A Guide to Product Contextual Ads (PCA) in Flipkart

Flipkart’s Product Contextual Ads (PCA) is a performance marketing tool that helps advertise your product collection to the intended audience directly. It’s different from Flipkart Product Listing Ads (PLA) which are also performance-based ads. However, PCA is all about making ad performance more interesting and helping gain brand awareness and Product Sales.

How does Flipkart Product Contextual Ads (PCA) work?

Flipkart Advertisement for both PLA and PCA campaigns uses algorithms to figure out what customers are searching for or looking at on the website. Let’s say someone is searching for running shoes. The algorithm looks at the search and figures out what kind of ads would be most interesting to that person. 

It considers things like what category of products the person is interested in, what brands they like, and how well ads have done in the past. Then, it ranks these ads based on important factors like Predicted Click Through Rate (PCTR) and Predicted Conversion Rate (PCVR). 

It also looks at how much advertisers are willing to pay for their ads, i.e., Campaign Budget. The ad that gets the highest rank is the one that gets shown to the customer.

This whole process helps make sure that ads are shown to the people who are most likely to be interested in them. That way, advertisers can reach the right audience, and customers can see ads that are actually useful to them. It’s a win-win situation that helps both advertisers and shoppers

 

Advantages of Product Contextual Ads in Flipkart

PCA is a smart way for advertisers to reach the right people, control their ad budget, and make ads that really speak to their audience. It’s like having a toolbox full of useful tools for advertising online.

Pay only if you get Clicks: PCA uses CPC bidding, which stands for “Cost Per Click.” This means that as an advertiser, you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad. It’s like paying only when someone shows real interest in what you’re offering.

Custom Creatives: PCA gives you the power to create ads in two ways. You can use Auto-generate creatives if you want something quick, or you can customize them to make ads that match your brand and speak directly to your audience. It’s like designing your own posters or flyers for your products.

Keyword Targeting: PCA has more advanced optimizing options than optimizing Flipkart PLA ads. With PCA, you can use something called “Keyword Targeting.” This means you can choose specific words or phrases that you want your ads to show up for. It’s like making sure your ads are seen by the right people with exact search phrases.

All-in-One dashboard: PCA is like a one-stop shop for advertisers. It lets you create ad campaigns, handle the bidding process (how much you’re willing to pay for each click), and see how your ads are doing, all in one place. It’s like having a control center where you can manage everything about your ads.

 

Activating Flipkart product Contextual Ads

1. Access Your Business Account: To activate PCA (Product Contextual Ads) on Flipkart, begin by logging into your Business account on the Flipkart Ads Platform.
2. Navigate to Ad Product Details: Within your Business account, locate the “Ad Product Details” section.
3. Activate PCA Ads: In the “Ad Product Details” section, find the option to activate Product Contextual Ads (PCA). Click on it to request activation from Flipkart.
4. Await Confirmation: After submitting your activation request, Flipkart will review it. If your request is rejected for any reason, you will receive a notification along with suggested actions to rectify the issue.
5. Create your PCA Campaign: Once your PCA Ads are successfully activated, you can commence running your PCA campaigns on Flipkart to promote your products effectively

How to Create a Product Contextual Ads (PCA) Campaign?

Creating a Product Contextual Ads (PCA) Campaign on Flipkart can be accomplished with these steps:

1. Click on “Campaigns” in the sidebar and select “Create Campaign.”

2. Choose “Product Contextual Ads” as your Campaign type.

3. On the New PCA Campaign Page, enter your campaign name and select Flipkart as your Ad platform. You can also click Supermart if you want to run PCA in Supermart.

4. Enter the campaign budget.

5. Select the end date of your campaign or click the “Till the budget Ends” option to run the campaign until the budget ends.

6. Choose between Total or Daily in the budget option. The Daily option helps you set daily limits to avoid quick consumption and budget management.

Note: The minimum daily budget should not be less than 1000 rupees, and there are no partial replenishments available. If a campaign has a daily budget of 1000 Rupees, and your Ad account wallet has 900 Rupees, the campaign will not be replenished.

 

Setting Up Ad Groups in Your PCA Campaign

Once you’ve decided on your budget for your Flipkart PCA campaign, you’ll need to follow these steps to create and manage ad groups:

1. After setting your campaign budget, click “Continue” to move to the ad group section. Think of this like moving to the next level in a game.

Ad groups help you organize your ads and apply your advertising strategy to a specific set of products. 

2. Now Enter the Ad group name and create the product collection you want to advertise.

You can create and run your ad group in two ways:

1. Ad Hoc Method
2. Rule Based Method

Ad Hoc

In this method, you can add your products manually. Choose the brand and category you want to advertise in. Then, look for the products you want to advertise and select them from the options. You can search for products by name or even upload a list of special codes (FSNs) for the products you want to advertise.

Rule-Based

It allows you to advertise products based on defined conditions or rules such as pricing and discounts. Choose the brand and category you want to advertise in and define conditions or rules.

Once you set the rules, Flipkart will automatically include products that meet these rules in your ad campaign. If products no longer meet the rules or go out of stock, they’ll be removed from your campaign.

Now click the ‘Generate Preview’ option before you start your ad campaign where you can check what products will be advertised based on the rules you’ve set. 

In the Rule Based method, if more products meet your rules during a rule-based campaign, they’ll be added automatically. And if they no longer meet the rules or go out of stock, they’ll be taken out. You can also choose to advertise only Flipkart-assured products, which are like the top-quality toys you trust.

Auto-generative Banners:

Once you have determined the ad group type, proceed to the next step to explore automatically generated creative banners for your campaign. These creative assets can be modified or reinstated at any point while your campaigns are active. 

Additionally, you have the option to introduce your own designs through the dynamic creatives feature.

Budgeting in Product Contextual Ads on Flipkart

Navigate to the next page and specify the ad group budget limit and the campaign duration. It’s important to note that the daily and overall budget settings established at the campaign level will be automatically integrated into the ad group level. 

Subsequently, you’ll have to select your budget pacing preference, which includes the following options:

• Fast Burn: This mode rapidly showcases your ads across relevant searches as they occur, ensuring a dynamic and immediate presence.
• Divide Evenly: In this mode, your budget is evenly distributed across all days throughout the campaign’s duration. Ads are displayed in accordance with this balanced approach.

In addition to setting your budget and pacing, you must establish a base CPC (Cost Per Click) bid for your ad group. The base CPC bid represents the amount you are willing to pay for each click on Flipkart. 

Furthermore, you have the option to apply a Percentage Markup, similar to the Percentage Markup feature in Flipkart Product Listing Ads (PLA), to fine-tune your bid for specific placements. 

You can allocate distinct bid percentages for various placement locations, including the Top of the Search Page, the Top of the Browse Page, and other combined pages.

Keyword Targeting in PCA

You can simply Click on “Show Ads to Related Products.” to let Flipkart automatically show your ads to your related product. The con is, that you don’t have full control of your ad spend and the efficiency of it. 

Instead, You can opt for Keyword Targeting to make your ads targeted for preferred search queries and keywords. In such a way, you have complete control of your ad potential. Keyword targeting is always an ideal solution to maximize your ad reach.

Keywords play an important role in Product Contextual Ads (PCA) in Flipkart by helping sellers reach their target audience and achieve their desired campaign goals. When a seller creates a PCA campaign, they need to choose a list of relevant keywords that their target audience is likely to search for. These keywords can be related to the seller’s products, categories, or brands.

 

How to Set Keywords in Product Contextual Ads (PCA)?

To expand the potential total reach of your intended audience and effectively promote related products, please follow these steps:

1. Alternatively, you can select the suggested keywords that enable you to target customers with specific intent or those actively searching for specific product variants. Within this category, you have two options:

Broad Match: This option broadens the exposure of your campaign, making it accessible to a wider audience.
Exact Match: Opting for this category helps you precisely reach your targeted audience.

2. Additionally, you have the ability to exclude specific Negative keywords where you do not want your ads to appear, ensuring your campaign aligns with your strategy.

3. After incorporating your selected keywords and configuring your campaign settings, save the ad group.

4. If you wish to promote multiple products or categories simultaneously, you can create and manage multiple ad groups tailored to each product.

With these steps completed, your Product Category Advertisement (PCA) campaign is now ready for launch, allowing you to effectively reach your desired audience and promote related products.

 

Flipkart Advertising Services

Global Marketing Brand (GMB) serves as your trusted partner for advertising on Flipkart offering the most efficient Flipkart Advertising Services. Within our team, we have certified experts who possess a profound understanding of Flipkart’s advertising landscape. 

Our primary objective is to assist your products in gaining visibility through well-crafted strategies and the application of top-notch techniques to ensure your ads are prominently placed in the most relevant contexts. 

Furthermore, we maintain a vigilant eye on the performance of your advertisements, consistently refining our methods to optimize your return on investment. If you aspire to establish a distinct brand presence on Flipkart, GMB is the ideal choice to consider for your advertising needs.