If the recently released annual statistics of Google India and Facebook India are any indicator, this year’s digital ad income in India may far outpace all forecasts and estimates.
Online advertising brought in a staggering Rs 41,115 crore for the two tech behemoths alone in 2021–22, up from Rs 23,212 crore in the prior year. Google and Meta hold nearly 80% of the market share in India’s digital market. The combined revenue of Meta and Google exceeds what was predicted for the whole digital sector in the Pitch Madison Annual Report (PMAR) 2022 by a significant margin. Nearly one-third of all advertising expenditures in India, or around Rs 33,070 crore, were anticipated to be spent on digital media by PMAR. Digital ad spending was predicted by GroupM’s “This Year Next Year” 2022 research to reach 48,603 crores in 2022 and account for over 50% of all AdEx.
Industry insiders assert that “GroupM’s prediction also seems off-target if you consider ad income of the e-commerce titans Flipkart and Amazon.” In the fiscal year 2022, Amazon India and Flipkart reported ad revenues of approximately Rs 7,000 crore collectively and Rs 4,170 crore, respectively. According to the numbers, these four players stole Adex, valued at Rs. 48 billion. Digital advertising has recently grown to include several new social media platforms, including Snap, Twitter, Linkedin, and WhatsApp Business. In addition, OTT, Connected TV, and gaming have created new avenues for advertising. These are popular with young people with lots of disposable income, which is luring advertising.
According to Rajiv Dubey, Media Head of Dabur India, the findings of the tech and e-commerce companies are a glaring sign that digital advertising income will exceed the PMAR projection. In 2022, digital saw tremendous growth. Because more and more businesses are spending a significant portion of their advertising budgets on digital marketing, the current holiday season also has a digital flavour.
According to Dubey, other businesses, including e-commerce, OTT, and gaming platforms, may eventually impact the market share of Google and Facebook, which are predicted to continue to dominate digital advertising in India. In comparison to 2020 and 2021, 2022 (through July) is expected to have a more significant growth in overall digital ad insertions, according to the most recent TAM statistics obtained by e4m.
According to Maruti Suzuki’s Senior Executive Director of Sales and Marketing, Shashank Srivastava, “It is quite likely that this year’s expectations and predictions will be exceeded. In contrast to the earlier projections of 30% growth, the Indian market will likely experience growth of 40%. However, the digital Adex will probably be at most Rs 33,000 crore.
Srivastava further notes that the Rs 41k crore in revenue for Google and Meta India also includes Indian advertising expenditures abroad. Srivastava is supported by Rahul Vengalil, Executive Director of Everest, a Rediffusion Group. Bengali adds that the amount spent on advertising outside of India pales in contrast to what businesses spend there.
The PMAR 2022 projection had a very high degree of upside risk, according to Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, Global CEO & Co-Founder of GOZOOP Group, and it is now confident in light of the outcomes. Diwali was great for digital ad spending, which suggests that digital ad income will rise and top the standards set last year. According to Naqvi, this was the tendency we saw year after year for brands in all industries.
The Meta’s FY22 financial report, according to Naqvi’s subsequent statement, “shows an upward trend in ad spends majorly analyzing the variables we had to react to in the past two years.” Additionally, 2022 began with removing all restrictions and the authorization of businesses to open digital and physical stores at total capacity, resulting in more lavish spending.
