Walmart Connect Goes Around Agencies to Pitch Ad Measurement

By Amara Osei

Walmart's global ad business grew 38% in the second quarter — and now its sales team is pitching advertisers directly, bypassing agencies, to keep that growth accelerating into Q4.

Walmart Connect, the retailer's advertising arm, has begun approaching brand clients directly to offer on-site brand lift studies (tests measuring whether ads shifted shopper attitudes and behavior) ahead of the holiday shopping season. Three agency executives told Digiday multiple clients have been approached; none named the clients. Walmart did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

Why does measurement matter now?

The pitch lands at a moment when CFOs and CMOs demand proof of return on investment. Lacie Edgeman, co-owner and managing director at PrograMetrix, framed the timing bluntly.

"From our experience, Q4 is when advertisers are least willing to fund spend they cannot defend," Edgeman said in an emailed statement. "Walmart is signaling that it wants to be evaluated as a full-funnel partner (awareness, consideration, intent), not only as a lower-funnel conversion engine."

The studies promise brands specific insight into how their Walmart spend performs — and give Walmart a showcase for its measurement capabilities. Stella Rising, a digital media and marketing agency with affected clients, sees value with conditions.

"Done well, they're a win for both sides," a Stella Rising spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The caveat is the question underneath every retail media deal: did the campaign drive incremental sales, or did the retailer take credit for a purchase that would have happened anyway? Lagging standardization, walled-garden data and difficulty proving incrementality (the sales lift attributable to ads rather than baseline demand) have forced marketers into piecemeal approaches. Walmart is competing to own that measurement conversation, not just media budgets.

How does the program work?

Access depends on money. Anthony Costanzo, chief analytics officer at Mile Marker, said the studies were offered based on how much an advertiser spends via Walmart Connect. At least four of Mile Marker's clients are participating; Costanzo declined to name them or detail spend figures.

Direct offers from retailers are not new — Walmart has run one-off beta tests for larger advertisers before — "but we're starting to see this conversation trickle down to more and more accounts," Costanzo said.

The stakes are considerable. Advertisers are expected to spend $69.33 billion on retail media before year-end, per eMarketer, which also ranks Walmart among the fastest-growing retail media networks. One agency executive, speaking anonymously, called incrementality proof a potential "point of differentiation" and "an interesting attack angle for them to take on Amazon to win more media dollars."

What are the trade-offs?

The studies carry costs beyond spend thresholds. Reporting can take up to nine weeks after a campaign ends, Edgeman said. Advertisers also cannot independently set up or execute the studies, leaving Walmart, in Costanzo's words, often "grading their own homework."

"We're still not able to execute the kinds of incrementality tests we'd like to, that we could do in a non-walled garden," Costanzo said. "But it's a step in the right direction, and we do expect other retailers to move in that direction alongside Walmart."

Walmart's push arrives as brands lock in Q4 spending and finalize 2027 media budgets — if the retailer can prove its ads caused the sale, it unlocks more budget and steps further out of Amazon's shadow.