82% want full-funnel marketing; 18% succeed

Indian advertisers have no shortage of ambition for full-funnel marketing. The execution is another story. A new playbook from Amazon Ads, MMA Global India and WPP Media puts the gap in numbers: 82% of senior Indian advertisers aspire to full-funnel execution, but only 18% say they are very successful at it.

01 · The wall is measurement, not ambition

The launch, titled From Fragmentation to One View, draws on an MMA Global India survey of senior Indian advertisers. The biggest barrier to closing that gap is not budget or creative; it is unified measurement. 67% cite the lack of unified cross-channel measurement as the biggest obstacle, while 69% say unified cross-channel attribution is the capability they need most.

The consumer journey has made that weakness expensive. The number of touchpoints required to drive 80% of purchase decisions nearly doubled from 12 in 2018 to 21 in 2024. Consumers move across streaming, search and online shopping, often within a single session, yet most plans are still built and scored channel by channel.

That mismatch shows up in priorities: 62% of senior advertisers call a fragmented view of the consumer journey their biggest advertising challenge, ahead of rising media costs at 38%.

02 · Retail media moves up the funnel

The report also captures a shift in how marketers see retail media. 59% of Indian advertisers now treat retail media as a full-funnel solution, not simply a conversion channel. WPP Media’s econometric modelling gives that view some teeth: commerce spending contributes to 20–25% of offline sales impact, along with a 10–12% lift in brand awareness and an 18–20% impact on consideration.

“Full-funnel isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about making every stage of the journey work as one.”

That point from Moneka Khurana, Managing Director & Board Member, MMA India, is the playbook’s core argument. Gulshan Verma, Director, Amazon Ads India, makes the same case from the buy-side: brands need a connected view of what drives outcomes, not just the last click.

03 · A five-step plan for one view

The playbook gives marketers a practical route through the fragmentation:

• Diagnose where measurement and journey data break down.
• Architect a connected strategy across the funnel.
• Allocate budget using category guidelines for FMCG, electronics, fashion and emerging sectors.
• Create for each stage of the journey.
• Measure contribution to business outcomes, not channel metrics alone.

For CMOs, the immediate take is to fix measurement and treat retail media as a brand-building and performance channel before spending more on reach. The ambition is already there; the integration is the work.

Source: MediaNews4U

Mad About Marketing Desk The strategists and writers at Mad About Marketing, writing up what we see in the work every week.