How Display Pricing & Targeting Work

📚 Module 5: Onsite Display⏱ 6 min read🎯 Discovery

What you’ll learn

Why Display bills per impression, not per click
The first-price auction — and how it differs from search
Every targeting tactic Display gives you
The budget commitment Display really needs

Display doesn’t just look different from Sponsored Search — it’s priced and auctioned on a completely different model. Miss this and you’ll misjudge your costs badly, so let’s make it clear.

You pay per impression, not per click

Sponsored Products charge you per click (CPC). Onsite Display charges you on eCPM — effective cost per mille, meaning you pay for every thousand impressions, whether or not anyone clicks. That fits its job: Display is about being seen and building recognition, so it’s billed on reach.

The mindset shift

With CPC, you only pay when the ad works well enough to earn a click. With eCPM, you pay to be shown. That makes targeting and creative quality even more important — wasted impressions still cost you.

First-price, not second-price

Another key difference: Sponsored Search runs a second-price auction (you pay just above the next bid). Display runs a first-price auction — the highest bid wins and pays its full winning bid. There’s no “pay a penny above the runner-up” discount here, so bid what an impression is genuinely worth to you. Display also uses dynamic bidding to nudge your bids up and down to keep your campaign pacing to budget.

eCPMyou pay per 1,000 impressions

First-pricehighest bid wins and pays its bid

Dynamicbids auto-adjust to pace your budget

Your targeting tactics

This is where Display earns its keep — Walmart’s first-party data gives you precise ways to choose who sees your banner:

Behavioral

Based on real Walmart purchase history — online and in-store. Reach past category or brand buyers.

Contextual

Based on keyword search and category browsing history — shoppers currently exploring your space.

Keyword

A custom keyword list (with negatives), like a manual search campaign — but it renders your creative banner, not a product listing.

Custom & lookalike

Audiences built from your own first-party data uploads, plus lookalikes of them.

Run of Site

The widest net — broad visibility across Walmart’s digital properties.

You can also reach predictive, in-market shoppers — people Walmart’s data suggests are likely to buy in your category soon.

The budget reality

Display needs a bigger commitment than search to work. Because you’re paying for impressions and buying reach, thin budgets get spread too far to matter. One commonly cited guideline is around $4,500 per campaign per month for meaningful results.

Treat that number as directional

Recommended minimums vary by category and change over time. Confirm the current requirements and sensible spend levels in Ad Center — but go in expecting Display to ask more of your budget than Sponsored Products did.

Quick recap

Display bills on eCPM — you pay per 1,000 impressions, not per click.
It uses a first-price auction: the top bid wins and pays its full bid.
Targeting tactics include behavioral, contextual, keyword, custom/lookalike audiences and Run of Site.
Display needs a larger budget than search — expect a meaningful monthly commitment.