Walmart vs Amazon: 10 differences PPC managers need to know

In July 2026 Amazon took first place on the Fortune Global 500, at roughly $717 billion in revenue against Walmart's $713 billion. Fortune's own announcement puts it plainly: Amazon ended Walmart's twelve year run at the top. Four billion dollars now separate the two largest companies in the world, and a brand deciding where to put its advertising is standing between them.

Amazon $716.9B, 9th on the list in 2020 and 1st in 2026

Walmart $713.2B, 1st in 2020 and 2nd in 2026

The gap between them: $244B in 2020, $3.7B now.

AmazonWalmart

The numbers

Fortune Global 500 list	Amazon	Walmart	Gap
2020	$280.5B	$524.0B	$243.5B
2021	$386.1B	$559.2B	$173.1B
2022	$469.8B	$572.8B	$103B
2023	$514.0B	$611.3B	$97.3B
2024	$574.8B	$648.1B	$73.3B
2025	$638.0B	$681.0B	$43B
2026	$716.9B	$713.2B	Amazon ahead by $3.7B

Two different questions get asked in the same sentence. The first is whether Walmart is worth adding at all. The second is whether the Amazon account can simply be copied across. The answer to the first depends on your category and your margins. The answer to the second is no, and this piece is mostly about why.

Short answer. Walmart Connect and Amazon Ads look alike and should not be run the same way. The differences that decide how an account is managed are product targeting, negative keywords, automatic campaign control, bid adjustments, campaign grouping and reporting latency. Walmart publishes minimum bids and lets you bid differently by device; Amazon does neither. Amazon lets you bid on a competitor's product and shows you yesterday; Walmart does neither.

Last tested: September 2026, in both consoles, against each platform's own documentation. The screenshots are our own, taken in accounts we run. Account names, brands, products, campaign names and keywords are blurred in every one of them, so nothing that identifies a client appears here.

The marketplace, before the advertising

Where you can sell

AmazonStores across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East, from one Global Selling account

WalmartOne Marketplace account covers the US and can be extended to Canada, Mexico and Chile

Getting in

AmazonOpen registration, with some categories gated

WalmartAn application: business tax ID (an SSN is not accepted), GS1 GTINs, a record of ecommerce success, and US fulfilment with returns capability

Account cost

Amazon$39.99 a month on the Professional plan, or $0.99 per item sold on the Individual plan

WalmartNo setup fee and no monthly fee

Referral fee

AmazonVaries by category, most between 8% and 15%

WalmartVaries by category and by price, roughly 6% to 15%, up to 20% on jewellery below $250

Fulfilment

AmazonFBA or your own

WalmartWFS or your own

Minimum ad bid

AmazonNo single published minimum across Sponsored Ads

Walmart$0.20 automatic Sponsored Products, $0.30 keyword Sponsored Products, $0.50 Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Videos

Yesterday's numbers

AmazonAvailable, with conversions still filling in

WalmartUsually not: the last complete day is the day before yesterday

The practical reading of that table is short. Trying Walmart costs nothing to hold, because there is no monthly fee, so the real cost of entry is the application and the catalogue work behind it. Amazon lets almost anyone list tomorrow and charges a subscription for the privilege.

One claim that circulates in every comparison is worth treating carefully: that Walmart has less competition. Walmart does not publish a seller count that can be cited next to Amazon's, so that statement is an impression rather than a measurement. What can be measured is competition inside a search: how much of the clicks on a phrase the top few products already take. That is a number you can pull per keyword, per marketplace, and it varies far more by category than by platform, as our measurement of 1.2 million keywords showed on the Amazon side.

Where the ad platforms diverge

Feature by feature, in one table. Every line is expanded further down, with the screen it was taken from.

AdsConnect

Grouping above the campaign

Amazon AdsPortfolios

Walmart ConnectNone

Product targeting in Sponsored Products

Amazon AdsYes: ASIN, category, brand

Walmart ConnectNo standard equivalent

Keyword match types

Amazon AdsBroad, phrase, exact

Walmart ConnectBroad, phrase, exact

Negative keywords, manual campaigns

Amazon AdsYes

Walmart ConnectYes

Negative keywords, automatic campaigns

Amazon AdsYes

Walmart ConnectFixed bidding only

Automatic targeting control

Amazon AdsFour groups, separate bids

Walmart ConnectTwo switches

Bid adjustment by placement

Amazon AdsYes

Walmart ConnectYes, as bid multipliers

Bid adjustment by device

Amazon AdsNo

Walmart ConnectDesktop, app, mobile web

Search terms in the campaign view

Amazon AdsYes

Walmart ConnectBy report export

Standalone keyword research tool

Amazon AdsNo

Walmart ConnectKeywords Planner

Published minimum bid

Amazon AdsNone

Walmart Connect$0.20 to $0.50

Video advertising

Amazon AdsA format inside Sponsored Brands

Walmart ConnectIts own campaign type

Reporting delay

Amazon AdsYesterday, still filling in

Walmart ConnectDay before yesterday

Attribution windows

Amazon AdsVary by ad product and report

Walmart Connect3, 14 and 30 days

Advertising in physical stores

Amazon AdsNo

Walmart ConnectStore Ads

The ten differences, one at a time

1. Amazon groups campaigns, Walmart lists them. Amazon Ads has a portfolio level above the campaign, which can carry its own budget cap. Walmart Connect has no level above the campaign, so grouping exists only in the naming convention.

2. Only Amazon lets you bid on a competitor's product. Amazon Sponsored Products can target an individual ASIN, a category or a brand. Walmart Sponsored Products is built around items and keywords and has no standard product targeting.

3. Amazon prices automatic targeting in four parts, Walmart in one. Amazon splits automatic campaigns into close match, loose match, substitutes and complements, each with its own bid and its own reporting. Walmart gives brand term targeting and complementary product targeting as two switches on the campaign.

4. On Walmart, negative keywords depend on the bidding strategy. Walmart Connect supports negative keywords in manual Sponsored Products, and in automatic Sponsored Products only when the campaign uses fixed bidding. Amazon has no such condition.

5. Only Walmart lets you bid differently by device. Walmart Connect supports platform bid multipliers for desktop, app and mobile web. Amazon Ads offers no equivalent adjustment.

6. Only Walmart publishes a minimum bid. Walmart's documented floors are $0.20 for automatic Sponsored Products, $0.30 for keyword bid Sponsored Products and $0.50 per match type for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Videos. Amazon publishes no single minimum across Sponsored Ads.

7. Search terms sit in the campaign on Amazon and in a report on Walmart. Amazon shows the phrases shoppers typed inside the campaign manager. On Walmart the Item Keyword Performance report is what ties an item to a keyword to a result, so the analysis is an export rather than a screen.

8. Walmart has a keyword planner, Amazon does not. Walmart Connect includes a Keywords Planner that returns queries tied to a specific item with frequency buckets. Amazon offers keyword recommendations inside campaign creation but no standalone equivalent in the standard console.

9. Walmart is a day behind. The most recent complete day in a Walmart Connect account is the day before yesterday, and it keeps filling in as attributed orders land. Amazon backfills conversions too, but yesterday is there.

10. The attribution windows are not the same. Walmart offers 3, 14 and 30 day windows, with 14 days as the default in Ad Center. Amazon's window depends on the ad product, the advertiser type and the report, so the same ROAS on the two platforms is not the same result.

1. The account is a deeper tree on Amazon

Amazon Ads nests more levels than Walmart Connect, and those levels are where analysis happens.

A Sponsored Products account on Amazon runs: advertising account, portfolio, campaign, ad group, advertised products, then keywords or product targets, then search terms and placements.

Walmart Connect runs: advertiser account, campaign, ad group, items, then keywords or automatic targeting controls, then search terms, placements and platforms.

The missing level is the portfolio. On Amazon a portfolio groups campaigns by brand, category, product line or season, and can carry its own budget cap on top of the daily campaign budgets. Walmart has no equivalent. Campaigns arrive as one flat list, so any grouping has to be built out of a naming convention, filters and exports. That is not a cosmetic difference. On Walmart, a sloppy campaign name is the thing that later stops you from answering a simple question about a brand or a product line.

The second structural difference is what a row in a report actually means. Amazon keeps three objects apart: the advertised product (the ASIN being promoted), the target (the keyword, category or ASIN you bid on), and the search term (what the shopper typed). When a result moves, that split is what tells you which of the three caused it.

Inside a Walmart campaign, the work is mostly settings, bids and the items being advertised. Performance detail lives in the reports section rather than in the campaign, so item level and keyword level questions are answered by an export.

2. The campaign types line up, the contents do not

Both platforms sell the same three ideas: promote a product, promote a brand, buy display. What sits inside each one is different.

Amazon presents Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Display, Video and Audio in a single console, with Full Funnel Campaigns in beta alongside them.

Walmart Sponsored Search offers three: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Videos. Video is its own campaign type here, not a format inside the brand campaign.

Automatic campaigns. Amazon splits its automatic targeting into four groups that exist as separate objects: close match, loose match, substitutes and complements. Each takes its own bid and reports its own result, which is why an automatic campaign on Amazon doubles as a research tool for the manual ones.

Walmart's automatic campaigns hand matching to the algorithm and give you two switches instead: brand term targeting, which extends the campaign onto searches connected to your brand, and complementary product targeting, for products shoppers buy alongside yours.

Manual campaigns. This is the widest gap in the whole comparison. Amazon manual targeting comes in two kinds. Keyword targeting works on broad, phrase and exact. Product targeting bids on the product context instead of the search: individual ASINs, whole categories, or brands. That is what makes competitor ASIN campaigns, category campaigns and defensive campaigns on your own listings possible.

Walmart's manual Sponsored Products workflow is built around items and keywords, with exact, phrase and broad match. There is no standard equivalent of picking a competitor's item and bidding on its page.

Sponsored Brands. On Amazon this is a family: collections, brand store spotlight and video, targeted by keywords, products or categories, with CPC, vCPM and a reserved share of voice option for your own branded terms. Clicks can land on a product page, the brand store, a specific store page or a landing page.

Walmart Sponsored Brands is one fixed shape: manual keyword targeting, a brand logo, a message and up to four products shown. Walmart Connect says a campaign can include up to ten items and its algorithm picks the four most relevant, that an ad group is capped at 200 keywords, that the minimum bid is $0.50 per match type, and that the click can be sent to a search results page, a product page, or a Brand Shop or Shelf. It runs on CPC only, and it is open to brand owners and authorised brand representatives rather than to every seller.

Sponsored Videos is separate: five to 45 seconds, 16:9, manual keyword targeting across all match types, CPC, appearing in the search grid and landing on the product page.

Display. Amazon Display sits in the same console as everything else. It offers audience targeting, contextual targeting, views and purchases remarketing, automatically generated ecommerce creative built from the product page, custom images and video, and it runs on CPC or vCPM.

Walmart Onsite Display is a different workspace. Display Self Serve is reached separately from Sponsored Search, and the campaign is built in a different order.

You choose the asset first, banner or video, then the objective: awareness optimises for viewable impressions, engagement for clicks, conversion for attributed sales. Then schedule and budget, and a delivery speed setting, even or front loaded. Then the part with no Amazon counterpart: featured items, which are the products in the creative, and halo items, which are the additional products whose sales Walmart will count when measuring the campaign, chosen by category, by brand, by a list you build, or not at all.

Beyond the marketplace. Amazon adds Streaming TV, audio and the Amazon DSP. Walmart adds Offsite Media, Walmart DSP and Store Ads, which are the screens and audio inside physical stores. The shape of the two ecosystems differs here: Amazon extends into its own digital properties, Walmart extends into its shops.

3. Bidding: more dials on one side, more multipliers on the other

Amazon Sponsored Products offers fixed bids, dynamic bids down only, and dynamic bids up and down. Amazon's guide states that up and down can move a bid by up to 100% for all placements. On top of that sit bid adjustments by placement: top of search, rest of search and product pages, plus adjustments for audiences, Amazon Business placements and video, depending on the account.

Walmart offers fixed bidding, dynamic bidding and target ROAS. Dynamic bidding is described in the interface as raising bids by up to 100% and lowering them by up to 50%, never below the campaign type's minimum. It is one setting, not two directions you can pick between.

Target ROAS has an entry requirement the interface states plainly: a daily budget of at least $50. Below that the strategy is not available, which quietly rules it out for a lot of small Walmart accounts.

The adjustment layer is where the platforms swap places. Amazon reports performance per placement and lets you adjust from the same screen.

Walmart gives bid multipliers per placement, buy box, search in-grid, homepage and stock up, and something Amazon does not offer at all: platform multipliers for desktop, app and mobile web.

4. Finding what to bid on

Amazon research runs in two directions at once. Keywords come from recommended keywords at campaign creation, from search term reports, from Brand Analytics for registered brands, and from the category's own language.

Product targets come from suggested ASINs, competitor ASINs, categories and brands. Nothing on Walmart replaces that second direction.

Walmart's answer is a tool Amazon does not have: the Keywords Planner, which returns queries tied to a specific item with frequency buckets attached.

Alongside it, suggested keywords are generated from the item in the ad group, each with a suggested bid per match type.

5. Search terms and negatives

On Amazon, search terms are in the campaign manager. You read what shoppers actually typed, promote the ones that work into manual targets, and push the rest into negative targeting, which can exclude phrases, products and brands.

On Walmart, the equivalent view is an export. The Item Keyword Performance report is the one that ties an item to a keyword to a result, and for automatic campaigns it is the only way to see which queries triggered which item.

Negatives carry a condition that catches people out. Walmart supports negative keywords in manual Sponsored Products, and in automatic Sponsored Products only when the campaign uses fixed bidding. So an Amazon style negation routine cannot simply be carried over: on a Walmart automatic campaign running dynamic bidding or target ROAS, there is nowhere to put the negative until the strategy changes.

6. Reporting, attribution and the delay

The metrics match. Impressions, clicks, CTR, spend, CPC, orders, units, sales, conversion rate and ROAS mean the same things. What differs is granularity, attribution and timing, which is why the same ROAS on the two platforms is not the same result.

Amazon splits its reports by object: search term, targeting, advertised product, purchased product, placement, budget, and performance over time. The split between advertised product and purchased product is the one that shows the halo, when a click on one ASIN ends in a sale of another.

Walmart reports by campaign, ad group, item, keyword, item keyword, placement and platform, plus Item Health and search term impression share where the account has them.

Attribution windows differ too. Walmart offers 3, 14 and 30 day windows, with 14 days as the default in Ad Center. Amazon's window depends on the ad product, the advertiser type and the report, so the metric description inside the report is the thing to read before comparing anything to anything.

Then the delay, which changes the daily routine more than any feature on this page. On Walmart you usually cannot see yesterday. The most recent complete day is the day before yesterday, and even that keeps filling in as attributed orders land inside the window. Optimising a Walmart campaign on yesterday's numbers means optimising on a partial day. Amazon backfills conversions too, so its recent days also move, but the lag does not sit in the middle of the working day the way Walmart's does.

7. Bulk operations and API access

Amazon has bulk files for creating and editing campaigns in a spreadsheet, and the Amazon Ads API for reporting and campaign management, which is what the third party PPC tool market is built on.

Walmart supports bulk operations and has an advertising API, but access depends on the partner status attached to the account. Reporting only access returns data without campaign management. Full service partner access includes both. Worth confirming before anyone plans an automation on top of it.

What Amazon PPC managers get wrong on Walmart

Most of an Amazon plan ports across. These parts do not.

None of this makes one platform better than the other. It makes them different accounts, run on different rhythms, which is the part that gets missed when a Walmart account is opened as a copy of an Amazon one. UNITIX Agency runs both for the same brands, with the Walmart side structured for Walmart's mechanics rather than inherited from the Amazon plan, and the Amazon side using the depth that only exists there. What that looks like on a real Walmart account, including what we found when we opened it, is written up in this case study.

Sources

• Amazon selling plans and referral fees: sell.amazon.com/pricing
• Amazon Global Selling stores: sell.amazon.com/global-selling
• Amazon dynamic bidding: advertising.amazon.com
• Amazon Sponsored Products targeting: advertising.amazon.com
• Walmart Marketplace pricing and referral fees: marketplace.walmart.com/pricing
• Walmart Marketplace seller requirements: marketplace.walmart.com
• Walmart Connect Sponsored Brands: walmartconnect.com
• Walmart Connect Sponsored Videos: walmartconnect.com
• Walmart Connect keywords and minimum bids: walmartconnect.ca advertising help
• Walmart advertising API, negative keywords and minimum bids: developer.walmart.com

Interfaces change, and several settings above depend on the marketplace, the advertiser type and what an individual account has been granted. Where a number matters to a decision, check it in the account before acting on it.