Our general group chat is often teeming with questions like “who’s using Walmart Media?”, “DM me if you’ve been running on Spiceworks”, “does Safari have a UI?” This has been making me curious so I went nosing around for those sweet, sweet, deets. Below are some of my impressions and takeaways for these platforms:
Safari
We all know how I feel about Apple Search Ads, but what’s the deal with Safari? When you do an initial Google Search for Apple ads you get hits for ASA (which is a platform for app marketing), free adblocker plug-ins, and an opportunity to go down the rabbit hole of watching Apple commercials from 1984-present. I also found a playlist of songs that have been used in Apple commercials.
Walmart Media Group
Walmart Media launched its ad platform in January 2020. This platform offers Search, Shopping, and Display campaigns that are hosted on Walmart.com. Walmart leverages its accessibility and popularity to promote always-on brand awareness and promotions that drive Walmart shoppers to purchase your brand online and in stores. Walmart reports that:
- 95% of Americans shop at Walmart
- 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart Store
- 35% of their in-store customers visit Walmart.com shortly before visiting the store
- 87% of sales still happen in-store
For me, the payoff comes with the display campaigns. While the Search and Shopping campaigns are straightforward and make sense, it’s all exclusive to Walmart.com. The display campaigns are segmented by onsite and offsite campaigns. Onsite are hosted on Walmart.com while offsite taps into Walmart’s display network; branching into the web, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for retargeting Walmart customers you prospected onsite.
Spiceworks
Spiceworks provides Direct Management, Programmatic and self-serve Display options for marketing to IT buyers. Targeting options are segmented by Intent Segments, Company Size, Industry, and Geography. All ads are dynamic Display and morph with the page to appear in the most viewable hot-spots
Spiceworks’ mission is to provide higher quality targeting and relevance for SaaS and IT buyers. They report that 50% of Display ads are not viewed by humans and have achieved +70% viewability on their own network. One stand-out fact for me is that their standard ad schedule is 8am-6pm; which makes perfect sense for this vertical as most sales happen during the workday.
Digital Marketing is ever-changing. New platforms, networks, and services pop up every month. I recommend keeping an eye out for new solutions that can work for you!
