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 isn't guaranteed to 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 guaranteed outcome.

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)