How One of India’s Largest Grocery Platforms Rebuilt Fixed Tenancy Ads with Pre-Auction

Background

Shoppers were searching with clear intent terms like milk, biscuits and well-known brands. The platform monetized this intent using Fixed Tenancy Ads serving against high-intent keywords. Brands loved the idea and were eager to advertise, however, the sales process behind these ads hadn’t scaled with the platform. It remained manual and limited in reach.

Challenge: A System That Hit Its Limit

The team had identified about 300 keywords that advertisers would be interested in. The keywords were high-volume and high-intent.

But the sales process was entirely manual.

Media sales called advertisers one by one. Prices were set through individual negotiation. There was no standard interface and the entire process was managed through spreadsheets. If an advertiser didn't get a call, they never found out the inventory existed.

This created major problems:

• Ad slots frequently sold for less than their true value, as inventory couldn’t be competitively priced hence capping revenue potential.
• Many advertisers were excluded from the process altogether.
• The current system couldn’t scale beyond the bandwidth of the sales team without heavy reliance on internal resources.

To unlock the full value of its high value Top of Search inventory, the retailer needed to transition to self-serve, auction-based media sales.

Osmos’ Self-Serve, Pre-auction System

Osmos worked with the retailer to move Fixed Tenancy Ads from a manual sales process to a self-serve, pre-auction system.

Each keyword, or group of keywords, was turned into an ad package. The retailer’s team could define a base price, auction start and end dates, and campaign flight dates.

Once published, these packages became visible to all eligible advertisers. They could place bids directly through the white-labeled advertiser portal. The retailer had visibility into all bids as they came in. At the end of the auction, the highest bidder won the slot.

This removed the need for sales-led negotiation. Advertisers no longer had to wait for someone to call them. The process became visible, accessible and structured.

Beyond Generic Keywords

Osmos enabled the retailer to monetise high-intent product and brand keywords that shoppers actively searched from generic terms like butter or coffee to branded ones like Britannia or Dove.

These keywords weren’t reserved for brand owners alone. Competing brands could bid for them too. For example, if Cadbury won the keyword Britannia, its ad would be shown when shoppers searched for Britannia turning search into a competitive, high-yield placement.

This model created a natural incentive:

• Brand defense: Brands bid to protect their own terms
• Brand conquesting: Competitors bid to capture intent on rival terms

This ensured ad relevancy, increased ad revenue for the retailer and enhanced the shopper experience by keeping placements contextually aligned.

The Shift in Numbers

Since the transition, Fixed Tenancy Ads have become a much larger part of retailer’s monetization:

• Around 50% of ad revenue in the first 30 days came from Fixed Tenancy Ads
• The average uplift from base price to final price is 92.7%
• Advertiser participation has grown by 27% in two months

The system didn’t change what was being sold. It only changed how it was sold. That turned out to be enough.