Digital Advertising in India Overview
In India, advertisers usually work through a series of partnerships rather than buying media directly. A brand typically hires an agency, which is part of a holding company. This holding company then handles negotiations with platforms, and finally, the actual ad placements are executed seamlessly by advanced software in just milliseconds.
Money often exchanges hands four or five times from the marketing budget to the advertisement you see. This setup naturally leads to two key questions, which shape most of what happens in the Indian advertising industry.
- Who is responsible for managing the client mandate?
- And who can track the funds once they move through the automated buying process?
The first question is answered through pitches and account reviews, which often change hands every few years and can shift agency rankings during those times. The second question is more complex, as it’s answered—or sometimes not—within the programmatic supply chain, where every rupee of ad spend goes through multiple intermediaries before reaching the publisher.
Each of these intermediaries takes a share. The key challenge in digital advertising worldwide is whether the advertiser can see and understand these cuts.
India’s rapid growth in digital advertising highlights both opportunities and challenges. The market has expanded significantly, with volumes increasing more than five times from 2021 to 2025. By 2025, about 96 percent of digital ad impressions are bought programmatically, showing how essential this method has become.
Most of the industry now relies on infrastructure that many advertisers find difficult to verify independently, underscoring the need for trusted, transparent systems.
This article provides an easy-to-understand look at how media agency mandates are created and secured, how India’s digital advertising market is evaluated, and how the programmatic supply chain shares both money and risk.
To make things clearer, it includes recent examples like the Flipkart account change in 2025 and the Publicis dispute with The Trade Desk in the first half of 2026.
How Media Agency Mandates Work
A media mandate is a contract that designates an agency to handle the planning and purchasing of advertising space for a brand. The planning process helps determine the best places and times to advertise, while the buying aspect involves negotiating and securing the ad inventory.
When an agency manages both planning and buying for a client, it’s known as their media agency of record.
Above the agencies are the holding companies, such as WPP, Publicis Groupe, Omnicom, Dentsu, and Interpublic. These giants own most of the big media agencies around the world, including their Indian branches, which follow the same structure.
Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom are part of WPP, while Starcom is under Publicis. When a brand chooses Starcom, it’s also effectively working with Publicis. This is important because holding companies often negotiate platform deals and technology contracts that benefit all the agencies under their umbrella, ensuring everyone is covered and connected.
Mandates are transferred via a pitch, often referred to as an account review. In this process, the client provides a brief, agencies compete for the business, and the current provider must justify their hold on the account. Because reviews can be costly for all parties involved, clients typically initiate them only when there is a significant structural change, rather than on an annual basis.
Two common patterns help explain recent trends in India. The first is consolidation, where a client who used to work with multiple agencies decides to bring everything under one network. The second is scope expansion, where an existing agency takes on new categories of work without needing a competitive pitch.
WPP Media’s Indian accounts illustrate both. In December 2025, it won the integrated media mandate for Orient Electric, the consumer electricals business of the CK Birla Group, covering planning and buying across offline and digital for a portfolio spanning fans, lighting, home appliances, switches, switchgear and wires.
Anika Agarwal, the chief marketing and customer experience officer at Orient Electric, described the objective as developing a connected media ecosystem that integrates innovation with customer experience.
The Reckitt relationship demonstrates scope expansion. WPP Media has managed the account since 2023. In January 2026, it reaffirmed its engagement and gained a new e-commerce media mandate. Wavemaker now leads core media strategy and manages commerce media for brands like Dettol, Harpic, Durex, Finish, Lysol, and Veet.
WPP Media thoughtfully integrated a dedicated commerce team within Reckitt’s e-commerce operations. Starting January 2026, Reckitt also appointed WPP Media across 21 European markets, illustrating how Indian mandates are increasingly extending into global projects with the same client.
Commerce media is an important concept worth understanding. It involves advertising purchased directly on retail platforms, where targeting is done using the retailer’s own purchase data. This approach has grown into a unique agency discipline because the data remains with the platform, rather than the brand.
This shift highlights how digital retail spaces are transforming marketing strategies and creating new opportunities for brands to connect with customers effectively.
Why Clients Move Accounts?
Typically, incumbent agencies tend to win reviews because they are familiar with the brand, possess valuable historical data, and the costs associated with switching can mean months of transition for the client. When an incumbent does lose, it’s usually due to structural reasons rather than any failing in service.
There are three common structural reasons that often come up. Sometimes, the client’s business model shifts and requires different expertise. Other times, they prefer to have a single network instead of multiple ones they used before. Additionally, issues can arise with the holding company relationship, especially if there are conflicts with competing clients or frustration with commercial terms.
The Flipkart review of 2025 stands out as a very clear example from India. Starcom India, which is part of Publicis, has been appointed as the media agency of record for the Flipkart Group in a deal valued between Rs 700 to 750 crore. This change saw the account move away from EssenceMediacom, a WPP division, which had managed it for many years.
The switch came after a lively multi-agency pitch, bringing together Flipkart’s planning and buying across both traditional and digital media with one trusted partner. Its large scale is a big reason why it attracted so much attention.
The Madison Advertising Report 2025 ranked Flipkart 13th among India’s top 50 advertisers, with estimated annual expenditure of Rs 600 to 800 crore, mainly during festive seasons and high-traffic shopping periods. Flipkart’s financial situation highlights why prioritizing efficiency was more important than maintaining continuity.
For the fiscal year ending March 2025, the company’s consolidated revenue increased by approximately 17% to Rs 82,787 crore, although overall losses expanded to Rs 5,189 crore. Its marketplace division, Flipkart Internet, reduced its net loss by around 37% to Rs 1,494 crore, supported by about 14% revenue growth.
A rapidly growing business that is working towards profitability often sees media efficiency as a key lever on its journey to break-even. There’s an interesting additional aspect to consider. Flipkart and Amazon, for example, are not only two of India’s biggest advertisers but also some of the largest sellers of advertising space, as both platforms run their own retail media networks.
An agency working with such a client needs to buy media on their behalf and also understanding the inventory they sell. This dual role wasn’t there a decade ago, and today it significantly influences how these responsibilities are planned and managed.
Measuring India’s Digital Ad Market
Indian advertising measurement relies on a few key industry groups. BARC keeps track of television viewership, helping us understand what audiences are watching. TAM Media Research, through its AdEx India division, observes advertising activity across television, print, radio, and digital platforms, giving us a broad view of the market. Additionally, FICCI and EY share yearly estimates of sector revenue, providing valuable insights into industry growth and trends.
TAM’s digital reports measure ad impressions instead of rupees. An impression refers to a single instance of an ad being shown to one user. While tracking impressions indicates activity and reach, it does not reflect pricing information, so an increase in impressions should not be equated with revenue growth.
The overall trend is very clear. Digital ad impressions in India have increased dramatically, growing more than five times from 2021 to 2025. Between January and September 2025 alone, they jumped by 149 percent compared to the same period the previous year.
Amazon was the leading digital advertiser, with Flipkart and Hindustan Unilever also ranking high, both representing prominent e-commerce platforms at the top of the advertiser list. The concentration among platforms is significant.
Instagram alone accounted for 65 percent of digital ad impressions across 2025, with Facebook at 14 percent, YouTube at 8 percent and X at 5 percent.
Four platforms account for most of India’s digital advertising, with display formats making up about 90 percent of impressions, while videos hold around 10 percent, with single-image creatives dominating within that.
The advertiser base expanded even as platform usage became more concentrated. In 2025, over 187,000 advertisers were active on digital platforms, including many small and mid-sized businesses that would not have purchased television advertising.
Services led sectors at 45 percent of impressions, followed by education at 7 percent, with personal accessories, computers and retail each near 6 percent.
Category growth highlights where commerce is thriving, with over 400 categories experiencing positive development. E-commerce online shopping stood out as the fastest-growing category, with impressions increasing by 96 percent. This really shows how shopping online is becoming even more popular and accessible to everyone.
Retail outlets for clothing and textiles increased nine times, while AV auxiliaries expanded twelve times. The most significant change is in the way transactions are conducted.
Programmatic buying carried roughly 96 percent of digital ad impressions, with ad networks near 2 percent and direct buying near 1 percent. Automated buying is not one channel among several in India. It is effectively the whole market.
Where the Advertising Rupee Actually Goes?
Programmatic advertising involves purchasing ad impressions via automated auctions instead of traditional negotiated insertion orders. The process follows a predetermined sequence.
When an advertiser sets a budget, it enters a demand-side platform that actively bids on ad impressions. An ad exchange then conducts the auction to determine whose ad will be shown.
The publisher is represented by a supply-side platform, which helps serve the advertisement. Every intermediary typically charges a fee—often a percentage of the total spend. Collectively, these fees are commonly referred to as the ad tech tax.
Industry research consistently shows that a significant portion of advertiser budgets is spent before reaching publishers, with some funds untraceable to any specific entity. Supply path optimization involves decreasing the number of intermediaries between the budget source and the publisher.
Let’s consider two important dynamics. Agencies seek transparency into intermediary fees since they are responsible to their clients for results. On the other hand, platforms view fee structures and auction mechanisms as sensitive business secrets. Additionally, demand-side platforms are starting to sell directly to advertisers, which could challenge the agency’s role as the primary point of contact with the client.
The Publicis dispute with The Trade Desk publicly revealed tensions between the two. In March 2026, after Publicis conducted an audit by FirmDecisions, the holding company removed The Trade Desk from its recommended platform list and advised clients to stop spending with it.
Publicis alleged that the platform stacked its fee on top of other charges in a manner its contracts did not support, and that certain campaign features were enabled without explicit client approval.
The Trade Desk rejected all allegations, including the claim that it failed the audit. It explained that some of the requested data could violate confidentiality agreements with customers and partners, but it proposed providing more detailed disclosures as alternatives.
Its stock declined roughly 13 percent in the days following Publicis advising clients to cease spending. Omnicom launched its own review of agreements related to the platform. The dispute was resolved on June 12, 2026, with a joint statement confirming the resolution and the return to the previous recommendation.
The statement revealed no details about the terms. It is unclear whether the billing issue was settled, postponed, or handled through a private commercial deal. An analyst quoted by Digiday described the outcome as a ceasefire rather than a permanent peace.
The episode offers more insight into its structure than its final result. A transparency dispute ended without clear resolution. Close analysts suggested that the true battle was over margin and control, rather than disclosure, as platforms selling directly to advertisers and agencies defending their intermediary roles both have revenue at stake.
Indian marketers preferred direct verification over mere assurances. Anushree Tainwala from Samsonite South Asia emphasized the need for platforms, agencies, and brands to adhere to a consistent standard of clarity regarding costs and outcomes.
Kunal Sharma of KRBL described audit rights and in-house programmatic fluency as non-negotiable.
Udit Malhotra of JSW MG Motor India supported a hybrid approach, utilizing agency expertise for strategy while building internal capabilities for critical decisions.
The key element is the contractual audit rights, which serve as a practical way to ensure transparency.
Conclusion
The Indian advertising industry now thrives on two key pillars of trust. Clients have confidence that agencies will handle their mandates with skill and care. At the same time, agencies and clients together trust automated systems to ensure that budgets are spent exactly as planned, fostering a smooth and trustworthy partnership.
The first form is checked regularly through periodic pitches and is quite noticeable. Meanwhile, the second form isn’t tested as often, and only an audit can reveal it.
Three key points stand out. Agency mandates tend to shift because of structural factors, and commerce media capabilities have become very prominent, as seen with Reckitt’s expansion and the Flipkart switch.
Impression data measures activity rather than money, so its growth figures need careful reading. And in a market where automated buying carries almost every impression, the terms on which intermediaries disclose their fees determine how much of an advertising budget actually buys attention.
An account win is a business event. A supply chain fee is a technical detail. In digital advertising, they are the same story, because the value of holding a mandate now depends on being able to account for what happens inside the pipes.
References
- Storyboard18 — Amazon emerges as largest digital advertiser in Jan–Sep 2025, followed by Flipkart and HUL: TAM AdEx
- Indian Television — Digital ad impressions grow fivefold since 2021: TAM AdEx report
- Exchange4media — Publicis restores The Trade Desk recommendation after resolving ad-tech fee dispute
- Digiday — Publicis and The Trade Desk settle their dispute, but tell no one why
- Digiday — Publicis vs. The Trade Desk isn’t really about transparency, it’s about who gets the margin
Key Highlights
- A media mandate appoints an agency to plan and buy advertising for a brand. Agencies sit inside holding companies, so appointing Starcom means appointing Publicis, and appointing Wavemaker or EssenceMediacom means appointing WPP. Mandates change hands through competitive pitches, usually when the client’s business needs change rather than on a schedule.
- Commerce media, meaning advertising bought on retail platforms using the retailer’s purchase data, has become a distinct agency discipline. It drove WPP Media’s expanded Reckitt brief in January 2026 and shaped Flipkart’s 2025 consolidation, in which Starcom took an estimated Rs 700 to 750 crore mandate from EssenceMediacom.
- TAM AdEx measures impressions, not rupees, so its growth figures show activity rather than revenue. Indian digital ad impressions grew more than five-fold between 2021 and 2025. Instagram carried 65 percent of 2025 impressions, more than 187,000 advertisers were active, and Amazon led all digital advertisers ahead of Flipkart and Hindustan Unilever.
- Programmatic buying carried roughly 96 percent of Indian digital ad impressions, making intermediary fee disclosure a market-wide governance question. Publicis pulled The Trade Desk from its recommended list in March 2026 after a FirmDecisions audit, and the two settled on 12 June 2026 without disclosing terms.
