In this episode of Product Unfiltered, we sit down with Kunal Chhabaria, Senior PM at Walmart Connect to discuss his experience leading products in the advertising industry.
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Summary: Product Unfiltered: A Discussion with Kunal Chhabaria, Senior PM at Walmart Connect
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The advertising industry can be divided into three buckets: search ads, social media ads, and retail media ads. Retail media ads contribute about $60 billion of the overall U.S. market, with Amazon generating close to 50% of that revenue.
Kunal stresses the importance of balancing advertiser and end-user needs when developing advertising products. The major challenge for an advertising technology product manager is to generate revenue without compromising the user experience.
Different types of advertising have different goals, with search ads focused on driving conversion and video and image-based ads driving awareness. Kunal's role at Walmart Connect is to improve the relevance of ads and maximize the ad revenue generated from ad slots through suggested bids.
Walmart is trying to better understand their customers and improve their products to compete with Amazon and Google in terms of data. They are also aiming to build their own ecosystem of offerings, such as Walmart Connect and partnerships with companies like Spotify, while keeping in mind the needs of both consumers and advertisers.
The metrics Walmart looks at to track ad revenue and overall user experience include impressions, clicks, conversion rate, search exit rate, add to cart rate, fill rate, and adoption metrics. Understanding where the brand exists in the marketing funnel and what they want out of it is crucial to driving engagement and increasing revenue.
Kunal advises product managers to read blogs from advertising partners and other popular blogs, such as The Ad Contrarian and Duct Tape Marketing, to stay updated on the latest trends in the industry.
Kunal provides valuable insights into the advertising industry and the challenges and opportunities faced by product managers. By balancing the needs of advertisers and end-users, understanding brand goals, and staying up-to-date on industry trends, product managers can drive engagement and revenue for their companies.
