A lot of sellers are turning to Walmart as their next online sales channel. The audience is growing, competition is a little lighter, and there’s real potential to reach shoppers in new ways. But once people get into the platform, they often realize that setting up ads is not as easy as they assumed.
Walmart PPC management comes with its own setup process, and it’s easy for new sellers to miss small things that lead to big problems. Ads don’t show up. Budgets get used with no return. Campaigns sit in review for days. All of this adds up to delays and missed momentum when sellers are just trying to get things going. The truth is, running ads on Walmart isn’t just about launching a campaign. It starts with setting it up the right way, which is where most issues begin. We are a Walmart Verified Marketplace Agency and an Approved Solution Provider for Walmart Marketplace, so we see these setup challenges often when helping brands launch or scale their advertising.
Understanding How Walmart PPC Works
PPC stands for pay-per-click. That means you only spend money when someone clicks on your product ad. Seems simple enough, but Walmart builds its system to work differently than other platforms.
Unlike Amazon, where there are more tools for testing and scaling faster, Walmart focuses on showing ads that it feels match the shopper’s intent. That means the way you write your product titles, how your listings rank, and how your account has performed so far all play a part in whether your ads even appear.
To make things more specific, Walmart takes two main things into account before showing ads:
• Relevancy. If your keywords don’t match what you’re trying to sell, you might not show at all.
• Performance. If your listings don’t convert or have customer reviews yet, your ads may get limited visibility.
All of this affects early sellers the most, especially when they’re still trying to build up traction on a new listing.
Common Setup Mistakes New Sellers Make
If your campaign settings aren’t right, your ads won’t do what you need them to. That sounds obvious, but most new sellers don’t realize what they’ve missed until they’ve burned through budget or lost momentum. Here are a few of the early missteps we see often:
• Using broad-match keywords from the start. On Walmart, this can mean your ads show up for the wrong searches, or not at all.
• Skipping campaign structure. Without groups and clear naming, sellers lose track of which keywords are tied to which products.
• Forgetting to review ad data daily or weekly. Walmart’s dashboard has fewer alerts than Amazon, so you can easily miss a drop in impressions or budget issues.
The good news is, these types of things can be fixed once they’re spotted. The hard part is catching them before they waste money or keep your listings hidden.
Walmart’s Ad Approval and Review Process
Walmart ads don’t go live instantly. All campaigns go through a system check, and sometimes a longer manual review. That can be frustrating when you’re excited to get things moving and nothing is responding.
Several things can slow down approval:
• Listings with missing product data like specs or descriptions
• Categories that require extra review
• Incomplete or mismatched keywords that raise flags
To help speed things up, sellers need to double-check that their listings are complete and accurate. Sometimes, adding more details solves the issue. Other times, it’s about not cramming too many keywords into your ad without matching it to what’s actually in the listing.
Walmart wants to be sure that the ads it serves make sense. That means having good listings isn’t just helpful, it’s a requirement for running active campaigns.
Why Getting Results Takes Time
Some sellers expect to turn on their ads and see clicks right away. That’s not how Walmart works. The platform uses a learning phase to test out new ads, which means those ads might not appear often in the first few days.
If sellers don’t know this, they might panic and start tweaking their settings every day. But that ends up resetting the process or drawing things out even longer.
Part of good Walmart PPC management means watching the data with patience and care. The platform needs time to collect information on when your product performs best and which shoppers respond to it. If new sellers rush that process, they end up muddying the waters instead of clearing them.
It’s better to let things run for a set amount of time before making changes. Then, use that feedback to plan future updates.
When to Get Outside Help
Sometimes, campaigns don’t work because the setup was rushed or incomplete. Other times, it’s not clear why the ads are underperforming, and sellers feel stuck. That’s usually a sign it’s time to bring in outside help rather than keep guessing.
Here are a few signs you might need a second set of eyes:
• You’ve adjusted budgets and keywords multiple times, but results haven’t improved
• Ads are in review way too long with no updates or clear errors
• Your most important products aren’t getting any impressions or clicks, even with active campaigns
Even seasoned sellers can run into roadblocks when working with a new platform. Getting expert setup helps avoid wasted spend and creates a more stable structure that you can build on. It’s not about doing everything at once, it’s about doing it the right way from the beginning. Through our Walmart Account 360 service, we help sellers with Marketplace onboarding, product listing and optimization, and inventory and order management, so their campaigns start from a solid base.
Ready to Build Smarter Ad Campaigns
Running PPC on Walmart comes with unique challenges. But the more you know about how the system works, the more confident you’ll feel when things go quiet or results move slowly. The key is to stay patient and make sure you’ve given your campaigns the foundation they need before expecting them to perform.
Mistakes during setup are easy to miss, but hard to reverse. That’s why it pays to focus on a smart launch that’s built to last. As your listings grow and your account develops, a well-built campaign strategy will help you take full advantage of what the platform has to offer. Keep things simple, stay organized, and watch your numbers with care. It all adds up to stronger campaigns over time.
Are your campaigns set up the right way and are your ads getting the traction you expected? We can help you reset with more clarity by identifying what is working, what is missing, and where your listings may be holding your ads back. When your campaigns have stalled or never quite took off, our support can make a difference. To learn how we handle smart, stable Walmart PPC management from the ground up, contact us.
