Google Contextual Advertising in India

India’s economy occupies one of the leading positions among developing countries. Just a couple of decades ago, 9 out of 10 people in the country spent no more than one dollar a day, and now there are more millionaires here than in the United States.

In a few years, the poverty rate dropped to 54%. Previously, 93% of the population did not have sufficient funds for a normal existence. Until now, for many, India is associated with the poorest densely populated slums. But today, this perception of the country is rapidly changing thanks to the latest state-of-the-art buildings in Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley.

More than 570 million Indians use the Internet. According to this criterion, the country is second only to China. The most popular services are Facebook and Google. For this reason, promotion through contextual advertising in India has a great chance of success.

Features of setting up contextual advertising in India

Regardless of what business you plan to promote, when setting up contextual advertising in India, it is important to take into account the ethnic and religious diversity of the population, understand the legal intricacies associated with the regulation of advertising and commercial activities in one or another part of the country, understand which channels promotions are the most effective and what is the level of trust in them.

Language targeting

In addition to the ubiquitous Hindi, there are 21 more official languages in India. Only one in five of the country’s half-billion internet users speaks English. This is about 100 million people. The rest are unlikely to be able to fully consume content on it, because they either do not understand the language well, or do not understand it at all.

Assessing the needs of the target audience and choosing the right language settings is the first step in launching successful advertising in the Indian market.

The average age of residents in the southern part of the country is higher than in the north. There are more qualified and educated people with good financial opportunities. They communicate mainly in English or the local dialect, unlike northerners who prefer Hindi.

That’s why, when setting up an advertising campaign, the language must be chosen based on the characteristics of the region where the product is planned to be promoted. It should also be taken into account that for a PPC specialist, setting up Google AdWords ads in several languages will take much more time, and this will most likely affect the cost of his services.

Target audience

About half a billion people is the size of the market where advertisers compete for their client in India. That is how many people in the country today have the opportunity to use high-speed 4G Internet. And only 10% of this audience does not have access to it through mobile devices. This makes the Indian market unique.

Information! Less than 10% of smartphones in India operate on the iOS platform, which users are usually considered to be more solvent.

Consumer preferences in India are leaning towards cheaper offerings. Demand for goods and services worth up to 200 rupees is quite stable. In the segment from 500 rupees, everything is no longer so clear – the consumer needs time to make a decision to purchase such a product.

Users more often turn not to international, but to local online payment services. That is why here it is necessary to offer the buyer the maximum number of payment options.

Location targeting

The Indian market is extremely heterogeneous – 29 states and 7 union territories that form the state have not only ethnic and religious characteristics, but also differ in climate, infrastructure, level of development of the industrial sector, some nuances in the economy and jurisprudence.

Before launching Google Ads in India, it is necessary to collect as much information as possible about the features of each region, among which several states stand out for high business activity:

• Delhi. The metropolis is a union territory. In this region is the capital of the state and the second-largest city in India – New Delhi. The government, various ministries and departments work here.
• Gujarat. Cargo and commercial ports are concentrated in this part of the country. The state is also known for its diamond trading center located in Surat.
• Andhra Pradesh. This is the easiest place to do business. The state capital, Hyderabad, is home to numerous pharmaceutical companies.
• Maharashtra. The financial center of the country and the region that boasts the highest GDP. In Bombay, or, as the state capital is now called, Mumbai, almost all Indian representations and headquarters of international organizations work.
• Bangalore. The metropolis can be safely called one of the world’s leading technology centers. The state of Karnataka, to which this city belongs, is also known for the fact that more than 60% of Indian Arabica is collected here.
• Punjab. This agricultural region is the breadbasket of the country. Huge territories are occupied by wheat, rice, cotton, etc. As a result, there are many enterprises producing food and textiles in the state.
• Kerala. This region has a concentration of companies specializing in the production of rubber.
• Uttar Pradesh. One of the leaders in terms of population in India. Approximately 80% of local residents practice Hinduism, while Muslims make up about 18%. The industry of the state is represented by companies that produce sugar, textiles and leather products.

Thus, when determining the geographic targeting of an advertising campaign in India, it is necessary to take into account the area in which you work. For some niches, it is better to launch in those states that will not be relevant at all for other niches.

Promotion tools

More than half of total online advertising spend in India goes to promotion through search engines and social networks. These are the most popular traffic acquisition channels. In addition, the sphere of e-commerce is developing quite dynamically in the country. Due to such circumstances, the following tools show the best results here:

1. Video ads. In India, you can advertise very effectively on the YouTube platform. But its audience is heterogeneous due to the difference in preferences and the dynamics of the life of the population in different locations. So in big cities you shouldn’t make videos longer than a minute, and in regions where the rhythm of life is not so fast, on the contrary, many may be interested in a mini-movie with a reference to family and traditional values for about three minutes.
2. Blogger advertising. According to the findings of the Ipsos 2022 survey, Indians trust opinion leaders more than others. For this reason, advertising integrations with local bloggers perform well.
3. Social networks. Facebook and Instagram ads break the language barrier more easily due to their greater visualization compared to Google search ads or YouTube videos.
4. Google Shopping. The product advertising platform is very effective in the Indian market due to the high popularity of online stores.

Specific niches

• Alcohol. Alcoholic products are banned in most Indian states, but there are exceptions. For example, alcoholic beverages are allowed to be sold in the state of Maharashtra.
• Mobile applications and services. Those willing to pay for something that can be obtained for free by downloading from a torrent or finding hacked versions of applications on the network are few in India. Legislation in this area is still stalling, and one should not hope for the consciousness of the Indians. They, unlike the inhabitants of European countries, do not consider illegal downloading of programs, applications, videos and books something shameful.
• Cryptocurrencies and NFTs. In accordance with the recently published Advertising Standards Council (ASCI) regulations, business owners are now required to include a disclaimer in the ad unit, the essence of which is that any crypto products and non-fungible tokens are not subject to local laws, and this carries additional risks for users. It is imperative to inform potential buyers that, by law, no one will be required to compensate them for losses associated with cryptocurrency and NFT transactions.

Cost of Google Ads contextual advertising in India

Like for any other market, the price of contextual advertising in India consists of the payment for the services of the agency that sets up the advertisement and the cost of traffic to the site from the search engine.

As for the payment for the contractor’s work, it depends on many factors, including the complexity of the market where the campaign is set up, competition in the niche, the number of languages, groups of goods or services on the site.

You can find the Google Ads traffic price for India in the Keyword Planner tool in Google Ads Dashboard. Here is an example CPC for some topics:

• Maintenance of washing machines – $0.65;
• ventilation cleaning – $0.21;
• call a plumber – $0.38;
• beauty salon – $0.53;
• furniture dry cleaning – $0.22;
• make-up services – $0.28;
• dental services – $0.57;
• refrigerators – $0.06;
• cosmetics from Korea – $0.13;
• cat toys – $0.17;
• pet products – $0.27;
• fertilizer – $0.05.

Google’s share of search traffic from India

Google has a near-total monopoly on the search engine market in India. Its share is 97.79% of local traffic from search. By comparison, its closest competitor, Bing, handles only 1.14% of local searches.

This is why Google Ads is so promising for the Indian market. Using this advertising tool, you can reach your target audience with 100% probability.