• by Laurie Sullivan , 8 hours ago

Walmart Connect launched a “closed proof of concept” on Thursday allowing select advertisers to measure how YouTube video reach-and-awareness campaigns influence the retailer’s sales.

The expanded partnership with Google using Display & Video 360 (DV360) began with YouTube, but Walmart said additional platforms will follow.

Advertisers can now serve ads to a specific group of consumers viewing videos on YouTube who are statistically most likely to make more purchases. High-intent shopper signals are combined with online and offline real shopping behavior and purchases.

“As these audiences become more accessible across programmatic environments, more clients can activate and scale against them in ways that fit their existing workflows,” stated Joel Lunenfeld, global CEO at Publicis Media Exchange (PMX), noting the audiences are built on real purchase data rather than modeled signals.

The broader effort from Walmart's retail media division aims to make it easier for advertisers to target Walmart shoppers on streaming TV platforms.

In May, the company announced a deal with supply-side platform Magnite that allowed Walmart Connect to sell ad inventory on Vizio smart TVs through Yahoo’s demand-side platform (DSP).

The pivot to eliminate a walled-garden approach within its own technology represented a key milestone in Walmart Connect's expansion plans to build a more open, flexible model for offsite retail media. It decoupled Walmart Connect's first-party data from its proprietary DSP.

Benefits to Walmart Connect's expanded deal with Google includes combining retail sales and shopper data, connecting video investments to retail purchase, and measuring how upper-funnel video campaigns influence omnichannel sales. 

DV360 acts like a universal dashboard for digital advertising. Instead of logging into separate websites to buy ads on YouTube, news sites, and streaming apps, a company can control all ad campaigns from this one place.

Courtney Rose, vice president of retail at Google, wrote in a blog post that viewers watch an average of 110 million hours of shopping content on YouTube daily.

Bringing Walmart Connect’s audiences into that workflow adds a new layer of retail data for brands using premium video ads to reach viewers in YouTube. Advertisers can target audiences much earlier in the shopping journey and measure how exposure to specific videos influences actual sales.

Pairing Walmart’s purchase-based audiences with viewers on YouTube creates a direct connection between brand-building and business outcomes, helping advertisers link awareness, consideration and conversion strategies.

The addition of YouTube also expands how advertisers can use Walmart Connect audiences across connected television (CTV) and Walmart's owned VIZIO inventory.

Combined, these capabilities give advertisers more opportunities to build awareness through streaming while using consistent audiences and measurement to maintain a clear connection to retail outcomes and business growth.