Walmart recently announced that Search Brand Amplifier (SBA) is now available to manage via their API. Because Teikametrics is a Walmart advertising partner we’re now able to build and optimize SBA for our customers.
The development is exciting because SBA is an important tool in any brand’s Walmart advertising kit, helping with brand building and growing awareness for your products.
Going into Q4, SBA can be a valuable option both for brands that see high sales volume during this time or who are launching new products for the holiday season.
What is Walmart Search Brand Amplifier?
Walmart Search Brand Amplifier uses a brand logo, custom headline, and up to four SKUs to create an ad. Brands familiar with Sponsored Brands ads on Amazon will understand SBA immediately, as it works in almost the same way.
The screenshot below shows an example of an SBA ad served for the Halloween-inspired search for “candy.”
Walmart Search Brand Amplifier ad by Airheads served in response to a search for “candy”
Walmart first introduced Search Brand Amplifier in 2020. However, up until now, it had to be managed by someone on the Walmart team.
Walmart’s announcement that SBA is now manageable through the API means Teikametrics has access and can handle the placement and optimization of your SBA ads, and can do so at scale.
How does Search Brand Amplifier work?
Search Brand Amplifier operates on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, which means you’ll pay only when shoppers click on your ad.
SBA uses keyword targeting, so you’ll populate these ads with keywords much as you would Walmart’s Sponsored Products ads.
Brands can select up to ten items to be included in an SBA ad and then Walmart automatically populates the ad as they serve it with up to four of those items based on relevance and availability.
SBA is currently only available to 1P brands on Walmart. Items advertised in these ads must be winning the Buy Box, published on Walmart.com, in stock, and sold online. The only category not eligible for SBA is fashion.
Currently, brands need to submit all elements of the ad – logo, headline, and SKUs – for review. These ads, and most changes to them, need to be reviewed by a member of the Walmart team, so it can take a couple of days to get them up and running.
What’s the benefit of Search Brand Amplifier?
These ads get top-of-search placement. That’s incredibly powerful because we know that top-of-search captures a large percentage of purchases. Adding these ads to your Walmart funnel can increase conversion volume.
Viswas Pollepali emphasizes the power of the premium positioning for SBA. He points out, “Even before the organic search results, the Search Brand Amplifier is right there on top.”
Even before the organic search results, the Search Brand Amplifier is right there on top.
These ads are also useful for brand-building and awareness. The ability to show your logo and custom craft a headline means you’re increasing the shopper’s knowledge of your brand, what it stands for, and what type of products you offer.
Notice the Crayola Search Brand Amplifier above showcases options within the Coloring Set line and appears above the rest of the search results page
How can you optimize Search Brand Amplifier?
Teikametrics optimizes SBA using careful campaign structure, frequent keyword and bid optimization, and thoughtful selection of items in the ads. Campaigns should be structured for a high degree of control with individual products or product lines each broken out into their own campaign.
Keywords can be harvested from a variety of sources — high-performance Sponsored Products campaigns, keywords suggested by Walmart, and keywords that perform on other channels. We select keywords with data-driven criteria, but then we always test our assumptions by analyzing the performance of keywords and regularly updating campaigns based on the performance.
Likewise, we select high-performing items for SBA to put your brand’s best foot forward, and we can swap out items based on performance or when your inventory runs low.
How should you evaluate Search Brand Amplifier?
SBA offers a big step up the funnel from Walmart Sponsored Products so you shouldn’t evaluate it in exactly the same way. Where Sponsored Products should lead directly to sales and can be measured by conversions and ROAS, SBA also functions as a branding tool and should be measured accordingly.
This means that while you will still want to measure conversions, you will also want to look at impressions, clicks, and click-through rates to understand how these ads are contributing to brand awareness which can lead to conversions over a longer time period.
Walmart provides the following reports for SBA:
- Ad group performance
- Brand performance
- Daily performance
- Item performance
- Keywords performance
- Page type performance
- Platform performance
- Item health performance
As with your Sponsored Products ads, it will be important to continually monitor performance and adjust keywords and bids to maximize the value of your ads.
Take the next step
Jason Magee, Senior Director of Sales at Teikametrics, calls SBA “the next step.” He said, “It’s the ability to showcase multiple products. It’s a good step between display and search where you can actually start building a brand experience on Walmart.”
It’s the ability to showcase multiple products. It’s a good step between display and search where you can actually start building a brand experience on Walmart.
At Teikametrics, we’re excited to partner with Walmart to access the SBA API and optimize your ads for you. Want to learn more about how we can work to meet your advertising goals?
