Because both Amazon and Walmart provide vibrant marketplaces that give you access to millions of buyers, using their advertising channels can help streamline your marketing strategy. But despite some similarities in how customers purchase and interact with products in both the Amazon Marketplace and Walmart Marketplace, their advertising pricing structures are different. Here’s a breakdown of how ad cost differs in the Amazon and Walmart marketplaces.

The Biggest Difference Between Amazon and Walmart Ad Costs: Minimums

By far, the most significant difference in the pricing structures of the Amazon and Walmart advertising systems is that Walmart has monthly minimums while Amazon advertising does not. Also, Walmart has a daily maximum for one of its plans, the Self-Serve Campaign. Here’s how the minimum pricing system for Walmart advertising works:

• Self-Serve Campaign: This requires you to spend a minimum of $1,000 monthly and a daily cap of $100 daily.
• Managed Campaign: A managed campaign requires you to spend at least $25,000 monthly on advertising, and there’s no daily cap.

This means that even if you want to check out how Walmart ads work for a few months, you’ll have to commit to spending $1,000 each month. On the other hand, with Amazon, you can experiment with as little as you like as you take your time getting used to the platform.

What Amazon and Walmart Ads Have in Common: A Bidding System

Amazon and Walmart ads run based on bidding systems, meaning the highest bid for a specific keyword gets the most prominent position in the search results.

For example, suppose you bid $0.85 per click for the keyword “electric skateboard,” and your product is called Zippy Wheels. If you have the highest bid, your Zippy Wheels ad will appear highest on the results page and will be larger than the ads of other electronic skateboard providers, such as Segway, Backfire, or Possway.

At the same time, if you’re not the winning bidder, and your PPC (price per click) bid is relatively close to the highest bid, you may still appear in the results, but your ad will be somewhat smaller and lower on the page than those of Segway and other competitors.

Comparing Amazon and Walmart Ad Cost Structures

Even though Walmart’s spending minimums may seem too expensive to business owners, it may actually work out to your advantage. For example, a minimum monthly ad spend can help keep providers who aren’t that serious out of the bidding process. Even though a bidding system is one of the fairest ways of deciding who gets the right to advertise, it also invites companies that may not be that invested in driving up the cost of the winning bid.

For instance, some Amazon Sellers may just be testing things out. Let’s say someone spends about $200 a month and bids $0.50 per click. That will automatically push the winning bid to at least $0.51 per click. With enough of these kinds of advertisers in the market, the winning bid can inflate.

But with Walmart ads, only those serious enough to commit at least $1,000 a month will be throwing their bids into the mix. This limits your competition.

At the same time, if you’re not ready to commit significant cash for advertising, Amazon may be a better choice. You can feasibly get good enough visibility without spending $1,000 or more on advertising, reducing your overall marketing spend.

That said, either — or both — could work for your ad budget and eCommerce strategy. If you’re looking to maximize your B2C or B2B sales channels — regardless of the ad system you’re considering using — you can rely on an expert like us to provide you with an optimized omnichannel ad system that suits both your sales goals and budget.