Quick commerce has rewired how people in India shop, and it’s forcing brands to rethink marketing along with it. When your entire delivery promise is 10 minutes, there’s no room for a lazy, copy-pasted ad strategy. Quick commerce marketing is the specialised work of winning visibility, clicks, and conversions on apps like Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart. A handful of agencies, PROHED among them, have built dedicated playbooks for FMCG, D2C, and retail brands trying to crack this, playbooks that look nothing like standard e-commerce marketing.
So if you’re a brand owner trying to figure out who can actually run this well, here’s a straight, no-fluff rundown of the agencies worth talking to.
Why This Isn’t Just E-commerce With a Faster Delivery Truck
Before you pick an agency, it’s worth understanding why this category needs its own specialists in the first place.
Think about how people shop on Amazon or Flipkart, they might spend ten minutes comparing five products, reading reviews, checking seller ratings. On Blinkit or Zepto, that whole decision plays out in under 30 seconds. The algorithms are different. The ad formats are different. Even the psychology of what makes someone tap “add” is different.
A few things that set this space apart:
- Targeting is hyperlocal, tied to what’s actually sitting in the nearest dark store
- Buying is impulsive – being visible often matters more than being loved
- Bidding happens in real time, a bit like Amazon Ads but with much tighter windows to react
- Banner and sponsored placements need near-constant tweaking, not a set-and-forget approach
- Ad performance is tied directly to inventory, if a SKU goes out of stock, your ad spend is wasted instantly
Brands that treat this like a scaled-down version of e-commerce marketing usually just burn budget. That gap is exactly where a specialised agency earns its keep.
What Actually Matters When Choosing an Agency
Not every digital shop is built for this kind of speed. Here’s what’s worth checking before you sign anything.
Factor | Why it matters |
Platform-specific experience | Blinkit Ads, Zepto Ads, and Instamart Ads each behave differently, a generalist agency will often get this wrong |
Category expertise | An FMCG brand and a personal care brand need different creative and bidding approaches entirely |
Data and reporting access | You want to actually see keyword rankings, share of voice, and ROAS broken down by SKU, not a vague summary deck |
Creative capability | These ads live on small screens and get maybe a second of attention; the creative has to earn that second |
Performance marketing depth | A lot of quick commerce demand is generated off-platform, so the agency should be comfortable running Google and Meta too |
7 Agencies Worth Considering
1. PROHED
PROHED is a Gurgaon-based performance marketing agency serving D2C, FMCG, EdTech, FinTech, and B2B clients. Their take on quick commerce isn’t to treat it as its own island, they connect it back to the rest of a brand’s digital funnel. What that looks like in practice:
- Setting up and running Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart ad accounts
- Keyword and category targeting to push in-app search visibility
- Testing creative variations for sponsored banners and listings
- Running Google Ads and Meta Ads to funnel off-platform demand into the apps
- SEO and CRO work on the brand’s own website, so quick commerce growth isn’t disconnected from everything else
If you’re a D2C or FMCG brand hunting for a partner that ties quick commerce spend to broader growth numbers rather than treating it as a side project, PROHED’s worth a conversation alongside the bigger names below.
2. Interactive Avenues
Part of the WPP network, Interactive Avenues has been running large-scale quick commerce campaigns for FMCG and personal care brands for a while now. Their edge is retail media planning at scale, backed by WPP’s broader data infrastructure. This tends to suit mid-to-large brands that already have national distribution and need synchronized campaigns across cities and platforms at once. Expect enterprise-grade dashboards, the kind built for marketing teams who need to defend spend to leadership.
3. Schbang
Schbang runs a dedicated e-commerce and marketplace vertical inside its wider digital offering, which covers content, social, and creative production too. Brands often go with Schbang when they want quick commerce advertising paired with genuinely strong creative direction, the agency’s roots are in content-led work, not pure performance. That makes them a good match for consumer brands where packaging and storytelling carry as much weight as bid strategy. Their client base spans D2C, lifestyle, and F&B.
4. iProspect India
A Dentsu company, iProspect brings serious programmatic and performance chops to quick commerce, particularly for enterprise clients juggling big budgets across multiple platforms. They’re known for sophisticated bid automation and cross-channel attribution, useful if you want to understand how quick commerce spend actually interacts with the rest of your digital funnel. This is more of a fit for brands that already have marketing maturity and want quick commerce plugged into an existing measurement setup, rather than one built from zero.
5. WATConsult
Also under Dentsu, WATConsult leans into integrated retail media and social commerce. Their approach usually blends quick commerce ads with influencer campaigns, which works well for brands trying to build category awareness and drive platform sales at the same time. They’ve handled several FMCG and beauty brands making their first move into quick commerce, and offer onboarding help for teams unfamiliar with dark store logistics and platform auction mechanics.
6. Gozoop
Gozoop is creative-first, pairing strong visuals with performance execution. On quick commerce specifically, that shows up in banner and listing creative built to stop a scroll within the first second, which matters, given how fast people move through app home screens. Gozoop works across D2C and lifestyle brands and tends to get picked by companies whose existing ad creative works fine functionally but isn’t distinctive enough to compete on crowded search results.
7. Rite Media Group
Rite Media built its name managing Amazon and Flipkart marketplace advertising before moving into quick commerce, and that marketplace background shows in how they structure campaigns. They’re particularly strong on keyword and category optimisation within platform search, essentially managing Blinkit and Zepto listings the way they’d manage an Amazon storefront. Brands with existing marketplace ad experience often find their process familiar to plug straight into.
How to Actually Choose
Which of these fits depends on your brand’s size, category, and goals. A few questions worth asking before you sign:
- Do they have direct, hands-on experience in your specific product category?
- Can they show real ROAS or share-of-voice numbers from past quick commerce work, not just case study screenshots?
- Do they only manage platform ads, or do they handle integrated performance marketing too?
- How do they handle ad pauses when inventory runs out?
- What does their creative testing process look like, concretely?
If you’re a smaller D2C brand stepping into quick commerce for the first time, a smaller agency that understands your category and budget constraints will usually serve you better than a large enterprise shop where you’re a minor account on a long client list.
Related Read: D2C Growth Strategy: The 180-Day Roadmap to Scale Your Brand Faster
Performance Marketing Still Does the Heavy Lifting
Quick commerce ads on their own rarely build sustainable growth. Most brands that actually succeed here pair on-platform advertising with demand generation happening elsewhere:
- Google Ads to capture search intent and route people toward the apps
- Meta Ads for awareness and retargeting, especially around new launches
- SEO to build organic visibility for brand and category searches over time
- Social media to build community and bring people back for repeat purchases
Agencies that can run quick commerce alongside these channels tend to deliver better long-term ROI than ones that only touch in-app advertising.
The Bottom Line
Quick commerce marketing rewards speed, precision, and category know-how, not the flashiest case study on a pitch deck. The right agency depends less on their portfolio and more on whether they understand your product, your customer, and how quick commerce fits into your wider strategy. Interactive Avenues and iProspect suit larger enterprise budgets. Schbang and Gozoop lean creative. Rite Media brings marketplace discipline. PROHED offers a more integrated route for D2C and FMCG brands who want quick commerce tied back to overall growth. Whichever way you go, judge agencies on data, category fit, and creative quality, not platform buzzwords.
FAQs
1. How much does quick commerce marketing cost in India?
It varies by platform and category, but most brands start somewhere between ₹50,000 and ₹5 lakh a month, depending on SKU count and how many cities they’re targeting.
2. Blinkit, Zepto, or Instamart – which is best?
Depends on your target cities and category. Blinkit currently has the widest reach, while Zepto and Instamart perform strongly in certain metros. Most brands end up running all three.
3. Can a small D2C brand advertise on Blinkit without a big budget?
Yes, Blinkit allows flexible daily budgets, so smaller brands can get in, though visibility naturally scales up with spend.
4. How’s this different from Amazon Ads?
Quick commerce ads are hyperlocal and tied to inventory, visibility depends on what’s in the nearest dark store, unlike Amazon’s national fulfilment model.
5. Do these agencies also handle Google and Meta Ads?
Full-service ones do, since off-platform demand generation directly affects how quick commerce campaigns actually perform.
6. How long before you see results?
Most brands notice visibility improvements within 2–4 weeks, with meaningful ROAS data showing up after about 6–8 weeks of steady optimisation.
7. What creative formats work best on Blinkit and Zepto?
Simple, high-contrast banners with a clear product benefit, people are deciding in seconds while scrolling, so there’s no time for subtlety.
8. Is SEO even relevant for quick commerce brands?
Yes. Solid brand SEO drives search traffic that eventually turns into app downloads and purchases, making it a useful supporting channel rather than a replacement.
Want help building a quick commerce strategy that actually moves product? Talk to PROHED’s performance marketing team about a Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart plan built around your brand.
Schedule a Free Strategy Call with PROHED Today
