What is launching on July 29, 2026?

Walmart Connect is rolling out Negative Keywords for all Sponsored Products advertisers on July 29, 2026. Advertisers will be able to add exact and phrase negatives at the campaign and ad group level, the same way Amazon Ads has offered for years.

Why is this a big deal?

Until now, Walmart Sponsored Products had no clean way to block irrelevant search terms. Cross-marketplace advertisers were paying for clicks they never wanted on branded and category-adjacent queries. Negative keywords remove that leak on day one.

Walmart Connect ships negative keywords for Sponsored Products

Walmart Connect confirmed this week that Negative Keywords roll out to all Sponsored Products advertisers on July 29, 2026, closing a years-long feature gap with Amazon Ads. Cross-marketplace advertisers finally get a clean way to block irrelevant search terms and stop paying for clicks they never wanted. Here is the 5-step launch-day playbook.

MaxCOO at Nova Analytics

Jul 25, 2026 · 3 min read · 547 words

The 3-line summary

Walmart Connect confirmed this week that Negative Keywords roll out to all Sponsored Products advertisers on July 29, 2026, closing a years-long feature gap with Amazon Ads (Adflux Partners, LinkedIn, July 22, 2026).

Retail media agencies picked it up first, but the change touches every Walmart Connect advertiser: for the first time, you can block irrelevant search terms at the campaign and ad group level instead of watching budget bleed on non-converting queries (Keystone Commerce, LinkedIn, July 21, 2026).

What sellers should read from it

If you already run Amazon PPC, this is not a new mental model, it is a lever you have been missing on the Walmart side. Walmart Sponsored Products lacked a clean way to suppress unwanted query traffic, so brand-adjacent, mis-mapped and low-intent terms drained spend. Negative keywords fix that on day one and change the achievable ACOS floor on Walmart.

For cross-marketplace advertisers, expect ACOS to compress within the first two weeks on any Walmart campaign with a real search-term tail. That in turn changes the ROAS math on whether Walmart deserves a bigger share of the overall retail media budget in H2.

The 5-step launch-day playbook

Export the 30-day search-term report for every Sponsored Products campaign the moment negative keywords go live.

Tag every term with zero conversions and above-average spend as a phrase-match negative candidate.

Add competitor brand terms you never want to bid on as exact-match negatives.

Add category-adjacent terms that convert on other brands but drag your ACOS as phrase negatives.

Re-run the report at day 7 and day 14. New negatives every week, not once at launch. See the Walmart Connect keyword-targeting docs for match-type nuances (Walmart Connect Advertising Help).

The 3-line summary

What sellers should read from it

The 5-step launch-day playbook

Export the 30-day search-term report for every Sponsored Products campaign the moment negative keywords go live.

Tag every term with zero conversions and above-average spend as a phrase-match negative candidate.

Add competitor brand terms you never want to bid on as exact-match negatives.

Add category-adjacent terms that convert on other brands but drag your ACOS as phrase negatives.

Re-run the report at day 7 and day 14. New negatives every week, not once at launch. See the Walmart Connect keyword-targeting docs for match-type nuances (Walmart Connect Advertising Help).

Export the search-term report for the last 30 days, tag every term with zero conversions and above-average spend, and paste those into a phrase-match negative list. Do the same for competitor brand terms you do not want to bid on. Watch ACOS for 7 days, then repeat.

Walmart Connect ships negative keywords for Sponsored Products

The 3-line summary

What sellers should read from it

The 5-step launch-day playbook

How Nova helps

Verified Sources

Max

See your Amazon business clearly.

The 3-line summary

What sellers should read from it

The 5-step launch-day playbook

How Nova helps

Frequently Asked Questions

What is launching on July 29, 2026?

Why is this a big deal?

What should I do on July 29?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is launching on July 29, 2026?

Why is this a big deal?

What should I do on July 29?