Key takeaways
- Fix the listing before you buy clicks. Ad cost per order = CPC (cost per click) ÷ conversion rate (orders ÷ clicks), so halving conversion doubles what each order costs.
- Start with Sponsored Products: an automatic campaign to find search terms and a manual exact and phrase campaign for terms that have already sold.
- Cap bids from margin. ACoS is ad spend ÷ ad sales; break-even ACoS = profit per unit before ads ÷ price, and max CPC = break-even ACoS × price × conversion rate.
- Every week, negate terms that have spent a target cost per order without a sale, move converting terms to exact, and check budgets, stock and the Buy Box.
To advertise on Amazon India, you need a listing that can win the Buy Box; you then build campaigns in Campaign Manager, under Advertising in Seller Central, and pay each time a shopper clicks an ad. For most sellers, Amazon advertising in India should start with Sponsored Products: one automatic campaign to find the searches that sell and one manual campaign for terms that have already sold, with bids capped by your margin.
We have worked with sellers and brands since 2019, and this is the order we set up a new account in.
Is your listing ready for ads?
Only when it can convert the shoppers your ads send. Ads buy the click; the page makes the sale:
Ad cost per order = CPC ÷ conversion rate
Worked example: at ₹8 a click, a listing that converts 10% of its clicks pays ₹80 in ads per order. At 5% it pays ₹160 for the same order, and no bid change fixes that.
| Check | Ready when | Why it matters for ads |
|---|---|---|
| Main image | Product on pure white, filling most of the frame, clear as a thumbnail | It is the picture in your ad |
| Title | Opens with what the product is, in shoppers' words | Automatic campaigns match searches from your listing's content |
| Price | In line with the products shown beside yours | Shoppers compare prices on the results page |
| Reviews | A rating and count that hold up next to competitors | A weak rating lowers conversion and raises cost per order |
| Stock | Days of cover (units in stock ÷ units sold per day) longer than your restock time | Ads stop when you are out of stock |
| Buy Box | Your offer holds the featured offer | Sponsored Products ads only show while it does |
Get reviews only through Amazon's own programmes; paying or rewarding shoppers for them breaks Amazon's policy.
Which Amazon ad types should you use?
Start with Sponsored Products, add Sponsored Brands once you have Brand Registry, then Sponsored Display. These are what sellers mean by Amazon PPC in India: you bid in an auction and, for most campaigns, pay only when a shopper clicks.
| Ad type | Brand Registry (sellers) | Where it shows | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsored Products | Not needed | Search results and product pages | One product, on a search or a competitor's page |
| Sponsored Brands, including video | Needed | Search results | Your logo, a headline and several products, or a video, selling the brand |
| Sponsored Display | Needed | Product pages, plus sites and apps beyond Amazon | Shoppers who viewed your product or similar ones, and defending your own pages |
| Amazon DSP | Not needed; open to non-sellers too | On and off Amazon | Shoppers who aren't searching yet |
Compare ACoS across ad types with care. Sponsored Products credits a seller's sale up to 7 days after the click (14 days for vendors), while Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display use 14 days. DSP usually comes up once your Sponsored ads are profitable; our guide on when to move to Amazon DSP sets out the signs.
How to set up your first Sponsored Products campaigns
For beginners to Amazon ads, two campaigns per product (or per variation family) are enough: an automatic one that discovers search terms and a manual one for terms that have already sold.
- Automatic campaign (discovery). Amazon picks searches and product pages from your listing. Keep all four targeting groups on (close match, loose match, substitutes and complements) and bid below the manual campaign: its job is finding terms, not winning them.
- Manual campaign (proven terms). One exact match ad group for terms that have sold, at your highest bids, and one phrase match ad group for their core phrases, at lower bids. On day one, seed it with the terms you are sure of, usually the words in your title.
Use the "down only" dynamic bidding strategy, so Amazon can cut a bid when a click looks unlikely to convert but never raise it, and leave placement adjustments at zero until the placement report shows a difference.
Each week, move terms between the two:
- In the automatic campaign's search term report, find terms with orders at or under your target ACoS.
- Add each to the manual campaign as exact match, bidding near what the automatic campaign paid, and to the automatic campaign as negative exact so the two stop competing.
- Negate terms that have spent your target cost per order (price × target ACoS, worked out below) without a sale. Negative exact blocks that one search; negative phrase blocks every search containing the phrase.
- ASINs in the report are product pages your ad appeared on; converting ones can go into a product targeting campaign.
Our guide to Amazon negative keywords covers finding them.
How much to budget and bid for Amazon advertising in India
Set the bid ceiling from your margin and the daily budget from the clicks you need. Amazon's suggested bid reflects what others pay, not what your margin allows.
Break-even ACoS = profit per unit before ad spend ÷ selling price
Max CPC = break-even ACoS × selling price × conversion rate
Worked example. Your product sells for ₹999 including GST, and after Amazon's fees, GST and product cost you keep ₹300 a unit before ads.
- Break-even ACoS = 300 ÷ 999 = 30%.
- To keep ₹100 a unit, you can spend ₹200 in ads per order. That is your target cost per order, and your target ACoS is 200 ÷ 999 = 20%.
- At a 10% conversion rate, you can pay up to ₹20 a click at target, or ₹30 at break-even.
- At ₹10 a click, ₹200 a day buys 20 clicks, about two orders. Two campaigns at that level cost about ₹12,000 a month.
Run your own numbers in our Amazon profit calculator, which handles Amazon's fees and GST, and read our guide to what Amazon advertising costs in India. On the accounts we manage the average CPC has been ₹5.55, though it varies widely by category. Your ad invoices carry GST, which a GST-registered seller can usually claim as input tax credit. Leave headroom for sale events such as Prime Day and the Great Indian Festival.
What to check every week
Five checks, once a week, in this order. Leave the last few days out of every decision: Sponsored Products credits a seller's order up to 7 days after the click (14 days for vendors), so recent days are incomplete.
- Search terms. Move converting terms to exact and negate as above. Worked example: at ₹10 a click, a ₹200 target cost per order buys 20 clicks. A term that truly converts at 10% goes 20 clicks without an order only about 12% of the time (0.9 to the power 20), so 20 clicks and no sale is a fair test.
- ACoS and TACoS. ACoS by campaign against your target, and TACoS (ad spend ÷ total sales, including organic) for the account against last month. TACoS rising while total sales stay flat means ads are taking a bigger share without growing the business; our TACoS vs ACoS guide shows how to read them together.
- Budgets. A campaign that runs out early misses the rest of the day's shoppers. Raise the budget if its ACoS is under target; fix bids first if it is over.
- Stock and Buy Box. Lower bids where days of cover fall below your restock time, so you don't pay to sell out, and confirm every advertised product still holds the featured offer.
- Bids. On keywords with enough clicks to judge, new bid = current CPC × (target ACoS ÷ actual ACoS). Worked example: a ₹12 CPC at a 30% ACoS against a 20% target gives ₹8. Change a bid at most once a week, since orders keep arriving for a week after the click.
Category notes: fashion, health and wellness
Fashion: images and variations
In fashion, images decide both the click and the sale. Follow the clothing image requirements in Amazon's style guide, then add close-ups of the fabric, stitching, pockets and label, a back view, a size chart and one lifestyle photo. Skip heavy filters: a colour that looks different in person gets returned.
Sizes and colours sit under one parent listing, and a Sponsored Products ad shows the image of the child you advertise. Advertise the child that matches the search (a "black kurta" search should see the black one), and pause ads on colours that are out of stock in the core sizes.
Health and wellness: claims
In health and wellness, claims are what get ads stopped. Amazon's ad policies do not allow an ad to say a product treats, cures or prevents a disease, and they restrict weight-loss claims. Sponsored Products ads are built from your listing, so the listing must comply too, and Sponsored Brands creatives are reviewed before they run. Describe ingredients, format and use rather than outcomes, keep claims no stronger than your label, and check Amazon's current policy before each launch.
Brand Store and A+ content: the free assets behind your ads
Once you have Brand Registry, build both before you scale Sponsored Brands. They cost nothing and work on traffic you have already paid for.
- Brand Store. Your brand's own multi-page store on Amazon. Organise pages the way shoppers search, by product type, and point each Sponsored Brands campaign at the page that matches its keywords rather than the homepage.
- A+ content. Images, text and comparison charts on your detail page. Use them to answer what stops a sale: size, material, what is in the box.
- Posts. Amazon Ads has discontinued Posts, so older advice about posting every week no longer applies. Amazon lists the Brand Store as an alternative.
Where AI and automation help, and where judgement decides
Use automation for volume and speed, and keep people on targets, launches, creative and policy. Automation earns its place in two jobs:
- Reading every search term. It applies your rules to every term, every week, not a sample. We sort terms with fixed rules first, then a memory of earlier decisions, and send only the ambiguous remainder to an AI model.
- Watching hourly data. Amazon Marketing Stream sends hourly performance data, so a budget running out or a spend spike shows up the same day, not at next week's review.
Judgement still decides:
- The target. Target ACoS depends on your margin and on whether a product is launching or earning.
- Brand searches. Your own brand name usually has your lowest ACoS, so a rule that chases low ACoS piles budget onto shoppers who were already looking for you.
- Context the data has not seen. Next week's stockout, a price change, a competitor's launch.
- New products and creative. A new product has no history for rules to act on, and headlines, video and health claims need a person.
Rules also act on sales that keep arriving 7 to 14 days after a click, so they can cut a good term in a slow week. Review automated changes before they go live.
ScaleSKUs does the reading for this weekly review: it checks every search term, flags the ones to negate or move to exact, and puts ACoS, TACoS, stock and budget side by side for your team. Every number comes from Amazon's official APIs, and nothing changes on Amazon until you approve it. See how it works.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Brand Registry to advertise on Amazon India?
Not for Sponsored Products, which only needs a listing that can win the featured offer. Sellers need Brand Registry, and so a trademark, for Sponsored Brands (including video), Sponsored Display, a Brand Store, A+ content and the Search Query Performance report in Brand Analytics.
What is a good ACoS on Amazon India?
Any ACoS below your break-even ACoS makes money on the ad sale, and your target should sit below it by the margin you want to keep. The ₹39.8 Cr of ad spend we have managed ran at a 16.5% ACoS, but that blends many categories and margins: context, not a target.
Is Amazon PPC worth it for a small seller in India?
Only if your margin leaves room. Worked example: a product that keeps ₹50 on a ₹999 sale has a break-even ACoS of 5%, which few keywords will beat, so fix the price or the product cost first. With a healthy margin, the two-campaign setup above is enough to start.