Digital advertising is now the backbone of India’s media economy, expected to grow 11.5% in 2025 with 10,225 crore in incremental spends, and push its share to nearly 60% of overall ad spends (1.6 trillion). Yet, for all its scale, the industry remains without an accepted framework for measurement and best practices.
Every platform defines its own metrics, from what counts as a view to how conversions are attributed, leaving advertisers with inconsistent yardsticks and agencies with the task of stitching together fragmented dashboards.
The absence of structure has prompted industry players to step in. DS Group-WPP Media’s “DCODE: Your Guide to Digital Marketing 2025” released last week offers straightforward advice: Embrace change as digital becomes central, design results-driven strategies, and adopt frameworks that promote efficiency and consistency.
Key trends
The guide also points to the rapid growth of India’s internet base, the surge in digital video consumption, and the dominance of online advertising as key trends marketers must align with.
Such efforts highlight the scale of the problem facing both brands and advertisers. “The biggest challenge is inconsistency,” says Ekta Dewan, head of marketing, Incuspaze. “Advertisers are often comparing apples to oranges across platforms. One publisher may define a ‘view’ differently from another; one platform may optimise for impressions, and another for engagement.”
This makes ROI calculations fuzzy and creates room for inflated metrics that don’t tie back to business outcomes, she adds.
Agencies say the lack of alignment hampers planning as well as accountability.
Breakneck speed
“Digital has grown at breakneck speed, but each walled garden has its own measurement ecosystem, and none are incentivised to open up fully,” notes Yasin Hamidani, director, Media Care Brand Solutions. “Consensus across such competing interests is hard to achieve, and technology standards evolve faster than industry coordination.”
The consequences are felt most directly by advertisers. “The absence of standardisation raises the cost of validation because brands end up commissioning their own measurement layers to bring some parity,” observes Ambika Sharma, founder and chief strategist, Pulp Strategy.
Globally, markets like the US and UK have attempted to create industry-backed standards for brand safety, viewability, and fraud prevention, say experts.
They argue India needs a similar coalition-driven approach that reflects its mobile-first and regional-heavy ecosystem.
“Advertisers fund the ecosystem,” Hamidani says. “Brands and agencies need to push harder for transparency, else digital will continue to be the most invested yet least consistently measured medium of all.”