Walmart advertisers flocked to Sponsored Products on the retailer’s website in the fourth quarter in 2021, spending 43% more for the manual campaigns compared with the prior quarter, but a premium search ad product known as Search Brand Amplifier that showcases a brand’s portfolio of products continues to grow in importance.

Walmart released Search Brand Amplifier ad management for Walmart Platform Partners at the end of August 2021. The format in Q4 accounted for 7% of all spend on its platform, according to a benchmarking report by performance marketing firm Tinuiti.

Search Brand Amplifier, which is similar to Amazon Sponsored Brands ads, is featured placements at the top of search results pages. The ads are targeted using keywords.

Although Walmart initially limited the placements available to manual campaigns, the inventory available continues to expand. Manual campaigns rely on advertisers to select keywords to bid on, while automatic campaigns give Walmart’s platform control of the queries.

Advertisers spent more on Walmart’s site to reach holiday shoppers. Same-store Walmart Sponsored Products advertisers increased ad spend 79% from in Q4, up from the prior quarter.

Tinuiti observed slower growth for cost-per-click (CPC) rates. Growth of costs per click slowed to 8% in the final quarter of the year from 16% in Q3, but a huge acceleration in click growth from 39% to 66% drove stronger spend.

Who is engaging with Walmart on social media in 2022? Helixa, using artificial intelligence, analyzed the audiences and found that 60.42% were female. The average American is between 18 and 24 years old, and 45 years and older.

Males between the ages of 18 and 24 are 1.46 times more likely than the average American to engage with Walmart compared to the average consumer.

Those who engage with Walmart are 1.14 times more likely than the average American to have children in the household, 2.09 times more likely to save money and consider price first when shopping, and are 1.98 times more likely to be beauty and wellness aware, 1.63 times more likely to be health conscious, and 1.58 times more likely to be home decorators and do-it-yourselfers.

Top beauty and wellness brands by affinity — which defines how much more they are engaging with an item or category than the average American ages 18 to 69 — include Colgate, Crest, Vaseline, Oral-B, and Aquaphor. The top brands by reach include Covergirl, Chanel, Maybelline, Dove, and Olay.

Walmart is scheduled to release calendar year Q4 2021 earnings on February 18, 2022.

Walmart advertisers flocked to Sponsored Products on the retailer’s site in Q4 2021, spending 43% more for manual campaigns vs. the prior quarter, but a premium search ad product known as Search Brand Amplifier that showcases a brand’s portfolio of products continues to grow in importance.