Walmart made advertising on their platform significantly easier. And they did it
By Will Haire · February 10, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Walmart made advertising on their platform significantly easier.
And they did it with Marty.
In early January, Walmart Connect launched "Marty," an AI copilot in Ad Center that helps advertisers navigate campaign setup, optimizations, and insights through conversational questions.
If you've been hesitant to advertise on Walmart because it felt too complex, that friction just disappeared.
Here's how it works:
⦿ Marty allows advertisers to ask natural-language questions about bidding, keywords, billing, and campaign performance.
⦿ The AI provides personalized recommendations and proactive alerts.
⦿ Early data shows 97% of queries are unique - advertisers are using it in highly customized ways, not just asking generic questions.
Walmart is also rolling out generative AI that turns shopping and sales data into actionable insights, including enhanced end-of-campaign reports and path-to-conversion analysis.
The goal is to make Walmart Connect as accessible as possible, even for brands without dedicated ad teams or agency partners.
For Amazon brands?
⤷ This changes the barrier to entry for multi-platform advertising.
If you've been Amazon-only because managing Walmart ads felt like too much work, AI copilots like Marty reduce that complexity. You can test Walmart Connect without hiring specialists or learning a new platform from scratch.
But here's the strategic caveat: AI copilots can optimize tactics. They'll help with bidding, keyword selection, budget pacing.
☒ What they won't do is build strategy.
→ They can't tell you which products to promote based on your margin structure, how to prioritize your catalog for maximum profitability, or when to pull back on ad spend because a SKU's unit economics don't support scaling.
That's the difference between automation and strategy. Marty makes execution easier. It doesn't replace strategic oversight.
If you're advertising on Amazon but not Walmart, test sponsored search campaigns using Marty.
☑ Start with your top 5-10 SKUs that have healthy margins and proven demand on Amazon.
☑ Let the AI guide initial setup, then track cost-per-acquisition and profit-per-order (not just ROAS) to determine if Walmart advertising is profitable for your business.
☑ Also, compare organic performance on Walmart vs. Amazon - if you're ranking well organically on Walmart, you may not need heavy ad spend to drive volume.
AI is lowering the barrier to multi-platform advertising. Take advantage while competition is still light.