmart Connect's toolset, while growing, is generally less mature than Amazon's — campaign structures tend to be simpler by necessity, which can actually reduce the setup overhead for a smaller team.

The practical takeaway

Treat Walmart Connect as its own channel with its own testing and optimization cycle, not a copy-paste of an existing Amazon PPC strategy — what's already proven on one platform is a reasonable starting hypothesis on the other, not a sure result.

How to carry a campaign across without wasting budget

Start small and let the second channel teach you its own lessons. A full copy of forty campaigns spends money before you know what works.

• Pick your five best products, the ones with strong reviews and stock on both sites.
• Take the twenty search terms that produce the most sales on the first channel and use them as the seed list.
• Launch one automatic and one manual campaign per product group, with a daily budget you can hold for three weeks.
• Judge results on that site's own numbers. A term that converts well in one place may do nothing in the other.

Check the page before you pay for clicks

On both sites, an ad only shows when the offer is eligible: in stock, competitively priced, and holding the featured offer. On the smaller channel, the content quality score also affects how often your items appear. Fill every attribute, use the full set of images, and fix any listing warnings first. Paid traffic to a weak page costs the same and returns less.

What to measure

Use the same three figures on both sides so the comparison is fair: cost per click, conversion rate, and return on ad spend. Attribution windows differ between the two ad systems, so read each report's definitions before comparing totals. Review monthly, move budget toward whichever channel returns more per dollar, and keep a small test budget running on the other.

Our free ACOS calculator gives you the break-even point to judge both against. To have both channels managed together, book a free strategy call.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a minimum budget?

Both systems set small minimum daily budgets, and the figures change from time to time. Check the current help pages, then choose a budget that can run all day without pausing.

Can I use the same keywords on both?

As a starting list, yes. Expect the winners to differ, because the shoppers and the competing products are not the same.

Which one should a small brand advertise on first?

The one where you already sell more. Ads work best on products with reviews and stable stock, so build on the stronger store, then expand.

Sources and further reading

Marketplace rules change; these are the official pages to check against before you act on anything here.

• Amazon Ads
• Walmart Marketplace
• Walmart Marketplace Learn
• Google & Meta Ads Management (our service page)