Category targeting in Amazon ads is the product targeting mode where you choose a whole browse category, such as 'water bottles', and your ad becomes eligible on the detail pages of every product in it and beside them in search, optionally narrowed by brand, price range, star rating and Prime eligibility. It is the fastest way to reach a category's shoppers before you have keyword data.
You pick a category from Amazon's browse tree while building a manual product targeting campaign. Amazon suggests categories related to your product, and you can search the tree. Without refinement the target covers every listing in the category. With refinement it covers only the listings that match your brand, price, rating and Prime filters. One bid applies to the whole line, and the search term report later shows the individual ASINs the line served on.
Worked example: a ₹549 steel water bottle targets the category 'water bottles' refined to products priced ₹300 to ₹700 and rated under 4 stars, at a ₹4 bid. In a month the line spends ₹8,000 on 2,000 clicks and produces 110 orders, a 5.5% conversion rate and ₹60,390 in sales, an ACoS of 13%. Unrefined, the same category at the same bid spent ₹8,000 for 60 orders, because a third of the impressions landed on ₹1,500 insulated bottles where the ad looked like the budget option.
Category targeting reaches broadly, so it is usually bid below keyword targets and reviewed through the search term report to promote the ASINs that convert into their own individual targets.
| Platform | Manual category targeting | What exists instead |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon India, UAE | Yes, with refinements | |
| Flipkart PLA | No | Automatic targeting places ads on browse and product pages Flipkart picks |
| Flipkart PCA | Banner placements by category and audience | Sold on impressions, not per click |
| Blinkit product booster | Yes, keyword or category | Category is the usual launch setting |
| noon Sponsored Products | Category targeting in AED | Alongside keyword and product targeting |
The Flipkart search 'category targeting flipkart' mostly comes from sellers looking for Amazon's feature on Flipkart. The honest answer is to run an automatic PLA campaign and read its placement and search term reports. Blooprint's Flipkart ads guide on blooprint.in covers the automatic campaign setup.
The parent mode: individual products or categories.
Learn more →Where the converting ASINs from a category line end up.
Learn more →Sort every search term by spend, orders and ACoS to find negatives and new keywords.
Learn more →Filter every keyword by ACoS, CVR and spend, then change bids in bulk on Amazon India.
Learn more →It means targeting every product in a chosen Amazon browse category, so your ad appears on those products' detail pages and beside them in search. You can narrow it by brand, price range, star rating and Prime eligibility.
Not as a manual option in PLA. Flipkart's automatic targeting places ads on browse and product pages it selects; PCA banners are bought by category placement on an impression basis.
Usually yes. Category lines reach broadly and convert lower than exact keywords, so starting at around half the keyword bid and raising it where ACoS holds is the common approach.
The Sponsored Products search term report lists each ASIN the category line served on with its clicks, spend and orders.
Yes. Blinkit product booster ads can be set to keyword or category targeting, and category is the usual choice at launch before search data exists.
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