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What negative matching does for your Walmart goals
A negative match tells Walmart not to show your ads when a shopper searches for a specific term. You can apply negative matches to your Walmart goals right in Perpetua, so you don't need to switch over to Walmart's ad console. Once you've applied them, the Negative Targets view on your goal's Keywords tab shows you which negative matches are in place.
Here's when negative matching helps:
- Cut wasted spend. If a search term keeps spending without converting, negate it so your budget goes to terms that sell.
- Keep your goals out of each other's way. If two of your Walmart goals keep showing up for the same searches, negate those terms in one goal so each goal has its own lane.
Before you use Walmart negative matching
- Your Walmart goal needs campaigns first. Negative matches are added to the campaigns that already exist in your goal. If you've just created a Walmart goal, or just switched its targeting type, wait until the new campaigns are created before you apply negative matches.
- Two match types. You can add negative matches as Negative Exact Match or Negative Phrase Match.
How to apply negative matches to a Walmart goal
1. Go to Goals and open the Walmart goal you'd like to adjust. In the goal, select the Keywords tab. Click the + icon, then choose Add Negative Match. The Add Negative Matches window opens.
[Keywords tab with the Add Negative Match option showing]
2. Under Select Negative Targeting Type, choose Negative Exact Match or Negative Phrase Match. Negative Exact Match is selected by default.
3. Under Enter Negative Keyword Matches, type the search terms you want to negate, one per line. Then click Add Negative Keyword Matches. Your terms move to the list on the right, each tagged with its match type, and the count at the top shows how many you've added.
4. Check the list before you apply it. To drop one term, click Remove next to it. To drop several, click Bulk Remove, tick the terms you don't want, and click Remove Selected.
5. Click Add Negative Matches to Goal.
Your negative matches are now added to every existing campaign in that Walmart goal. To check them, open the Negative Targets view, covered in the next section.
How to view the negative matches in your Walmart goal
The Negative Targets view in your Walmart goal shows the negative matches that exist in the campaigns in that goal, exactly as they appear in Walmart's ad console. The Negative Targets view is view-only. Use it to check that the negative matches you applied are in place, instead of relying on the confirmation message alone.
1. Go to Goals and open the Walmart goal you want to check. The goal opens on the Products tab.
2. Select the Keywords tab, then change the Positive Targets dropdown to Negative Targets. You'll see the negative matches that exist in the campaigns in this Walmart goal.
[Positive Targets dropdown open with Negative Targets showing]
3. Review each negative match in the Negative Targets view. For each negative match, you'll see the target, the match type, and the number of campaigns it's in.
4. Click the arrow next to a negative match to expand it and see which campaigns it's in.
[negative match expanded, showing the campaign it's in]
Check that a new negative match was applied
After you apply negative matches to your Walmart goal, open the Negative Targets view to confirm the new negative matches are there. New negative matches appear in the Negative Targets view right away.
If a negative match you applied isn't in the Negative Targets view, refresh the page. If it still isn't there after you refresh, applying it may have failed. Apply the negative match again.
Good to know about Walmart negative matching
- Negative matches apply to the whole Walmart goal. When you apply a negative match, it goes to all of the goal's existing campaigns. You can't apply a negative match to a single campaign.
- New campaigns don't pick up earlier negative matches. Negative matches are added only to the campaigns that exist when you apply them. If you later switch the goal's targeting type, the new campaigns won't have your earlier negative matches. Apply them again once the new campaigns are created, then check the Negative Targets view to confirm.
- Perpetua doesn't manage your negative matches for you. Perpetua adds the negative matches you choose, and that's it. It won't add, remove or re-apply them on its own.
- Changes in Walmart's ad console stick. If you add or remove a negative match in Walmart's ad console, Perpetua won't undo that change. For example, if you delete a negative match in the ad console, Perpetua won't put it back.
- The Negative Targets view matches Walmart's ad console. The Negative Targets view shows exactly what's in Walmart's ad console. If you add or remove a negative match in the ad console, you'll see that change in the Negative Targets view too.
- The Negative Targets view shows negative matches at the campaign level. A negative match added to an ad group in Walmart's ad console still shows up in the Negative Targets view, counted under its campaign. If the same negative match is on several ad groups in one campaign, it's counted once. For example, a negative match added to 2 ad groups in the same campaign shows as being in 1 campaign.
What Walmart negative matching doesn't do
- No campaign-level negative matches. Negative matches apply to every campaign in the Walmart goal, not to individual campaigns.
- No ad group detail in the Negative Targets view. The Negative Targets view shows negative matches for the campaigns in your Walmart goal, not for individual ad groups.
- No negative matches before campaigns exist. For a new Walmart goal, or one where you just switched targeting type, you'll need to wait for the campaigns to be created.
- No negative matches based on Branded Phrases in non-branded campaigns. This isn't supported for Walmart right now.
- No removing negative matches from the Negative Targets view. The Negative Targets view is view-only.
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