Why Schaefer

Retail media works differently when it's built on buyer research.

Most agencies treat Walmart Connect as a keyword game. The brands that consistently win retail media, on shelf and online, are the ones whose campaign structure reflects how their specific buyers actually search, browse, and convert at Walmart. That requires knowing the buyer before you build the campaign.

Why People Buy, applied to retail media.

Every Schaefer engagement starts with our proprietary Why People Buy methodology, mapping the motivations behind F&B purchase decisions before a single ad dollar is spent. That research shapes keyword strategy, audience targeting, creative, and bid logic in ways a generic keyword audit never reaches.

Senior strategists. No account handoffs.

Every engagement at Schaefer is led and executed by senior strategists. No junior staff building your campaigns. No account manager relaying questions. The person who built your strategy is the person optimizing your bids on Tuesday morning.

Food and beverage is all we do.

Walmart's F&B shopper is not the same as the general Walmart shopper. Category-specific keyword patterns, seasonal purchase behavior, the interplay between shelf placement and search rank: these are things a generalist retail media agency learns by trial and error on your budget. We come in knowing them. Why food and beverage exclusively →

Emerging brand to established CPG: same rigor.

We work across the full budget spectrum. Whether you're an emerging DTC brand entering Walmart shelf for the first time or an established CPG scaling retail media investment, the research depth and strategic process are the same. The scope scales. The quality doesn't.

The Difference

What generalist agencies can't replicate.

A generalist agency can run Sponsored Search. They can set bids, pull reports, and optimize for ROAS on whatever category lands in their book of business this quarter. What they can't do is walk into your campaign having spent a decade understanding specifically why F&B buyers choose one product over another at Walmart.

The category knowledge compounds. The buyer psychology frameworks we use were built from first-party F&B research. The result is retail media that isn't just well-executed. It's structurally different from what a generalist builds.

"Food and beverage is all we do, and that vertical focus is the difference."

Walmart Connect · Solution 01

Onsite Display

Schaefer uses Why People Buy segmentation to align display creative and targeting to the specific buyer motivations driving your category. The result is display that reaches the right F&B shopper in the right mindset, not just the highest-reach demographic overlay.

Audience targeting built on buyer motivation segments, not demographic defaults

Creative strategy aligned to shelf placement and seasonal velocity windows

New buyer acquisition campaigns coordinated with Sponsored Search retargeting

Full-funnel display architecture from awareness through conversion

Walmart Onsite Display — Cheez-It Sponsored Brands banner on Walmart.com viewed on tablet

Walmart Connect · Solution 03

Offsite Media

Schaefer connects Walmart's first-party shopper audiences to your existing paid media (Meta, programmatic display, CTV) so that purchase-intent signals from real cart behavior amplify performance across your entire media stack. Not modeled lookalikes. Actual Walmart buyers.

Walmart first-party audience activation across Meta, programmatic, and CTV

Cross-channel coordination so offsite spend compounds onsite performance

F&B category audience layering: past purchasers, category browsers, lapsed buyers

Unified measurement connecting offsite impressions to onsite conversion

Walmart Offsite Media — shopper watching Straus Family Creamery video ad on tablet at home

Walmart Connect · Solution 04

Brand Shop & Shelf

For F&B brands entering Walmart for the first time, a well-built Brand Shop and Shelf architecture meaningfully lifts conversion rates from Sponsored Search and Display campaigns. Schaefer designs and optimizes both to reflect buyer motivations at each stage of the purchase journey, not just list SKUs.

Brand Shop architecture built around buyer motivation tier, not SKU list

Shelf page strategy aligned to specific campaign objectives and audiences

Copy and content framework grounded in Why People Buy research

Performance tracking from paid media click through Brand Shop conversion

Walmart Connect · Solution 05

In-Store

Schaefer integrates Walmart's in-store ad formats into full-funnel F&B retail media strategies, coordinating timing and messaging so the brand story that started with a digital touchpoint carries through to the physical shelf. In-store is where the final decision often happens — and where consistent presence builds recognition over time.

In-store format strategy coordinated with digital campaign timing and messaging

Audio, digital display, and self-checkout formats selected by category and occasion

Seasonal activation windows aligned to digital campaign calendar

Performance tracked through available Walmart data signals alongside broader campaign indicators

Measurement & Analytics

Using data to understand what's working and optimize accordingly.

Walmart Connect provides closed-loop measurement that connects ad exposure to verified purchase behavior, online and in-store, using Walmart's own transaction data. It's one of the stronger measurement tools in retail media. Schaefer works with this data alongside additional analytics partners to build a more complete picture of campaign performance across the full funnel.

Walmart Connect attribution data

Walmart's closed-loop reporting ties ad exposure to in-store and online purchase events using first-party transaction data — a more direct signal than most retail media platforms provide.

New vs. repeat buyer analysis

Understand whether campaigns are acquiring new buyers or reinforcing existing ones — useful context for evaluating campaign structure and budget allocation over time.

Cross-channel impact reporting

Layer Walmart Connect data with third-party analytics partners to understand how offsite media, onsite display, and sponsored search contribute across the broader campaign mix.

Bi-weekly strategic reporting

Schaefer delivers bi-weekly performance reports with plain-language interpretation and clear optimization actions. No raw dashboards dropped in your inbox. Analysis with a point of view.

Why This Matters for F&B

Better data leads to better decisions — not just better-looking reports.

Walmart Connect's first-party transaction data is a meaningful advantage over platforms that rely on modeled attribution. But no single data source tells the full story. Schaefer layers Walmart's native reporting with additional analytics partners to cross-reference performance signals and reduce over-reliance on any one attribution model.

The goal isn't to optimize toward a dashboard — it's to understand what's actually driving purchase behavior so budget decisions are grounded in evidence. Purchase data, new buyer trends, ROAS, and cross-channel contribution all factor in. Shelf performance is one important indicator among several.

See How We Report Results →

The Difference

F&B specialist vs. generalist retail media agency.

The retail media agency landscape is full of generalists who add Walmart Connect to their service list alongside automotive, fintech, and apparel. Here's what the actual difference looks like.

Capability	Schaefer	Generalist Agency
Category expertise	✓ F&B exclusively: buyer psychology, category dynamics, shelf behavior	Multi-category. F&B is one of many verticals
Pre-campaign research	✓ Why People Buy methodology run before strategy is built	Keyword audit and competitor gap analysis
Team structure	✓ Senior strategists only. No junior staff, no handoffs	Account manager + junior analyst structure
Keyword architecture	✓ Built from buyer motivation research, not category defaults	Category keyword tools + competitor mining
Cross-channel coordination	✓ Walmart Connect coordinated with Meta, CTV, Google, retail	Silo'd to platforms in their managed set
Results guarantee	✓ Measurable lift guaranteed or fees returned	Typically none

✓

The Schaefer Guarantee applies to Walmart Connect.

If we don't deliver measurable performance lift within the agreed window (shelf velocity, ROAS improvement, new buyer acquisition, or the metric we agree on at kickoff) we return 100% of agency fees. No argument, no negotiation. We only take on engagements we're confident we can move the needle on.

Who It's For

Built for F&B sellers and suppliers at every stage on Walmart.

Emerging F&B Brands

Entering Walmart shelf for the first time.

You've earned the distribution. Now retail media is the lever that determines whether you turn fast enough to keep it. Schaefer builds first-Walmart retail media strategies specifically for the DTC or regional CPG brand entering the Walmart ecosystem — with buyer research that tells you who you're actually competing for at shelf.

Established CPG Brands

Scaling retail media investment with more rigor.

You're already on Walmart Connect. You may already be spending meaningfully. The question is whether your campaigns are built on a structural understanding of your buyer — or whether they're keyword-optimized without the research layer underneath. Schaefer brings the buyer psychology infrastructure that makes every ad dollar work harder.

Marketplace Sellers

Building brand on Walmart Marketplace.

Walmart Marketplace is increasingly competitive for F&B. Sponsored Products and Brand Shop architecture can be the difference between a product that scales and one that stalls. Schaefer builds retail media strategies that treat Marketplace as a brand-building channel, not just a fulfillment channel.

Multi-Retailer CPG

Running retail media across multiple accounts.

Walmart, Amazon, Target, Kroger: F&B brands operating across multiple retail media networks need campaign strategies that are coherent, not duplicated. Schaefer manages Walmart Connect as part of an integrated retail media strategy with a shared buyer research foundation underneath all of it.

FAQ

Common questions.

01Do you work with Walmart Marketplace sellers as well as suppliers?

Yes. We work with both Walmart Marketplace sellers and direct Walmart suppliers. The ad solutions available differ slightly between the two. Suppliers have access to all Walmart Connect solutions including Store Ads; Marketplace sellers primarily leverage Sponsored Search and Brand Shop. We build strategy appropriate to your account type.

02What's the minimum ad spend required to work with Schaefer on Walmart Connect?

We don't have a hard minimum, but Walmart Connect performs best at meaningful spend levels. We typically recommend a minimum monthly ad spend of $5,000–$8,000 to generate enough data to optimize effectively. We'll be direct in the initial call if we think your budget isn't at a level where engagement makes sense.

03Do you manage other retail media networks alongside Walmart Connect?

Yes. Many of our clients run retail media across Walmart Connect, Amazon Advertising, Kroger Precision Marketing, and Instacart. We manage cross-retailer retail media strategies with a shared buyer research foundation, so your campaigns are coordinated, not siloed across separate agencies.

04We already have Walmart Connect campaigns running. Can you take them over?

Yes, and we do this regularly. We start with a full audit of your existing campaign structure (keyword architecture, audience setup, bid strategy, creative, and measurement), then map what's working, what's structurally weak, and what buyer research would change. The transition is managed to avoid disrupting performance.

05What does the Why People Buy research look like in practice?

Every engagement starts with a buyer research phase — qualitative interviews with real buyers in your category, segmentation analysis, and motivation mapping. For Walmart Connect specifically, this surfaces the search language buyers actually use, the occasion and use-case context driving purchase, and the competitive set they're choosing between at shelf. That research becomes the structural foundation for keyword architecture, audience targeting, and creative brief.

06How does the guarantee work for Walmart Connect?

We agree on the specific performance metric upfront — shelf velocity improvement, new buyer acquisition rate, ROAS lift, or a combination. The window is typically 90 days from campaign launch. If the agreed metric isn't hit, we return 100% of agency fees. The guarantee is written into the engagement agreement, not just stated verbally.

The only Walmart retail media agency built exclusively for food and beverage.

Most F&B brands on Walmart Connect aren't getting the results they should.