SBA API Workflow

Overview

Search Brand Amplifier (SBA) is a powerful search solution that goes beyond conversion to increase awareness as well. It is a premium placement that showcases your brand and a curated product portfolio to customers actively searching Sam's Club website or app for products like yours. Your logo, a custom headline, and up to four SKUs appear together above relevant search results, with clickable links. Ads can be targeted to keywords.

To understand more details about ‘Request Authorization’, please refer to the Authorization Guide.

Setting up SBA Campaign

Create SBA Campaign

Use campaign type parameter (value: sba) and targeting type as manual.
If you are a 3P seller trying to create an SBA campaign, you need to be registered on the Walmart brand portal. Once your brand is verified, you will be able to create a campaign which will be subject to review as per campaign, review guidelines. You should wait at least 24 hours before trying again in case your request did not go through the first time.

Add Ad Group to Campaign

Create an ad group for the campaign and add items to it.
A maximum of 10 items can be added to an ad group.
A minimum of 1 item needs to be added to an ad group (to avoid stop serving ads in case of an out-of-stock scenario). 1 Item campaign will only serve on mobile.
Currently, only 1 ad group is allowed per campaign.
The review Status defaults to pending for each new item added or an item that is re-enabled.

Create SBA Profile for Ad Group

Create, read, and update the SBA profile relevant to the campaign’s products by using the endpoints drafted in the SBA profile API doc.
You can create only one SBA profile for a campaign. You can refer to SBA profile technical documentation for more details to create an SBA profile.
Any new profile created has review status pending by default and must be submitted for review.
Only an enabled profile will serve on a live campaign.
SBA profile consists of the following components:

Brand Logo (format:PNG; Size≤ 200 Kb)
Recommended 100px wide and 100px tall
Headline text (maximum 45 characters, no special characters are allowed)
Brand Name (maximum of 35 characters, no special characters are allowed)
Click URL (must be https://www.samsclub.com/*)

Add keywords (additional/suggested keywords)

Adding keywords to an SBA campaign is similar to adding keywords to a non-SBA campaign
The status for each new or re-enabled keyword is set to pending by default
Only 200 distinct bid keywords with 1 to 3 keyword-match types for each can be enabled per ad group

Note: For click URL requirements, please refer to the SBA Profile API documentation.

SBA Campaign Review

Submit a Review Request for Campaign

The Following campaign components are subject to review approval:

Brand Name, Logo, Click URL, and Headline
ItemKeyword

Whichever profile is “pending review”, is reviewed when review is requested. A profile does not need to be enabled to be considered for review. The review process can take 1-3 days, unless we are experiencing an unusually large number of review requests. Review will provide approval or rejection outcome for each component added to the campaign.

Schedule Campaign to Go Live

A campaign is eligible to go live if its review is complete and
1. One SBA Profile (Brand Name, Logo, Click URL, and Headline) is approved and enabled
2. At least 1 item is approved
3. At least 1 keyword bid is approved
4. Assess the review outcome and schedule the campaign to go live (this may not be needed if your MAP partner auto-schedules a reviewed campaign).
5. You can make any changes necessary and re-submit for review (if applicable) before scheduling the campaign to go live.

Note: You can update an enabled SBA profile for live campaigns. To update the SBA profile, you will have to pause the campaign, update the profile, get it reviewed, and schedule it once again. Once the review is complete, the campaign can be re-enabled to go live if it is eligible.

Cancel Review

You can cancel a review when reviewStatus is pending or in-progress.
Cancel by submitting a PUT request.
When a review is cancelled, its reviewStatus will be changed to cancelled.

Understanding the Review

Once you make the changes and submit a campaign review request:
1. If you need to add or re-enable an item or keyword for a campaign while the review is pending or in-progress:
  - You can cancel the review request
  - After cancelling the review request, you can modify the campaign and re-submit it for review
2. If you need to modify the campaign while the review is pending or in-progress:
  You can:
  - Update keyword bids
  - Update the campaign budget
  - Update the campaign’s end date
  - Disable an item or keyword
  - Cancel the review
  You cannot:
  - Add/re-enable items or keywords.
  - Update Brand Logo, Name, Click URL, or Headline.
  - Submit a second review for the campaign unless the current review is complete.
At post-review completion, the campaign status automatically changes to enabled, then scheduled, and finally to live (on the campaign start date). However, for the campaign to be auto-scheduled, it must be eligible to go live. A campaign can only be scheduled when the following are approved for it:
- SBA profile
- At least 1 keyword
- At least 1 item

Rules for Updating a Live or Paused Campaign

If a campaign review is pending or in-progress, none of the profiles can be updated.
Any approved profile can be enabled while the campaign status is paused, enabled, rescheduled, scheduled, or live.
An enabled profile in a live campaign cannot be modified or disabled.
- To update the enabled profile in a live campaign, the campaign needs to be paused before you can make changes to the profile, have the profile reviewed and approved, and then re-enable the profile.
- Once an approved profile will be paused and updated, the status will switch to pending.
Status of profile can be enabled irrespective of whether the profile is approved or rejected, only if the campaign is paused or is in proposal state.
- For a campaign whose status is live, scheduled or rescheduled, a profile can only be enabled if it is approved.
- A disabled profile cannot be enabled while a campaign review is pending or in-progress.
If a campaign is live or has been live at least once in its lifetime, you cannot delete an item or keyword.
The following changes can be made without the need for a review to apply them in near real-time:
i. Change in keyword bids
ii. Disable a keyword
For the following changes, you need to submit a review request:
i. Add a new item or keyword
ii. Re-enable an item or keyword

If you need to modify the campaign while the review is pending or in-progress
You can:
- Update keyword bids
- Update campaign budget
- Update campaign’s end date
- Disable an item or keyword
- Cancel the review
You cannot:
- Add or re-enable items or keywords
- Update Brand Logo, Name, Click URL, or Headline
- Submit a second review for the campaign, unless the current review is complete
If you need to add or re-enable an item or keyword for a campaign while the review is pending or in-progress: You can cancel the review request. After cancelling the review request, you can modify the campaign and re-submit for review.
If a campaign review is revised for an SBA Profile such that the SBA profile is rejected, the campaign will be paused. A campaign cannot stay live if the profile is rejected by WMC team. If this happens, you need to change the campaign profile as per guidelines and resubmit it for review.
If you extend an ended campaign, the system will auto-change the status to rescheduled and then to live as per the defined start date for the campaign.
A campaign can be auto-scheduled only if it is in proposal state. A paused campaign cannot be auto-scheduled.
A campaign can be auto-scheduled if it has a profile which is enabled and whose review status is approved (apart from having at least 1 item and 1 keyword bid approved)

Report on SBA campaigns

Report snapshots provide SBA campaign metrics like they do for non-SBA campaigns. However, the following are some rules that specifically govern metrics for SBA campaigns:

Clicks and impressions are attributed as per clicks and display for each item displayed in SBA placement
SBA placement is only available on the search page. Therefore, SBA metrics are included on the search page only for the page type report.
Clicks and impressions for logo are tracked under Item report, the revenue metrics for logo are based on related and brand sale.
SBA campaigns are not included in Item-Keyword Report

Sync SBA campaigns

You can sync your SBA campaigns using the Entity Snapshot API endpoint. For SBA campaigns, you can also request snapshot of SBA Profiles apart from other key campaign components.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the eligibility criterion for a seller to be eligible for SBA?
A: 1P Suppliers who are brand owners are eligible for SBA. They need to register their brand on the Walmart brand portal.

Q: Which products are eligible to advertise on SBA?
A: Products that are published, in-stock, and are sold online.

Q: Does the seller have the choice to select which 4 products should show up on SBA?
A: No

Q: Do you have any content guidelines for Headline text within SBA advertising?
A: Yes, please refer to the SBA Policy Guide.

Q: Once we create an SBA campaign, does the WMT Connect team moderate the campaign? If yes, then, what does the moderation process look, like, and what are the attributes that go under the moderation process?
A: Yes, each SBA campaign (or qualifying changes to it) require moderation by WMC, please refer to the SBA Policy Guide.

Q: How do API partners source logo images when creating SBA campaigns?
A: From Suppliers.

Q: What are all the different product categories eligible for SBA?
A: All except those under Fashion.

Q: SBA ads be linked to what pages?
A: You can link them to only Shelf, Search, and Browser pages. Please refer to our SBA Policy Guide for more details.

Q: What are all the different ages where SBA ads are shown?
A: Yes, please refer to the SBA Policy Guide for more details.

Q: What happens if one of the 3 products chosen for an SBA ad goes OOS? Will the SBA ad be taken down, or will WMC automatically select another related product from the advertiser’s catalog?
A: The campaign keeps serving ads on desktop and mobile as long as at least 3 relevant items in a campaign are in stock. With only 2 items in stock, it will only serve on mobile.

Q: Is there a limit on the number of items that can be added to an SBA campaign?
A: Minimum 1 and Maximum 10 SKU items can be added to the campaign.

Q: How does budgets, setting work for an SBA campaign? Does it have both daily and total budgets, similar to keyword and automatic campaigns?
A: Yes, both total and daily budgets are applicable.

Q: Are bid multipliers available for SBA campaigns?
A: No, as there is only one placement.

Q: What are the different SBA campaign statuses?
A: Here are applicable workflows for different statuses. Please refer to the flow diagram in ‘campaign’ documentation for more clarity on statuses for both SBA and non-SBA campaigns

New campaign: Enabled>Proposal (set by system)>Enabled>Scheduled (set by system)>Live (set by system)
Pause Live campaign: Live>Paused>Enabled>Rescheduled (set by system)>Live (set by system)
End Live & Extend Completed Campaign: Live>Completed>Extend>Rescheduled (set by system)>Live (set by system)

Q: How can I register my brand on Walmart?
A: You need to be a brand owner in the first place. You can use information here to register your brand on the Walmart brand portal.