Emerging Mobile Advertising Sector Drives Economic Growth

Authored article by Raghu KLN, Chief Business Officer, Way2News

Today, the Rs. 70,000 crore advertising market in India is among the largest in the world, with the revenue generated by digital advertising valued at around Rs. 24,600 crores, set to grow to Rs. 35,800 crores by the end of next year, gearing up the economy and launching on an unprecedented developmental trajectory to reach the $5 trillion mark. 

According to a Goldman Sachs estimate, the advanced advertising profession scope in the Indian market will value $160B by 2025, which is significantly more than the current value. Mobile ads are not just about awareness but are creative and engaging. If you search for a laptop or flight on your phone, you will get prompted advertisements similar in nature and more broad-based, presenting lucrative possibilities and coaxing you to click the advert.

Mobile phones have bridged the urban-rural divide and entered the hearts of consumers, much to the delight of industry and the economy. With a population of 1.3 billion, India has over 97 crore active mobile connections. Over 65 crore smartphone users have active data services on their phones. These transformational initiatives are opening up new avenues for the advertising industry. Mobile advertising transmits text, images, or videos embedded in mobile-friendly apps—increasing in-app engagement.

App developers get paid to serve advertisements within their apps as part of the in-app advertising model, which is an effective monetization strategy for mobile publishers. Media/News/Publishers can keep their content free for users, boosting downloads while earning easily scalable revenue. Therefore, in-app advertising is a vital marketing channel for both brands and agencies.  

There are several mobile ads, including banner ads, interstitial ads, video ads, playable ads, rewarded ads, native ads, rich media ads, in-app ads, content integration ads, influencer ads, and cross-promotional ads. “Nowadays, users and advertisers are looking for variety in content and display. The mobile ecosystem has made it possible by providing various ad formats and content integration possibilities in the users' preferred language. 

Vernacular content is helping brands reach the users in a personalized way leaving a high-level brand impact,” says Komal Gupta, head of sales, Way2News.

Mobile advertising allows companies the flexibility and power to deliver promotional communication strategies, enabling them to select their target audience by age, gender, and occupation with pre-defined income brackets in specific geographies. Such precise, highly accurate data availability equips marketing experts to bring out advertisement content and deliver it when the audience is deeply engrossed in a highly receptive mode.

The target audience gets a satisfying experience, and the advertisers get the value of their investments as their messages are delivered and received without delay by a rapt audience who act on the spur of the moment and resort to instinct buying. In India, nearly 68 percent of users primarily consume content on their smartphones, making it the world's largest internet-enabled mobile-friendly market.  As mobile apps develop to deliver wide-ranging quality services, companies promote their products and services with a relatively small budget, unthinkable a couple of years ago when TV and print advertising were the mainstay of promoting products.

Advertising on mobile apps is almost 75%-90% cheaper than advertising on legacy media. Companies are allocating bigger sums to mobile advertising as smartphone adoption and mobile usage reaches record highs. India is anticipated to have a mobile penetration rate of above 90% by 2022. As a result, marketers would be able to connect with customers they previously couldn't.

While digital ad spending in India is expected to increase from 45 percent to 76 percent this year reaching nearly Rs. 14,000 crores, or $1.9 billion, it remains relatively low compared to the global share of digital advertising. And this is where the opportunity lies. The market is ripe with opportunities for transformation, and the sunrise sector is seizing the opportunity to shine brightly on the path to economic progress.