A CPC campaign in Flipkart ads is a Product Listing Ads campaign in which you set the cost-per-click bid yourself, with optional multipliers for each placement, instead of giving Flipkart a target ROI to bid towards. You pay only when a shopper clicks, never more than your bid, and you keep direct control over what each placement costs.
You create a PLA campaign in Flipkart Ads Manager, add FSNs, set a daily budget and dates, and choose CPC as the bidding mode. You then enter a base bid and, if you want, a multiplier for each placement such as search top slot, search, browse, home and product pages. Targeting can be automatic, where Flipkart picks the queries, or keyword, with up to 200 exact or phrase keywords per campaign as sellers report. When a shopper clicks the ad you pay at most the bid for that placement.
Worked example: a ₹799 kurta converts 6% of ad clicks and the seller wants an ROI of 5, meaning ad spend of at most one fifth of revenue. The affordable spend per order is ₹799 / 5 = ₹159.80, and at 6% CVR that covers 16.7 clicks, so the maximum bid is ₹159.80 x 0.06 = ₹9.60. Set the base at about ₹8 and raise search top slot by 20% if its ROI in the placement report stays above 5.
The (1 / ROI) term is simply ACoS: an ROI of 5 is an ACoS of 20%, so the same formula works for Amazon bids.
| CPC campaign | Smart ROI campaign | |
|---|---|---|
| You set | Bid and placement multipliers | Target ROI |
| Flipkart sets | Nothing beyond the auction | Bids per auction |
| Best for | New FSNs, tight control, sale-day bidding | FSNs with steady sales history |
| Risk | Bids go stale if not reviewed | Under-spends if the target is set too high |
| Data needed | None to start | Sellers report about 5 to 10 sales a day (ecomadvisor) |
A common pattern is CPC for launches and for hero FSNs during Big Billion Days, and Smart ROI for the steady catalogue once it has history. Blooprint's glossary on blooprint.in defines the Smart ROI campaign; this page is about when manual bids earn their keep.
Work out the CPC you can afford on a PLA campaign from price, margin and conversion rate.
Learn more →The ad format CPC and Smart ROI campaigns both run on.
Learn more →Exact and phrase keywords, limits and negatives.
Learn more →Bulk PLA creation, placement bids, keyword control and reports Flipkart Ads Manager does not show.
Learn more →It is a Product Listing Ads campaign where you set the cost-per-click bid and placement multipliers yourself. You pay only for clicks, and never more than your bid for that placement.
In a CPC campaign you set the bid. In a Smart ROI campaign you set a target ROI and Flipkart sets bids to try to reach it. CPC gives control; Smart ROI needs sales history to work.
It depends on category and competition. Agencies report about ₹3 to ₹6 in grocery, ₹5 to ₹10 in fashion and ₹15 to ₹30 in mobiles, plus 18% GST on ad spend.
Maximum bid = selling price divided by target ROI, times conversion rate. A ₹799 product at target ROI 5 and 6% CVR supports about ₹9.60 per click.
Yes. CPC campaigns support automatic targeting or keyword targeting with exact and phrase match, up to 200 keywords and 200 negative keywords per campaign, as sellers report.
Join 500+ brands powered by our team with