PPC, short for pay per click, is an advertising model in which the advertiser pays each time a shopper clicks the ad, not when it is shown. It is the billing model behind Amazon Sponsored Products, Flipkart PLA, Myntra PLA and the sponsored listings on Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart, as well as Google and Meta search ads.
In a PPC system the advertiser sets a bid, the highest amount it will pay for one click. The platform runs an auction each time an ad slot comes up and shows the ads that win. Impressions are free; the charge happens only when a shopper clicks through to the product page. The actual cost per click is usually below the bid because most marketplaces charge just enough to beat the next bidder.
Worked example: a Flipkart seller runs a PLA campaign on kurta sets with a ₹5 bid. In a week the ads are shown 80,000 times and clicked 500 times at an average of ₹4. Spend is 500 x ₹4 = ₹2,000. If 40 of those clicks become orders at ₹799, ad revenue is ₹31,960 and the Flipkart ROI is 16. On noon in the UAE the same maths runs in dirhams: 500 clicks at AED 0.80 cost AED 400.
Blooprint's glossary on blooprint.in defines CPC, CTR and ACoS individually; this page covers the model they sit inside.
Search ads on every major Indian marketplace are PPC: Amazon Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands, Flipkart PLA in CPC mode, Myntra PLA, Meesho ads and the sponsored product listings on quick commerce apps. Flipkart's Smart ROI campaigns are still charged per click, but Flipkart sets the bid for you.
Banner and display placements are the exception. Blinkit, Zepto and Instamart home-screen banners, Myntra list banners and Amazon DSP are sold per thousand impressions, so you pay whether or not anyone clicks. Knowing which model a placement uses tells you which metric to manage: CPC and conversion rate for PPC, effective cost per order for CPM.
How pay-per-click works inside Amazon, with the three ad types.
Learn more →The per-impression billing model used for banners on quick commerce and Myntra.
Learn more →Enter ad spend and ad sales to get ACoS and ROAS in one step.
Learn more →Filter every keyword and target by ACoS, CVR and spend, then change bids in bulk on Amazon India.
Learn more →PPC stands for pay per click. It describes any ad model where the advertiser pays for clicks rather than for impressions or for a fixed slot.
On Amazon, PPC refers to the sponsored ads billed per click: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display. Sellers say Amazon PPC to mean the whole sponsored ads programme.
Yes. Flipkart PLA campaigns charge per click, whether you set the bid yourself in a CPC campaign or let Flipkart set it in a Smart ROI campaign. PCA banner campaigns are the exception.
PPC is the model: you pay per click. CPC, cost per click, is the number: what one click actually cost you, calculated as spend divided by clicks.
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