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Guide

Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Campaign setup

Last updated on Jul 29, 2025

Reading time: 3 min

In this guide:

Overview
Set up a campaign
Frequently asked questions
Helpful resources

Overview

You can set up a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign in Seller Center if you have admin access to your Seller Center account. If you don’t have admin access to your account and would like to set up a campaign, reach out to your administrator. In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up Custom or Quick start campaigns.

Set up a campaign

Step 1 – Get started

Navigate to the Search Engine Marketing page in Seller Center. From the upper right corner of this page, select + Create new campaign to create either a Custom or Quick start campaign.

Once you’ve chosen a campaign type, select Continue to enter campaign details.

Pro tip

When selecting Quick start, you can review a recommended list of items that have high sales potential. These items are automatically added to your campaign. The Quick start campaign option is only shown if you have sufficient suggested items.

Step 2 – Add campaign details

Next, add a unique campaign name. You can add items individually or in bulk.

To upload items individually, search for the item name, SKU or item ID and select the checkboxes next to the items you want to add.

To upload items in bulk, select Bulk Upload to download a blank Item ID or SKU template. Fill it out, then upload the file and select Submit on the Select items in bulk screen.

Pro tip

You can search for multiple item IDs or SKUs at once by pasting a comma-separated list into the search bar. Filters are also useful to identify items with the highest performance potential.

Notes

If your bulk upload resulted in a partial failure, download the failed item report to understand the reason for the failure. It may take two to three days for the error to be resolved after you take the appropriate action.  Not all items in your catalog may be eligible to be added to a campaign.  

Toggle on the Show selected button for a complete list of the items chosen for the campaign.

Under Scheduling and budget, select a start date and a daily budget for your campaign. The start date is automatically set to the next day and no end date is set by default.

To add an end date, toggle off the No end date button. The end date must be at least 21 days after the start date. Next, select a Bidding strategy. Choose between Maximize clicks or Target Return on Ad Spend (tROAS). Choose the right strategy that fits your specific goals for your products.

This table outlines the strengths, budget considerations and best practices for each strategy. 

	Maximize clicks	Target Return on Ad Spend (tROAS)
Objective	Walmart automatically sets bids to get as many clicks as possible within your budget.	Walmart automatically sets bids to maximize sales based on your Target Return on Ad Spend (tROAS).
Best for	Increasing clicks and traffic to your products Increasing visibility for new products or those with limited historical data	Prioritizing sales if you already have a ROAS goal Optimizing products that have historically performed well in SEM (for orders in the last 30 days)
Concerns	Your returns may fall below expectations if your goal is to maximize clicks.	You may not spend your entire budget unless the tROAS is achievable.
Tips for success	Start with Maximize clicks. Switch to tROAS when your campaign has generated sufficient data to optimize the algorithm.	If your campaign isn't spending, try lowering the tROAS, then monitor and adjust it based on performance. Allow time for your campaign to ramp up and the algorithm to learn.

Step 3 – Launch the campaign

Finally, select Start campaign. On the day you create the campaign, the status will display as Scheduled and will change to Running once it’s live on the start date. 

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I access the Create and Edit buttons for SEM campaigns? 

How does the Search Engine Marketing (SEM) bidding algorithm work during my campaign?

The bidding algorithm goes through two phases:   

Learning: The learning phase is the initial stage of bidding, where our algorithm analyzes how your item performs on Google Shopping Ads. During this phase, our algorithm focuses on driving traffic to your item and collecting data on how many impressions, clicks and conversions it gets. You may see a limited number of impressions and clicks or an inconsistent ROAS. This is normal and means that our algorithm is testing different bid levels and learning from the results. This takes an average of 7-10 days and may take longer if there's high competition in Google.

Optimizing: The optimizing phase begins immediately after the learning phase ends and is the final stage of bidding. At this point, our algorithm has learned enough about your item and to only bid at a level at which additional spend is expected to return an optimal ROAS. This serves to limit campaign spend on items that have been underperforming. During the optimizing phase, you may see an increase in spend at a stable or increasing ROAS, which indicates that our algorithm is spending wisely and maximizing your revenue from ads. However, if the algorithm determines that it isn’t able to generate an optimal ROAS for an item, it’ll reduce spending on that item. This may happen if the item has low demand, high competition or other factors that affect its performance.

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