Flipkart is one of India’s largest e-commerce platforms, connecting millions of shoppers with D2C, FMCG, and marketplace-first brands across categories. Over the years, Flipkart's advertising has moved far beyond basic product visibility. It has evolved into a full-funnel retail media ecosystem that supports discovery, consideration, and conversion, making it a core growth channel for brands looking to scale on marketplaces.
Built on Flipkart’s massive shopper base and rich purchase-intent signals, the Flipkart Ads platform enables brands to drive consistent marketplace sales through performance-led formats such as Sponsored Product Ads, Brand Shelves, and Display placements.
Whether the objective is steady day-to-day sales or accelerated growth during key campaigns, the fundamentals of advertising on Flipkart remain the same. The clear objectives, strong product fundamentals, and continuous optimisation to capture high-intent demand.
Let’s break down how to run ads on Flipkart, step by step, and then zoom in on how Flipkart Minutes advertising fits into this flow.
Why Advertise on Flipkart in 2026 & Beyond?
Flipkart remains one of India’s largest high-intent e-commerce platforms, with hundreds of millions of registered users and strong repeat purchase behaviour across core categories. Unlike discovery-led platforms, a majority of Flipkart sessions are search- and comparison-driven, meaning users typically arrive with a clear intent to evaluate prices, offers, and availability before buying.
This intent reflects directly in advertising performance. Product Listing Ads (PLA) and Product Contextual Ads (PCA) contribute a significant share of incremental sales, particularly in competitive categories where organic visibility alone is no longer sufficient. As ad density increases, paid placements have become essential for maintaining share of voice on high-traffic keywords and category pages.
Flipkart’s scale is not limited to metros. A significant portion of orders now comes from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, where demand is expanding faster than overall platform growth. For brands, this creates access to new customer cohorts at comparatively lower CPCs than saturated metro markets, especially when campaigns are optimised by geography and price sensitivity.
From a media efficiency standpoint, Flipkart advertising benefits from:
- Closed-loop attribution, tying ad spend directly to sales
- Rich purchase-intent signals, including keyword searches, category views, and historical buying behaviour
- Consistent demand across sale and non-sale periods, enabling always-on performance strategies
As the Flipkart Ads ecosystem matures, results increasingly depend on execution quality. Brands that actively manage bids, prune low-intent keywords, optimise listings, and track performance at a granular level typically see higher ROAS stability and lower wasted spend compared to flat, automated setups.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, Flipkart advertising is no longer just a visibility lever; it is a core revenue channel. Brands that treat it as a structured performance medium, rather than a tactical add-on, are better positioned to defend rankings, scale profitably, and sustain growth as competition and ad inventory continue to rise.
Product Listing Ads (PLA)
Product Listing Ads (PLA) are Flipkart’s most widely used and performance-driven campaign type. They allow brands to promote individual products directly to shoppers who are actively searching or browsing with strong purchase intent.
PLA campaigns operate on a Cost Per Click (CPC) model; you pay only when a shopper clicks on your ad.
PLA typically forms the foundation of most Flipkart advertising strategies.
Product Contextual Ads (PCA)
Product Contextual Ads (PCA) are rich media campaigns designed to showcase multiple products together based on user context. These ads appear across relevant search results, category pages, and product pages, ensuring that products are displayed when shoppers are actively exploring related items.
While PCA supports awareness and consideration, it remains performance-led and conversion-oriented.
Display Ads
Display Ads are Flipkart’s brand-focused campaign type, offering high-visibility placements across the platform. These ads are typically used for launches, seasonal campaigns, and large-scale brand visibility.
Display campaigns are subject to eligibility, creative approvals, and inventory availability and are often used alongside PLA and PCA rather than as standalone performance drivers.
How to Run Ads on Flipkart?
Running ads on Flipkart can feel complex, but here’s a simple breakdown you can follow to get started. That said, if you run an agile, fast-scaling business, working with a performance marketing agency that specialises in Flipkart ads can be a smarter move, as it lets you stay focused on core business priorities while experts handle campaign execution and optimisation.
Step 1: Register on the Flipkart Ads Platform
- Access the Flipkart Ads section via your Seller Hub account.
- Make sure your SKUs are eligible for advertising (in-stock, active listings).
- Once registered, you can create campaigns for marketplace listings across categories.
Step 2: Define Your Campaign Objective
Flipkart advertising is inherently performance-driven. While campaigns can support discovery or brand visibility, all formats ultimately optimise for engagement and sales.
Common objectives include:
- Driving sales through PLA
- Supporting consideration via PCA
- Running brand-led visibility through Display Ads
Step 3: Select Ad Format
Choose one of the three campaign types based on your objective:
- PLA for demand capture and conversions
- PCA for contextual visibility and consideration
- Display Ads for brand visibility and launches
Formats such as sponsored product listings or brand shelves are selected within these campaign types.
Step 4: Set Budget and Bids
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Choose between a total budget (campaign-wide limit) or a daily budget (spend per day).
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Set CPC bids strategically:
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Higher bids increase visibility in premium placements like the top search slot.
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Lower bids are suitable for long-tail keywords or category browsing placements.
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Consider placement-level bidding to optimise spend across the home page, search, and product pages.
Step 5: Define Targeting
Targeting determines which shoppers see your ads:
- Keyword targeting: Select keywords relevant to your product for search placements.
- Category targeting: Show ads in relevant product categories.
- Negative keywords: Exclude irrelevant terms to reduce wasted spend.
- Placement targeting: Allocate different bids for homepage, search, and category pages.
Step 6: Upload Product Feeds and Creatives
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Ensure product listings are complete, accurate, and optimised:
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Clear titles and descriptions
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High-quality images
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Correct pricing and stock levels
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For Brand Shelf or Display ads, upload mobile-optimised creatives with clear CTAs.
Step 7: Launch Campaign
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Review all campaign details: budget, targeting, bids, and creatives.
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Go live and monitor the campaign closely during the initial days to ensure performance aligns with expectations.
Step 8: Track Performance
Use the Flipkart Ads dashboard to measure key metrics:
- Impressions: How many shoppers saw your ads
- Click-through Rate (CTR): Engagement with ads
- Add-to-Cart Rate: How clicks convert into carts
- Conversions & Sales: Completed orders and revenue
- ROAS: Return on ad spend
Reports you can track:
- Seller-level report: Performance across multiple sellers
- FSN report: Product-level performance
- Placement report: Insights by ad location
- Keyword report: Performance by search term
Step 9: Optimise and Scale
- Adjust bids for high-performing placements or keywords.
- Rotate creatives to avoid fatigue.
- Use negative keywords to eliminate low-intent traffic.
- Scale budgets for campaigns with strong ROAS.
- Regularly review inventory to avoid wasted spend due to stock-outs.
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To run these ads on Flipkart Minutes as well, here’s what you need to know:
What most people don’t know is that Flipkart Minutes plugs into the same Flipkart Ads ecosystem. The campaign setup, bidding logic, and reporting framework are similar, but execution needs to account for hyperlocal inventory, time-based demand, and urgency-driven behaviour.
The process of running ads on Flipkart Minutes is fundamentally the same as running ads on Flipkart:
- Same Ads Platform
- Same campaign structure
- Same reporting framework
The difference lies in execution discipline:
- Hyperlocal inventory alignment
- Day-parting and city-level optimisation
- Faster creative fatigue due to high-frequency exposure
That’s why many brands choose to work with a quick-commerce ads agency that understands how Flipkart Minutes behaves differently from standard marketplace traffic.