How to Win Walmart’s Summer High-Traffic Event

Walmart’s Summer Event is one of the most significant retail media moments of the year. Drawing from real performance data from our legacy Cartbloom business (July 7–13, 2025, measured WoW), we consolidated some of the most important insights from last year to offer best practices ahead of this year’s tentpole.

Remember, the brands that win these events aren’t always the biggest spenders, but they’re always the most prepared ones!

How did last year perform?

Last year, Cartbloom’s client sales outpaced the budget they added to the platform, and ROAS also improved by close to 10% during this period. Looking closer at the numbers, they saw +54% WoW growth in both sales and unit volume, while spend scaled +44%. CPC fell 30% as traffic on mid to long-tail keywords dramatically increased, and ROAS improved double digits versus the prior week.

This tells us that adding at least 40-50% in daily spend during the event is a safe investment and a solid baseline for how to budget for the 2026 event, given the ROAS gains from last year.

Build the Right Foundation

It’s obvious, but still very important. Pull forward inventory for a high-traffic event as needed, update imagery and content using your keyword ads' performance as indicators of conversion. Also consider how you are promoting your assortment based on other deals you may be running online – Walmart offers many options to provide flexibility on how to offer discounts if you are concerned with buybox challenges with competitive pricing.

On campaign type, Sponsored Products Manual and Sponsored Videos drove the highest New to Brand sales rates, both exceeding 83% during the event week. Interestingly, Sponsored Videos also posted the strongest ROAS of any campaign type – this is likely due to lower product penetration last year; however, it does demonstrate that ad units outside the standard Sponsored Products are especially effective during a deal event. Unsurprisingly, the core Sponsored Products performed the best from a total sales volume standpoint; however, they had mostly average NTB rates driven by the larger scale.

Maximize Keyword Coverage

Similar to the growth of Sponsored Products as the biggest sales driver, unsurprisingly, short-tail keywords (1–2 words) accounted for about 70% of keyword spend and drove the bulk of unit volume. What could be most impactful is maximizing spend across terms that historically have lower volume and aren’t driving meaningful sales during off-peak moments. Specifically, long-tail terms (5+ words) delivered the highest ROAS and lowest CPC of any group, with a ~87% NTB rate. Mid-tail keywords (3–4 words) sat in between at ~86% NTB with solid volume and efficient CPCs. Fund all three intentionally, as concentrating budget in short-tail alone leaves efficiency and easily won sales on the table.

Podean’s Walmart Connect team builds full-funnel seasonal strategies that perform. Ready to plan your Summer High Traffic Event? Get in touch at podean.com/contact.