What Amazon says
On 9 October 2026 we read the Sponsored Products page on Amazon Ads. It calls them cost-per-click ads that promote individual product listings. In a cost-per-click ad, you pay when a shopper clicks, not when the ad is only shown. This is called CPC (cost per click).
- Amazon says the ads appear on the Amazon store and beyond.
- On Amazon, they can show above, beside or within search results, and on product pages.
- You set the most you will pay for a click, and a daily budget that limits your spend.
What about Flipkart?
Flipkart has its own paid promotion tool for sellers, called Flipkart Ads. Trade press reports that sellers set up campaigns from the advertising section of their seller dashboard, and that Flipkart added an option called Advertise Now, Pay Later in July 2025, where the ad cost is taken from the seller's earnings at the start of the next month. We could not read Flipkart's own help pages, so these points come from news coverage. Campaign types, rules and charges can change, so read them in your Seller Hub before you plan.
How a sponsored product ad works
- You pick a product that is already listed.
- You choose words that shoppers type, or let the marketplace choose them for you.
- You set a bid and a daily budget.
- Your listing can then show higher up when someone searches for those words.
- You read the report to see clicks, orders and cost.
A made-up example in rupees
Say a seller in Ludhiana sells steel water bottles on a marketplace. This is a made-up example with made-up numbers.
- Ad spend in a week: ₹5,000.
- Sales from those ads: ₹20,000.
- ROAS (return on ad spend): ₹20,000 ÷ ₹5,000 = 4.
A ROAS of 4 means ₹4 of sales for every ₹1 of ad spend. It does not mean profit. The seller still has to pay for the product, packing, delivery, the marketplace's fees and returns. If those costs eat most of the ₹20,000, the ad may lose money. Work out the profit on one sale first.
How it works for an Indian business
Marketplace ads suit sellers who already have good listings: clear photos, a clear title, honest reviews, fair prices and stock in hand. An ad sends more shoppers to a listing. It cannot fix a weak listing. Start with the listing, then add the ad.
Common mistakes
- Running ads for a product that is out of stock or has poor reviews.
- Looking at clicks, not orders.
- Spending the whole budget on broad words that bring the wrong shoppers.
- Ignoring the marketplace's fees and returns when counting profit.
- Never checking the report after the first week.
For where marketplaces fit in a wider plan, read about quick commerce and Performance Max.
Related terms
- CPC (cost per click): what you pay each time someone clicks your ad.
- ROAS (return on ad spend): sales divided by ad spend.
- Retargeting: showing ads again to people who already looked at your product.
- Quick commerce: very fast delivery of groceries and small items.
To plan the listings and the ads, see our Amazon marketing and Flipkart marketing work.
Sources
- Amazon Ads, "Sponsored Products" (advertising.amazon.com/en-in/solutions/products/sponsored-products), read 9 October 2026.
- Storyboard18, "Flipkart rolls out credit-led advertisement initiative to boost seller visibility" (storyboard18.com), and Campaign India on Flipkart's ad credit plan (campaignindia.in), read 9 October 2026. Flipkart's own Ads help pages could not be read.
