How much does advertising on Zepto cost?

Zepto search ads typically cost ₹3-20 per click depending on category and match type. Branded keywords run ₹3-6, category generics range from ₹7-20. Browse placement CPCs are lower, typically ₹2-10. A meaningful test requires at least ₹50K/month.

How is Zepto advertising different from Blinkit?

Zepto has a stronger impulse-buy shopper profile and browse placements account for 30-40% of ad-driven volume — more than Blinkit where search dominates. Zepto also has shorter average search queries (2-3 words vs. 3-4 on Blinkit), making broad match riskier. Dark store coverage is denser in Tier-1 cities but thinner in Tier-2.

What campaign types does Zepto offer?

Zepto offers Search Ads (search results placements), Category/Browse Ads (category page placements), and Homepage Banner ads (CPM-based, requires minimum ₹1L commitment). Most performance-focused brands should start with Search and Browse ads only.

What is a good ROAS target for Zepto?

It depends on your category and gross margin. A 4-6x ROAS is typical for snacks and beverages. Health and personal care brands often need 5-8x to be profitable after commissions. Always calculate ROAS targets from your gross margin, not revenue, and set Zepto-specific targets rather than importing Blinkit benchmarks.

When is the best time to run Zepto ads?

Zepto peaks between 5-9pm — allocate 40% of your daily budget to this window. Morning (6am-12pm) accounts for around 30%. Avoid heavy spending midnight-to-6am when conversion rates drop 60-70%. Use bid scheduling or an automation tool to shift budget toward peak hours.

How do I prevent ad waste on Zepto?

Three main levers: first, check inventory in dark stores before running ads (OOS clicks are 100% wasted). Second, set negative keywords weekly from your search term reports. Third, pause any keyword with 40+ clicks and zero conversions — it's definitively not working.

Should I run brand defense campaigns on Zepto?

Yes, always. Competitors can bid on your brand terms. A brand defense campaign with exact match on your brand keywords typically costs ₹2-4 CPC and prevents rivals from intercepting shoppers who already intend to buy from you. It's the highest-ROAS campaign you can run.

How to Advertise on Zepto: The Complete 2026 Guide

Last updated: March 2026

Zepto's ad platform: what makes it different

Zepto is not a smaller Blinkit. It operates differently, attracts a different shopper profile, and rewards a different advertising approach. Brands that copy-paste their Blinkit campaigns onto Zepto consistently underperform — sometimes by 40-60% on ROAS.

The core differences:

Shopper intent skews impulse. Zepto's user base over-indexes on urban millennials making spontaneous top-up purchases — a pack of chips, a cold drink, a personal care restock. This means high-frequency, lower average order value categories perform disproportionately well on Zepto compared to planned-purchase categories like staples.

Inventory depth matters more. Zepto's dark store network is denser in Tier-1 cities but thinner than Blinkit in Tier-2. If your inventory isn't in a Zepto dark store near the shopper, your ad wins a click you can never convert. Always check dark store coverage before allocating budget to a city.

Browse placements drive significant volume. On Blinkit, search placements dominate. On Zepto, a meaningful share of conversions — roughly 30-40% by brand reports — comes from browse and category placements where shoppers are scrolling, not searching. This changes how you should weight your keyword vs. placement strategy.

Campaign types on Zepto

Zepto's ad platform offers three primary campaign types:

Campaign Type	Placement	Best For	Typical CPC
Search Ads	Search results page	High-intent buyers, brand defense	₹3-20
Category / Browse Ads	Category browse pages	Discovery, new product launches	₹2-10
Homepage Banner	App homepage	Mass awareness, sale events	CPM-based, ₹40-90 CPM

For most brands with under ₹3L monthly spend on Zepto, focus exclusively on Search Ads and Category Browse Ads. Homepage banners require minimum commitments (typically ₹1L+) and perform best for established brands running promotions, not for performance-first campaigns.

Keyword strategy for Zepto: search vs. browse

Search placements

Zepto search works similarly to Blinkit — shoppers type a query, ads appear at the top of results. The same keyword match type principles apply:

Exact match on your top SKUs first. Zepto CPCs are slightly higher than Blinkit on exact match for competitive categories, but conversion rates are comparable.
Phrase match once you have 2 weeks of exact match conversion data.
Broad match only for discovery with tight CPA caps and daily budget limits.

One Zepto-specific behavior: search query lengths tend to be shorter on Zepto (average 2-3 words) compared to Blinkit (3-4 words). This means broad match on Zepto casts a wider net than you might expect. Use it cautiously.

Browse placements

Browse placements are Zepto's differentiator. When a shopper opens the "Snacks" or "Personal Care" category, your product can appear as a sponsored listing — even if they haven't typed a search query.

To win browse placements:

Target the correct category node. Zepto's category taxonomy is granular; "Healthy Snacks" and "Chips & Namkeen" are different nodes with different CPCs and traffic volumes.
Set separate budgets for browse vs. search. Browse typically converts at a 30-40% lower rate than search, so your max CPC bid should reflect that.
Monitor browse attribution. Zepto attributes browse clicks to "category" in reports. Separate these from search clicks to evaluate true browse ROAS independently.

Zepto-specific CPC ranges by category

CPCs on Zepto shift by city, time of day, and competitive density. These are typical ranges for established brands in FY2026:

Category	Branded CPC	Generic Search CPC	Browse CPC
Snacks & Chips	₹3-5	₹8-14	₹4-8
Beverages & Juices	₹4-6	₹9-16	₹5-9
Personal Care	₹3-5	₹7-13	₹4-7
Health & Nutrition	₹5-8	₹12-20	₹6-10
Home Care	₹2-4	₹5-9	₹3-6
Ice Cream & Frozen	₹3-5	₹6-11	₹3-7
Dairy & Eggs	₹2-3	₹4-7	₹2-5

Two observations: Health & Nutrition sees the highest CPCs because the category has attracted aggressive D2C brands with high LTV, bidding above their immediate ROAS to acquire customers. Ice Cream & Frozen shows strong seasonal variance — CPCs spike 40-60% in April-June and drop sharply October-February.

Budget allocation and bidding on Zepto

How to structure your daily budgets

A common mistake is setting one campaign with a single daily budget. This creates budget exhaustion problems: your campaign runs out of budget by afternoon, missing the 6-9pm peak window.

Instead, structure budgets across campaigns so that total daily spend across all campaigns doesn't exhaust before 7pm. Practical approach:

Morning allocation (6am-12pm): 30% of daily budget. Lower bids (-15% from base) — conversion rates are lower, use this window for impression share, not aggressive acquisition.
Afternoon lull (12pm-5pm): 20% of daily budget. Reduce bids (-25%), let campaigns run conservatively.
Evening peak (5pm-9pm): 40% of daily budget. Full bids or +10% above base. This is when Zepto sees peak order volume.
Late night (9pm-12am): 10% of daily budget. Moderate bids (-15%). Volumes taper but don't collapse the way they do post-midnight.

This is dayparting applied to Zepto's specific peak patterns. If your platform doesn't support bid scheduling natively, use manual bid adjustments or automate through a tool like Ladya.

Bid strategy by campaign objective

Objective	Recommended Bid Strategy	Starting Max CPC
Brand defense	Exact match, manual CPC	₹2-4 (shouldn't need more)
Category capture	Exact + phrase, manual CPC with CPA cap	Category generic CPC floor
Discovery / growth	Phrase + browse, target ROAS	60-70% of category CPC
New launch	Broad + browse, budget-capped	Aggressive — expect 2-3x ROAS loss first 2 weeks

Setting your CPA cap

Your maximum CPA is: Gross Margin ÷ Target ROAS

If your gross margin on a product is ₹120 and your target ROAS is 5x, your maximum CPA is ₹24. Any keyword or placement consistently exceeding ₹24 CPA for 5+ days should be paused or rebid.

Step-by-step: launching your first Zepto campaign

Step 1: Confirm inventory and dark store availability

Before spending a rupee, verify your products are live in Zepto's dark stores in the cities you're targeting. An ad that wins a click to an out-of-stock product is pure ad waste. Check your Zepto seller dashboard for SKU availability by city.

Step 2: Pick your hero SKUs

Identify 5-8 SKUs by this criteria: highest gross margin, currently in stock, and have at least 10 organic orders in the last 30 days (proof of product-market fit). Do not advertise slow-moving SKUs — you'll spend money confirming they don't convert.

Step 3: Build keyword lists

For each hero SKU, build three tiers of keywords:

Brand terms — your brand name + product type (e.g., "Mamaearth vitamin C serum")
Category exact — the specific product type searched precisely (e.g., "vitamin C serum 30ml")
Category generic — broader category terms (e.g., "vitamin C serum", "face serum")

Launch with brand terms and category exact only. Add generic terms in week 2.

Step 4: Create campaigns with separation

Create at minimum three separate campaigns:

Campaign 1: Brand Defense — only your brand keywords, conservative CPC (₹2-4), small daily budget (₹200-400/day).
Campaign 2: Category Capture — exact match category keywords, category-floor CPC, moderate budget (₹800-1500/day).
Campaign 3: Browse Discovery — browse placements targeting your category nodes, 60% of Campaign 2's CPC, smaller budget.

Never mix brand and generic keywords in the same campaign — they need different bid ceilings and budget ratios. This isolation also makes reporting cleaner so you can see true brand defense ROAS vs. acquisition ROAS separately.

Step 5: Set daily budget guardrails

Set your total Zepto daily budget across all campaigns to what you're comfortable spending before you have conversion data. For a first campaign, ₹1,500-3,000/day total across all three campaigns is a reasonable test window. At typical Zepto CPCs, this generates 150-400 clicks/day — enough for meaningful data within 5-7 days.

Step 6: Go live and monitor for 5 days without changes

Resist the urge to adjust bids on day 1 or 2. Zepto's ad system (like most auction platforms) needs a few days to find efficient placement patterns. Making bid changes on day 1 resets learning. Wait 5 days, then review.

Common mistakes brands make on Zepto

1. Running the same keywords as Blinkit Zepto's shopper vocabulary differs. "Energy drink" may be a top-volume term on Blinkit but "cold drink fast delivery" might perform better on Zepto. Always build keyword lists from Zepto's own search autocomplete, not from a Blinkit export.

2. Ignoring browse placements entirely Brands focused only on search miss 30-40% of Zepto's available ad-driven volume. Browse placements are cheaper per click and, for impulse categories, convert well because the shopper is in exploration mode.

3. Setting one campaign budget that exhausts by noon If your campaign budget runs out by 12pm, you're entirely absent during the 6-9pm peak. Either increase the daily budget or use bid scheduling to conserve budget for peak hours.

4. Not monitoring dark store inventory Running ads when your product is out of stock is the most expensive mistake. Every click to an OOS product is 100% wasted spend. Set up inventory alerts or check OOS status weekly before budget renewals.

5. Copying ROAS targets from Blinkit Zepto's average order values and conversion rates differ by category. A 5x ROAS target that works on Blinkit may not be achievable on Zepto for the same product — because browse placements have lower conversion rates. Set Zepto-specific ROAS targets based on Zepto data, not cross-platform assumptions.

6. Under-investing in brand defense Competitors can bid on your brand terms. If you're not defending your own brand keywords with a small, efficient campaign, you're paying competitor acquisition costs when shoppers search your own brand name and click a rival's ad instead.

Optimization: what to do after the first two weeks

After 14 days of data, run this audit:

Week 3 actions

Export search term reports — find queries triggering your ads that you didn't explicitly bid on. Promote high-converting ones to exact match keywords. Blacklist irrelevant ones as negatives.
Pause keywords with 40+ clicks and zero conversions — these are definitively not working. Remove them from active campaigns.
Identify your top 3 converting keywords — increase bids 10-15% on each to capture more of that intent.
Check browse placement ROAS separately — if browse ROAS is below 2x but search ROAS is above 5x, shift budget from browse to search.

When to scale

Scale a Zepto campaign when:

A campaign maintains target ROAS for 7+ consecutive days
Your campaign is hitting daily budget caps before 5pm (budget-constrained, not demand-constrained)
Dark store inventory is healthy across your target cities

Scale by increasing daily budget 20-30% at a time, not doubling. Aggressive budget increases on auction platforms often cause CPCs to spike as the system chases more inventory than was previously available.

The cross-platform view

Don't evaluate Zepto in isolation. A brand might see 4x ROAS on Blinkit and 3.2x on Zepto — but if Zepto is reaching a different city cohort where Blinkit has weak coverage, the 3.2x Zepto ROAS is incremental profit, not an underperformer. Ladya's cross-platform dashboard surfaces this by showing city-level performance overlap so you can see where platforms complement vs. cannibalize each other.