Where India is Heading in Digital Advertising

“India’s digital advertising isn’t just evolving—it’s being rewritten in real time. As tech giants tighten their grip on ad ecosystems, emerging brands must carve their own paths through alternative platforms, creator-led commerce, and first-party data. The battle is no longer just for reach, but for ownership—of audiences, engagement, and conversion. CMOs who master this balance will drive exponential growth, while those stuck in outdated models risk being left behind. The real question: Are you adapting fast enough to stay ahead?”

India’s digital advertising landscape is undergoing rapid transformation. Over the next year, two competing forces will shape its trajectory—tech giants consolidating their ecosystems and emerging players innovating to gain a foothold. While more prominent players like Google, Meta, and Amazon continue to build closed advertising ecosystems, upstart brands and independent platforms are focusing on differentiation, audience ownership, and community-driven engagement. CMOs and brand managers must navigate this dynamic environment by balancing scale with agility and automation with creativity to drive business success.

Digital AdEx Growth in 2025: The Changing Landscape

According to the latest AdEx reports from GroupM, Madison, and Dentsu, India’s advertising expenditure is projected to grow between 7% and 11% in 2025, with digital ad spending leading the charge. Digital media is expected to contribute over 50% of total AdEx, driven by the rapid adoption of retail media, Connected TV (CTV), and AI-powered ad optimisation. Performance marketing, commerce-driven advertising, and first-party data utilisation will be key drivers of this shift.

To make the most of this evolving landscape, CMOs should follow the 4-Pillar Digital AdEx Framework:

1. Platform Diversification: Move beyond Google and Meta to leverage growing opportunities in retail media, CTV, and social commerce.
2. Performance-Branding Integration: Adopt brandformance strategies to optimise media spends across awareness, consideration, and conversion.
3. Precision in Measurement: Implement multi-touch attribution and incrementality testing to assess the real impact of advertising investments.
4. Privacy-First Data Strategy: Build a robust first-party data ecosystem to maintain targeting efficiency amidst increasing restrictions.

For upstart brands, this shift presents an opportunity to carve out distinct engagement strategies, leveraging niche platforms, high-engagement influencer marketing, and creator-led commerce to stand apart from the digital ad duopoly.

The Next Phase of Consolidation Among Big Media Players

Google, Meta, and Amazon are no longer just ad platforms; they have evolved into full-scale commerce ecosystems. The competition for ad budgets is intensifying as these giants seek end-to-end control over media investments, from discovery to conversion.

1. AI-Powered Full-Funnel Advertising: Performance Max and Advantage+ campaigns are reshaping digital advertising by eliminating the need for manual channel planning within these ecosystems. AI-driven budget allocation will prioritise cross-channel impact over isolated platform performance.
2. The Battle for First-Party Data: With tightening privacy regulations, significant platforms are reinforcing their data strongholds. Google’s Privacy Sandbox and Meta’s Advantage+ audience solutions signal a future where brands must integrate their first-party data with walled garden insights to remain competitive.
3. Retail Media Expanding Beyond Performance: Amazon, Flipkart, and other retail platforms are no longer just lower-funnel conversion drivers. They are introducing top-of-the-funnel brand-building opportunities, challenging traditional perceptions of marketplace advertising. Simultaneously, Google and Meta are strengthening their e-commerce capabilities, positioning themselves as full-funnel growth partners.

For upstart brands, the increasing consolidation of advertising within large ecosystems means that owning direct customer relationships is more important than ever. By focusing on first-party data, loyalty programs, and community-building, smaller brands can offset their reliance on these platforms while still leveraging their reach.

Connected TV (CTV) and Programmatic DOOH

As digital video consumption shifts from mobile screens to smart TVs, brands are allocating budgets to CTV advertising on platforms like JioCinema, which now integrates Hotstar following their merger. This consolidation enhances audience reach and streamlines ad placement, making it a critical channel for multi-touchpoint brand engagement and conversion measurement.

Upstart brands, in contrast, are leveraging programmatic video and OTT platforms with hyper-personalized, regional language content to drive deeper audience engagement and avoid direct competition with large players in crowded digital spaces.

Creator-Led Commerce

Social commerce is evolving. Platforms like YouTube Shopping and Instagram Shops enable direct brand transactions, further blurring the line between content and commerce.

For emerging brands, this is a game-changing opportunity to bypass traditional media buying and invest in influencer partnerships, micro-community engagement, and social-driven D2C models. While large brands will continue investing in AI-driven automated ad placements, smaller brands must leverage authenticity and trust-building through fundamental human interactions.

To capitalise on these opportunities, CMOs should use the Alternative Media Investment Framework, which consists of:

• Exploration: Testing high-growth media channels while maintaining core media efficiency.
• Expansion: Scaling investments in alternative channels that show measurable impact.
• Integration: Connecting emerging platforms into a cohesive, cross-channel media strategy.

The Expanding Role of CMOs in the Digital Age

With digital advertising evolving rapidly, CMOs must move beyond high-level strategic oversight and take an action-driven approach to optimise media investments, enhance measurement, and drive business growth.

1. Redefining Media Planning as a Business Growth Engine: CMOs need to integrate performance marketing with brand-building strategies to ensure every ad dollar contributes to customer lifetime value (LTV) and profitability. Establishing a balanced budget that includes high-ROI performance channels, experimental investments in emerging platforms, and long-term brand-building initiatives is essential.
2. Building In-House Data & Technology Capabilities: CMOs should prioritise investing in in-house programmatic buying teams and adopting Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) to centralise first-party data. By shifting from third-party cookies to AI-driven audience segmentation, brands can create more precise targeting strategies that integrate insights across Google, Meta, Amazon, and retail media networks.
3. Implementing Agile Media Planning: CMOs must adopt a rolling, quarterly-based agile media planning system that reallocates ad budgets dynamically based on performance and emerging trends. Conducting monthly performance audits will help identify underperforming platforms while reallocating spend to high-growth areas such as CTV, social commerce, and quick-commerce advertising.
4. Shifting to Multi-Touch Attribution for Better Measurement: CMOs must champion multi-touch attribution and incrementality testing to measure the real impact of ad campaigns. CMOs must champion multi-touch attribution and incrementality testing to measure the real impact of ad campaigns. Running geo-experiments and holdout testing will provide deeper insights into how brand-building investments drive business outcomes.
5. Rethinking Marketplaces as Full-Funnel Platforms: Marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart are now offering top-of-the-funnel brand-building ad solutions. CMOs must allocate 20-30% of their marketplace ad budgets to upper-funnel placements such as display ads, influencer collaborations, and retail media video ads. Leveraging Amazon DSP, Flipkart Brand Stories, and native advertising within retail platforms will allow brands to create seamless consumer journeys from discovery to conversion.

By adopting adaptive and commerce-first strategies, large brands can consolidate and optimise scale, while emerging brands differentiate through community, niche storytelling, and direct engagement models.

Conclusion

India’s digital advertising landscape is entering an era of consolidation and innovation.

While big players consolidate ecosystems to dominate digital spending, upstart brands must carve out differentiation strategies

that focus on authentic engagement, owned audience data, and direct-to-consumer models. As digital publishers expand their ad offerings across the entire funnel, both large and emerging brands must adopt flexible strategies to navigate the evolving landscape. The future of digital advertising is not about choosing between performance and branding—it’s about seamlessly integrating both while selecting the right ecosystem to scale or differentiate.