• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 25, 2021

Walmart's media management arm, Walmart Connect, has announced it will launch a demand-side platform, Walmart DSP (demand-side platform), built in partnership with The Trade Desk, an ad-tech company. 

The goal is to connect brands with Walmart’s more than 150 million weekly customers, using innovative advertising technology. By connecting and measuring online and in-store performance, the Walmart DSP can offer highly granular targeting, reporting and omnichannel insights. 

The company continues to build up its advertising business as first-party data becomes more important. Walmart reported a 95% increase in its U.S. advertising sales in the second quarter, and reported in an earnings call that the number of active advertisers rose more than 175%, as more companies and brands paid to advertise their products on the company’s platform.

In April, eMarketer for the first time broke out search advertising revenue at Walmart. The company grew its share in 2020, and will account for 1.1% of net search ad revenue this year.

The company’s stand-alone DSP combines Walmart’s first-party omnichannel data with the technology and performance of The Trade Desk.

Since inspiration and discovery leading up to purchase can happen anywhere, the idea is to reach consumers everywhere and bring them back to Walmart’s site.   

When Walmart DSP launches later this fall, marketers and advertisers will have access to numerous industry-leading platform capabilities powered by Walmart’s data.

The DSP will enable brands to reach specific audiences by leveraging Walmart’s past purchase and predictive audience segments, as well as brand-level shopping behavior data from across the entire Walmart ecosystem, including the website, app and 4,700 physical stores. 

Brands also will have access to the Trade Desk’s inventory, including display, streaming video, mobile, audio and connected television (CTV), allowing advertisers to manage multiple campaigns within the same platform, and connect to offline sales by using Walmart’s purchase data to measure both online and in-store transactions and link these to specific media strategies to optimize campaigns and inform future strategies.