Will TikTok’s Visual Search Feature Create More Advertising Opportunities?

Will TikTok’s Visual Search Feature Create More Advertising Opportunities?

by Jane Smith TikTok Uncategorized

TikTok is testing visual search in its e-commerce platform, TikTok Shop. The introduction of visual search could mark a substantial improvement in the platform’s e-commerce capabilities, although time will tell. With visual search, users may now find and buy related products by uploading or taking a photo. In TikTok Shop, visual search could improve the buying experience by streamlining the product discovery process and giving consumers an easier method to find and buy things that attract their attention. TikTok Shop aims to enhance traffic and engagement on the site by integrating visual search. This offers integration of e-commerce features that might boost sales and revenue.

Boosting Sales and Brand Growth with TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop was introduced in November 2022 as an e-commerce choice to increase sales and promote brand expansion. Thanks to this service, users can search and purchase goods from their favorite creators and companies inside the TikTok app. This is an important way that TikTok hopes to generate revenue for itself and businesses.

How to Use Visual Search

The visual search feature is brand new, so it can be puzzling to figure out. Users access it by clicking the camera icon in the search box, which leads the platform to display the message “Take a photo or upload an image to find similar products.” Using visual signals, the latest advancement promises to make it simple for users to find and buy products, which TikTok says will streamline the shopping experience and raise conversion rates.

The Present Test Phase

Before expanding the feature more broadly, the platform may gather data, analyze user input, and adjust tweaks. That way, TikTok manages the risks involved with a vast audience, but it also means that the visual search functionality within the TikTok Shop has yet to reach its full potential.

Challenges

According to early reports, TikTok Shop’s performance does raise some concern. Although TikTok has ambitious goals, there are questions about the feature’s return on investment (ROI) for e-commerce companies. These worries are reminiscent of the difficulties faced by other social commerce sites, including Instagram and Pinterest. For instance, Instagram recently dropped its “Shops” feature because of low user interest. The difficulties these platforms have had making money through social commerce show potential problems that TikTok Shop might encounter.

Advertising Opportunities

TikTok’s visual search has significant consequences for advertisers looking to increase brand visibility and successfully connect with their target audience. Advertisers can take advantage of TikTok’s improved product discovery capabilities by utilizing this feature, making it easier for users to find and explore their items. Advertisers may develop appealing ad campaigns that align with the preferences and interests of their target audience thanks to visual search, which offers a more immersive and intuitive purchasing experience.

The success of advertising on the TikTok platform can vary. Despite TikTok’s enormous popularity, there is still debate over the return on investment for the platform’s ad campaigns. While other advertisers have had inconsistent results, some have reported satisfactory results and success in reaching their target demographic.

Data-Driven Insights

As TikTok improves its e-commerce capabilities, agencies should carefully track user activity and growth. Visual search interaction data breakdown can offer critical insights for improving marketing tactics, recognizing trends, and improving audience targeting.

It is still too early to assess the full usefulness of TikTok’s trial use of visual search. Although the potential advantages appear intriguing, there currently needs to be more conclusive proof of visual search’s efficacy. Understanding the effects of visual search in TikTok’s Shop feature will require ongoing observation. During this trial, digital marketing agencies and e-commerce businesses should pay special attention to customer behavior and feedback to learn more about its potential advantages. It’s crucial to view TikTok’s trial of visual search with a cautious sense of hope and to keep evaluating its success as current information becomes available.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed in the ever-changing world of online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

The TikTok Controversy: Advertiser Q&A

The TikTok Controversy: Advertiser Q&A

by Kurt Anagnostopoulos Uncategorized

By Kurt Anagnostopoulos and Mark Smith

Will TikTok get banned in the United States? And why is TikTok even running afoul of the U.S. government? Those questions and many others continue to arise as TikTok faces closer scrutiny by U.S. lawmakers – mostly recently when the company’s CEO recently faced a tough grilling by members of Congress. Following are answers to some questions you might have.

What is going on with TikTok and the United States government?

TikTok has faced several controversies and concerns regarding its ownership, data privacy, and potential national security threats in the United States.

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, which has raised concerns about Chinese government access to user data and censorship. There have been concerns that TikTok is collecting user data and sharing it with the Chinese government. TikTok has denied these allegations and has stated that its data is stored outside of China.

In 2020, former U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would have banned TikTok from the United States over national security concerns. The order cited TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance and its potential to collect data on U.S. citizens and share it with the Chinese government. In June 2021, new president Joe Biden signed an executive order revoking the Trump administration ban on TikTok, and instead ordered the Secretary of Commerce to investigate the app to determine if it poses a threat to U.S. national security.

In 2022 and 2023, the issue of national security arose once again. In June 2022, reports emerged that ByteDance employees in China could access U.S. data and repeatedly accessed the private information of TikTok users. Following the reports, TikTok announced that 100% of its U.S. user traffic is now being routed to Oracle Cloud, along with their intention to delete all U.S. user data from their own data centers. This deal stems from the talks with Oracle instigated in September 2020 in the midst of Trump’s threat to ban TikTok in the United States.

In June 2022, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr called for Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing national security concerns, saying TikTok “harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing.” In November 2022, Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told U.S. lawmakers that “the Chinese government could use [TikTok] to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations.”

As of February 2023, at least 32 states have announced or enacted bans on state government agencies, employees, and contractors using TikTok on government-issued devices. State bans only affect government employees and do not prohibit civilians from having or using the app on their personal devices.

In March 2023, TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, appeared before Congress to address the concerns surrounding the app. He stated that TikTok’s data collection practices did not differ from those of U.S. social media platforms.

Is True Interactive concerned that TikTok poses a national security threat?

There has been no “smoking gun” evidence that TikTok poses a national security threat. There is no public evidence the Chinese government has actually spied on people through TikTok.

TikTok doesn’t operate in China. But since the Chinese government enjoys significant leverage over businesses under its jurisdiction, the theory goes that ByteDance, and thus indirectly, TikTok, could be forced to cooperate with a broad range of security activities, including possibly the transfer of TikTok data.

“It’s not that we know TikTok has done something, it’s that distrust of China and awareness of Chinese espionage has increased,” according to James Lewis, an information security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The context for TikTok is much worse as trust in China vanishes.”

TikTok has been erecting technical and organizational barriers that it says will keep U.S. user data safe from unauthorized access. Under the plan, known as Project Texas, the U.S. government and third-party companies such as Oracle would also have some degree of oversight of TikTok’s data practices. TikTok is working on a similar plan for the European Union known as Project Clover.

In 2022, a report found TikTok was spying on journalists, snooping on their user data and IP addresses to find out when or if certain reporters were sharing the same location as company employees. TikTok later confirmed the incident and ByteDance fired several employees who had improperly accessed the TikTok data of two journalists.

The circumstances surrounding the incident suggest it was not the type of wide-scale, government-directed intelligence effort that US national security officials primarily fear. Instead, it appeared to be part of a specific internal effort by some ByteDance employees to hunt down leaks to the press – which may be deplorable but hardly uncommon for an organization under public scrutiny.

Do you believe TikTok will get banned?

Only the U.S. government can answer that question with certainty. But TikTok says 150 million Americans use the app, it is increasingly popular with advertisers, and many smaller businesses say it is essential to their livelihood. It’s more likely that TikTok will face closer regulation and possibly be sold.

Should I be concerned about advertising on TikTok?

TikTok poses no more of a risk than any other social app. Every major app, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube – has faced public scrutiny and controversy over issues ranging from privacy breaches to content moderation lapses. As we’ve blogged, social media is a messy place for any brand to be. But social media also holds many advantages, as our work with advertisers has demonstrated.

How can TikTok help my brand?

We recommend that brands Consider TikTok for brand awareness, but the jury is still out when it comes to conversions. Our campaigns have performed especially well when our objectives have been to achieve reach and brand lift. In our experience, TikTok CPMs are typically less expensive than CPMs for Facebook, Snap, or Pinterest. Read our blog post about TikTok’s performance for more insight.

Contact True Interactive

At True Interactive, we work with our clients to maximize the value of all their online advertising, including social media spend. We strongly advocate for our clients as we work with apps such as TikTok. Contact us to learn how we can help you.

How Meta Is Rebounding

How Meta Is Rebounding

by Taylor Hart Meta

Meta is back.

The company’s market capitalization lost considerable value in 2022 after failing to meet its financial targets. A costly investment into the emerging metaverse has been ridiculed. But Meta is showing signs of a much brighter 2023.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that:

  • The company’s investments into artificial intelligence (AI) have helped Meta improve ad-targeting systems to make better predictions based on less data.
  • Meta’s short-form video product, Reels, is becoming more popular on Meta’s core Facebook and Instagram platforms.
  • The development of ad products based on user data from Meta’s own platforms is easing the blow of Apple’s privacy restrictions. Those restrictions, focusing on ad products that rely on third-party user data, had forced Meta to retool its ad strategy away from third-party user tracking to first-party data (the information that Meta gains from users from its own platforms such as Facebook and Instagram).

Reels Gains Traction

All of these developments are noteworthy. For instance, Reels is Meta’s answer to TikTok, whose dramatic rise, based on short-form videos, has threatened Meta. So, more user engagement with Reels should attract more advertisers.

The Wall Street Journal said that Tom Alison, head of Facebook, wrote in a memo to staff, “Facebook engagement is stronger than people expected. Our internal data indicates that Meta has grown to a meaningful share of short-form video.” And on Facebook alone, Meta can count on a large, engaged user base.

Facebook engagement

Reportedly, Meta has credited improvements to both Facebook’s algorithms and the computing systems on which they run, resulting in a 20 percent gain in time spent in Reels consumption. This is quite a turnaround from summer 2022, when Meta was still struggling to get users to embrace Reels videos.

More Effective Ad Products

Meta suffered a blow in 2021 when Apple introduced privacy controls that resulted in people opting out of having their online behavior tracked while using Apple products. This was a problem because Meta’s ad products rely mostly on tracking people across the web via third-party cookies. The privacy controls have forced Meta to do a better job building ad products based on user behavior on Meta’s own platforms (which Apple’s privacy controls do not affect).

Meta estimated last February that the Apple change would cost it more than $10 billion in lost sales for 2022, equivalent to about 8 percent of its total revenue for 2021. At the time, the news caused Meta’s stock price to plummet.

But Meta is gaining traction with new ad products. For instance, Meta’s broad targeting ad program consists of an automated targeting approach that reportedly produces better results for Facebook and Instagram ads than more refined, more niche audience approaches do. Meta is also developing ads in which users click straight into a messaging conversation with a business.

But ads based on first-party data are only 18 percent of Meta’s revenue, according to The Wall Street Journal. Meta has a lot of work to do.

Key Issues Going Forward

Meta recently reported better-than-expected results in its most recent quarterly earnings announcement. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said 2023 is a “Year of Efficiency,” which means managing spending carefully. Key questions going forward:

  • How well Meta will use AI to recommend Reels content to Facebook and Instagram users. The more targeted the recommendations, the higher the engagement rates. Meta needs people to stay engaged on Reels like they are glued to their TikTok videos. Engagement means advertising revenue from businesses that want to target those users with content.
  • The performance of ad products based on first-party data. Businesses should continue to ask their Meta ad representatives for developments in this area.
  • How well Meta manages its costly investment into the still young metaverse, which remains a sore spot for the company. The metaverse generates no advertising revenue streams to speak of for Meta.

At True Interactive, we advocate for our clients that invest in Meta and other platforms. We will continue to monitor developments and adapt our ad strategies as needed.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed in the ever-changing world of online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Lead photo credit: https://unsplash.com/@solomin_d

How Effective Is TikTok as an Advertising Platform?

How Effective Is TikTok as an Advertising Platform?

by Taylor Hart TikTok

By Tim Colucci, Taylor Hart, and Bella Schneider 

TikTok is an advertising juggernaut. The app doubled its ad revenues in 2022 according to an industry estimate. Rivals such as YouTube were directly affected. And TikTok continues to roll out new capabilities that appeal to businesses, such as livestream commerce. This is all the more remarkable considering the fact that TikTok has been operating under the threat of being banned in the United States for the past few years.

But just how effective is TikTok as an ad platform? Our own experiences working with TikTok have seen mixed results.

Inconsistent Performance with Conversions

TikTok has both impressed and disappointed us when it comes to conversions such as app downloads, purchases, and leads. On the positive side, one of our clients running social ads increased ROI on TikTok by over 18% in Q3 compared to Q1.

In Q3 on TikTok, we launched conversion campaigns (as well as upper-funnel) for this client, which definitely affected the increase in ROI because in Q1 we only were running upper-funnel campaigns on TikTok.

But when we look at results for other clients – specifically for lead-generation-based mobile app campaigns — we have seen disappointing conversion numbers. For those clients, the cost per conversion on TikTok is higher than on other apps. Why? Probably because TikTok compels users to stay on the app and scroll continuously through a stream of content – as any TikTok user can attest. Taking the time to disengage from TikTok to download an app or to make a purchase is counterintuitive to how TikTok operates.

TikTok does offer tools for advertisers to drive conversions, such as an instant lead form, which creates a customized lead generation form with a call to action. As a result, the user need not leave the app to fill out a lead form. We have seen some success using the instant lead form, but nowhere near the conversion rates we’ve experienced on Facebook and Google. As a result, the cost per lead for TikTok is much higher than for Facebook and Google for lead-generation-based mobile app campaigns.

Awkward App Optimization Feature

Apps such as Facebook and TikTok offer features that make it possible for businesses to optimize multiple app campaigns based on different audiences, creative assets, and objectives. These are known as app event optimization (AEO). With AEO, a business can ensure that multiple campaigns are not competing with each other as they maximize their performance. We found that TikTok’s AEO feature is less effective than Facebook’s. For example, on Facebook, a business can optimize for both web and app campaigns together a lot more effectively than on TikTok. In at least one case, we found that multiple TikTok campaigns for the same brand were competing with each other, but fortunately our own team caught the issue early on and adapted our strategy.

Advice for Brands

  • Monitor your TikTok performance closely. As noted above, conversions can differ by type of campaign (in our case, social ads versus lead-generation-based mobile app campaigns). TikTok is still evolving as an ad platform, and TikTok ad accounts require more maintenance and proactive communication with the TikTok ad team. Keep on top of your performance and be ready to shift gears quickly as we have done.
  • Consider TikTok for brand awareness, but the jury is still out when it comes to conversions. Our campaigns have performed especially well when our objectives have been to achieve reach and brand lift. In our experience, TikTok CPMs are typically less expensive than CPMs for Facebook, Snap, or Pinterest.
  • Watch for new tools. TikTok will continue to roll out new tools to maximize its value, including more livestreaming features. Be alert for them and decide which ones are a possible fit for your brand – but treat them as experimental.
  • Consider the big picture. The conversation about TikTok as an ad platform could become moot if the app is banned in the United States owing to ongoing concerns about the app posing a security and privacy threat. Advertisers are staying true to TikTok as the app’s parent company ByteDance negotiates an agreement with the U.S. government. Could TikTok get sold? That’s a real possibility. Watch developments and be ready to adapt.

Contact True Interactive

At True Interactive, we work with our clients to maximize the value of all their online advertising, including social media spend. We strongly advocate for our clients as we work with apps such as TikTok. Contact us to learn how we can help you.

Why YouTube Is Turning to Shorts for Social Commerce

Why YouTube Is Turning to Shorts for Social Commerce

by Max Petrungaro YouTube

Short-form video is an important battleground for brands and consumers right now. TikTok really changed the game for video content creation by inspiring millions of people to create TikTok videos that typically last anywhere from 10 seconds to 60 seconds. Since then, a host of imitators have appeared, including Meta’s Reels on Facebook and Instagram; and YouTube Shorts.

Many businesses have quickly cracked the code for creating short-form video, and everyday users continue to up the ante, too, which has accelerated the rise of the creator economy, or everyday creators who monetize their content with the help of the host app.

Short-form video is also rapidly evolving as a format for creating ads, free content, and shoppable experiences. The latest example: YouTube Shorts is expanding shopping features.

What Is YouTube Shorts?

Shorts is a feature available to YouTube users. With Shorts, people can quickly and easily create short videos of up to 15 seconds, similar to how TikTok and Instagram Reels are used. The videos are created on mobile devices and viewed, in portrait orientation, on mobile devices. And once a person opens one Short, they get access to tons more of them (again, think TikTok or Reels playing one after another.) According to Google, YouTube Shorts now averages over 30 billion daily views (four times as many as a year ago).

It did not take long for businesses to get involved with Shorts. As we have blogged, brands everywhere are connecting with the vast YouTube audience with organic content and advertising.

For instance, Kitchen and home marketplace Food52 is posting Shorts that offer sneak peeks at its longer-form content on the traditional version of YouTube, as well as repurposing some recipe videos. Drupely’s olive-oil brand Graza says it is creating user engagement by posting how-to cooking and recipe content. According to Graza, videos focused solely on Graza products do better on TikTok than on Shorts.

Social Commerce on Shorts

If YouTube has its way, more brands will be using Shorts to sell things to people. New shopping features are being tested by YouTube in order to accelerate social commerce on YouTube. The new shopping features allow users to purchase products as they scroll through Shorts.

In the United States, eligible creators can tag products from their own stores. Viewers in the United States, India, Brazil, Canada and Australia can see the tags and shop through the Shorts. (The plan is to expand tagging for more creators and countries.)

YouTube is also experimenting with an affiliate program in the United States. This makes it possible for creators to earn commissions through purchases of recommended products in their Shorts and regular videos. YouTube says that this test is in early days. The program will be expanded in 2023.

This is just the latest in many efforts by YouTube to inject social shopping into the user experience. For instance, YouTube launched shoppable ads and the ability to shop directly from livestreams hosted by creators. YouTube has good reason to make it easier to buy and sell products on Shorts. Shorts has topped 1.5 billion monthly users. According to gen.video, YouTube ranks third overall in terms of where consumers do their product research before buying, only behind Amazon and Google directly.

YouTube Shorts is in a race with Instagram and TikTok to win attention from shoppers. Both apps have a head start on Shorts, and TikTok is testing TikTok Shop in the United States. TikTok Shop allows users to buy products directly through the app. All of them are trying to get a slice of the social shopping pie: social commerce is expected to be a $2 trillion market by 2025.

Brands are already figuring out how to sell products via Shorts. Glossier sold products through Shorts in June by creating a challenge for users to try. Glossier gave about a hundred influencers a new pencil eyeliner and encouraged them to create Shorts videos with the hashtag #WrittenInGlossier in the caption. People who tapped the hashtag were brought to the Glossier website. There, they could buy the eyeliner and were asked to recreate a look as part of the challenge. Any Shorts video that included the hashtag was shoppable.

2023 will likely be a year for more shopping features to proliferate on video platforms, with Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram duking it out for consumers’ attention amid a recessionary economy. Who will win? We’ll report progress here.

Contact True Interactive

We deliver results for clients across all ad formats, including video and mobile. To learn how we can help you, contact us.

“Why Google Is Bullish about Winning Its Fight with TikTok”

“How Brands Are Using YouTube Shorts”

“Why Google Brought Advertising to YouTube Shorts”

“Why YouTube Shorts Matters to Brands”

Why Google Is Bullish About Winning Its Fight with TikTok

Why Google Is Bullish About Winning Its Fight with TikTok

by Max Petrungaro Google YouTube

Alphabet, Google’s parent, announced third-quarter earnings that fell short of expectations. Normally an earnings miss is cause for concern especially during recessionary times. But the company sounded upbeat. In fact, Alphabet believes it’s making the right investments for long-term growth, including one crucial YouTube feature.

The Numbers

First, let’s take a look at the numbers. For the third quarter, Alphabet reported:

  • Revenue: $69.09 billion vs. $70.58 billion expected, according to Refinitiv estimates.
  • Google advertising revenue: $54.48 billion, up 2.5 percent year over year but down 3 percent between the second and third quarters. (By contrast, Google’s ad revenue jumped 43.2 percent between the second and third quarters of 2021.)
  • YouTube advertising revenue: $7.07 billion vs $7.42 billion expected, according to StreetAccount estimates.

The decline in ad revenue for YouTube is most bothersome for Google, especially because YouTube rival TikTok continues to pick up steam. Advertisers are finding something better on TikTok: younger, highly engaged audiences who prefer TikTok’s short-form video content.

According to Statista, TikTok generated $4.0 billion in advertising revenue in 2021, a figure that is expected to double by 2024 and triple by 2026.Digiday reported just a few days ago that ad agencies are shifting content creation from Instagram and YouTube to TikTok. In April, Insider Intelligence predicted that TikTok’s ad revenue will grow 184% to nearly $6 billion in 2023 (that amount tops Twitter and Snap combined). Meanwhile, Insider Intelligence says that Influencer-marketing spend on TikTok will overtake YouTube in 2024.

YouTube Is Fighting Back

But Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai says he is confident that Google will turn things around. One reason: the company has developed an answer to TikTok.

YouTube recently launched Shorts, which is YouTube’s version of short-form TikTok videos. Shorts is basically a TikTok copycat. Using the YouTube app, people can quickly and easily create short videos of up to 15 seconds. The videos are created on mobile devices and viewed, in portrait orientation, on mobile devices. And once you open one short, you essentially access the motherlode in that videos start playing one after the other. Just swipe vertically to get from one to the next.

According to YouTube, more than 1.5 billion people use Shorts – impressive numbers that actually surpass TikTok’s user base. As a result, more brands are creating campaigns on Shorts. It’s early days for Shorts and brands, but Shorts has two big advantages over TikTok:

  • Integration with YouTube, which has 2.6 billion active users. This is important because YouTube can promote Shorts to the built-in user base, and brands can connect Shorts content to their already established YouTube presence.
  • A creator monetization program that is more favorable than TikTok’s. YouTube recently announced Shorts will soon be eligible for monetization, and creators will keep 45 percent of the revenue generated from viewership. Having more savvy and popular creators on Shorts will generate more ad revenue for YouTube – and likely attract more brands.

Shorts is a fledgling operation. It only recently launched an ad program. But in an earnings call with investors, Pichai voiced optimism that the company’s investment into Shorts will pay off. He reiterated YouTube’s commitment to Shorts monetization, challenging TikTok directly, and attracting creators to the platform.

He has one other reason to feel upbeat. TikTok continues to grapple with a recurring and very ugly issue about its possible threat to national security related to accusations of privacy breaches — an issue that flared up in 2020 and is making headlines again. Who knows how that is going to turn out?

The best course of action for YouTube is the one that the company has chosen already: answering TikTok as it has done and capitalizing on its built-in user base. This will take time, and investors are impatient, especially during a down economy. But Alphabet has the cash to ride out the down times and continue to make YouTube more appealing to advertisers and creators.

Contact True Interactive

We deliver results for clients across all ad formats, including video and mobile. To learn how we can help you, contact us.

Why Walmart Connect Expanded Its Advertising Partnerships

Why Walmart Connect Expanded Its Advertising Partnerships

by Tim Colucci Walmart

As the 2022 holiday season kicks into high gear, retail analysts are watching closely how much consumers will spend during a time of inflation. But it’s equally fascinating to understand how people shop. Walmart Connect, Walmart’s fast-growing advertising arm, believes that holiday shopping online – indeed all shopping online — will increasingly happen via social media, television commerce (t-commerce), and livestreaming. That’s one reason that Walmart Connect has expanded its advertising partner program to encompass social apps such as TikTok and streaming platforms such as TalkShopLive.

What Is the Walmart Advertising Partner Program?

Walmart Connect wants to help businesses advertise across the digital world beyond Walmart.com. To do that, Walmart Connect’s partnership program works with platforms to help brands scale, automate, and optimize their Walmart Connect advertising. These include partners that make it possible for Walmart Connect to expand self-service advertising through an application programming interface (API). Those API partners can be found here.

The partnership program is becoming more important to Walmart as it positions itself as a strong retailer-based ad platform alternative to Amazon Ads. And Walmart says the program is increasingly delivering value. For example, when BirdRock Brands turned to Pacvue (an enterprise software suite for eCommerce advertising) to scale its manual Walmart Sponsored Products campaigns, BirdRock was able to help design a campaign that ultimately experienced a return on ad spend 11 percent greater than its target, and an 83 percent increase in sales quarter over quarter.

What Did Walmart Announce About Its Advertising Partner Program?

Walmart has added a slew of advertising partners known as innovation partners. According to Walmart, these innovation partners will provide test-and-learn opportunities with formats such as social, entertainment, and live streaming throughout the entire holiday season. The newly expanded offering includes additional touchpoints and channels to reach customers wherever they are with new ad formats:

  • TikTok: this partnership provides an opportunity for advertisers to connect with potential shoppers on the red-hot TikTok platform. As Walmart noted, more than 50 percent of TikTok users say they watch ads on their feed instead of scrolling past them. The first-to-market pilot between TikTok and Walmart Connect will provide advertisers with the opportunity to serve in-feed ads on TikTok. This will leverage TikTok’s sound-on full screen video format together with Walmart Connect’s targeting and measurement.
  • Snap: the partnership with Snap enables advertisers to buy ad units including augmented reality, Collection Ads and Snap Ads through Walmart Connect and take advantage of the Walmart Connect’s geo-based measurement. This is the first time advertisers can buy Snap ad units through Walmart Connect and get in front of the unique Snapchat audience (75 percent of 13-34 year-olds in the U.S.), who hold over $1.9 trillion in spending power.
  • Firework: this partnership enables supplier-funded shoppable livestreams and short shoppable videos on Walmart.com/live. Walmart Connect is testing how brands can leverage Firework’s capabilities to create premium, engaging, mobile-first video experiences and, to start, has partnered with Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble.
  • TalkShopLive: Walmart Connect is expanding its relationship with TalkShopLive to partnership enable supplier-funded shoppable livestreams on Walmart.com/live, TalkShopLive’s platform, brand and publisher sites, as well as across the web. Walmart Connect is testing how brands can amplify their content and connect with shoppers at scale. To start, it has already executed livestreams with Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and Samsung, among others.
  • Roku: Walmart wants to help make TV streaming the next e-commerce shopping destination. Walmart touts Roku as America’s Number One TV streaming platform (citing Hypothesis Group research). So, Walmart has become the exclusive retailer to enable streamers on Roku to purchase featured products and have the transactions fulfilled by the chain. Walmart Connect will connect brands to customers through the Roku platform, and checkout will be seamless for customers, while advertisers receive insights on effectiveness via Walmart Connect measurement.

In announcing these partnerships, Walmart discussed how online search and shopping has become more diversified especially in the post-pandemic age. Seth Dallaire, Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, Walmart U.S., wrote in a blog post:

Consumers who turned to online shopping during the pandemic have chosen to stay there, with those returning to in-store relying on online research to guide their decisions. Consumers realized the importance of “connection” and were forced to adapt and connect in new ways including social feeds, livestreaming, mobile and more, specifically across video and connected TV. In fact, the predicted growth of social commerce from 10% of all e-commerce to 17% by 2025 will be driven by Gen Z and millennial consumers and nearly two-thirds (64%) of social media users — an estimated 2 billion social buyers — said they made a purchase on social media in the past year.

Now, Walmart Connect intends to do its part in connecting social media discovery to actual sales. So far, Walmart Connect’s partnerships have been hands-on in nature. Brands get custom reporting about their campaigns, based on activations on Walmart.com’s live shopping, TikTok, Snap, and Roku. But Seth Dallaire told Advertising Age that the partnership program expanding to the point where it would be more automated and widely available within Walmart Connect, so that brands could better target ads on social media and connected TV.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here and our Walmart Connect expertise here.

For Further Insight

“Why Walmart Connect Is Winning,” Tim Colucci, February 25, 2022.

“Why Retailers Are Launching Ad Businesses,” Tim Colucci, January 11, 2022.

“Walgreens Doubles Down on Its Advertising Business,” Tim Colucci, May 19, 2021.

“Amazon Unveils New Ad Units Across Its Ecosystem,” Kurt Anagnostopoulos, May 4, 2021.

“Why Macy’s Launched an Advertising Platform,” Tim Colucci, March 3, 2021.

“Walmart Asserts Its Leadership in Advertising,” Tim Colucci, February 8, 2021.